The multiple "1000 years" of blank pages.

The meal was as good as always, I thanked him once more when I returned him my bowl and he, as usual, gave me a little cupcake for desert. I ate it on the spot, thanked him again before being on my way to my usual spot under the tree at the back of the playground. I remember that i wanted to go back to my room and bounce my ball around, but now that I’m here, I guess I can relax till the bell rings to tell us to go back inside. I’ll play with my ball then.

From my spot I can see ponies chasing each other in and around the contraption of ladders and slides as well as a couple Big groups of ponies. The hoofball players, who are playing close to, not inside, the hoofball field, passing the ball to each other. At this time of day it’s closed because the sun blinds the team going on one side. Or so I’m told by the players. The field isn't aligned with the sun’s movement; it’s even built so that no side gets blinded by it when the time comes. I tried explaining them that what they were saying is silly, but they went on saying that I was the one being silly, they’re 11 years old, and they must know better than a simple 9 year old that I am.

And so they said that I couldn't play with them until I recognized their “superior intellect”. I just walked away. I tried playing with them a few times, and each time I didn't like it. They were just too aggressive in the game.

The other big group is the bookworms. They just sit there and talk about and/or read books. There are many little circles of them next to the building’s wall, all of them talking about a different book. I read one book, it was called “The great adventure” and it was about a great Alicorn warrior who protects the kingdom against the evil wild beasts and how he falls in a trap set by his evil brother who joined the wild beasts and how he get out of the trap and saves the kingdom from his evil brother. I liked that story. It was simple and easy to understand. But the circle of ponies that talked about it was only interested in inventing many other scenarios that they think could have happened instead and would have made the story better, according to them. I didn't even bother getting closer to them and simply returned here, to my good old spot under this tree.

For school, I had to read many books in writing and reading class. But they were all either about somepony doing some bad thing, like stealing or disregarding what their parent’s said, and then have the holy king show up and have them realize that what they’re doing is bad and completely unnecessary, because: “You can only get what you wish through your work” and “Trust your elders, for they know what is best for you.”

I’m not sure why they keep giving us books like that to read, I mean, they all talk about how to be a good pony in a normal life, but here, were in an orphanage, half of the stories don’t apply to us since we either don’t have parents and the other half talks about situations we never got into or even consider getting into. But they keep making us read and write texts that all have a similar moral in the end that can be summed up as: “Be nice, and the world will be nice to you.”

I think I’m an ok student, I mean; I don’t get into trouble like Big Hoof and his friends. Those guys are just always rude and doing whatever they’re not supposed to do. Like stealing the ink and quills of others, tossing things at my blind side, pushing people around in the playground and just being mean to others in general. Now that I think of it, I haven’t see Big Hoof or any of his friends on the playground today. They’re most likely inside and doing something to punish them because of some prank they did. Big hoof is the only pony here that can do telekinesis with ease, and with magic on his side, he can do quite the elaborate pranks, like the bucket of mud on the lightly open door of someone’s room, or tearing an exam sheet at the last moment so that their victim fails it.

And that brings me back to the books. Why do they even bother having us read and write them to have us know the dos and don’ts of life when they clearly got this one pony to leads his little group in doing all the don’ts? The fancy “Holy voice of the king”, as the say in the stories, doesn't really seem to work to get them to change their attitude, because every time they return from their punishment session, they just continue as if nothing happened.

They used to play hoofball, but were forbidden to play because they kept breaking the ball as well as hurting the other players. Come to think of it, they were the opposing team whenever I tried to play. Maybe the game isn't that bad. I’ll give it another shot at some point.

“HELLO!”

That got me scared like there was no tomorrow. It’s a young filly’s voice, obviously coming from my blind side, and she’s clearly very enthusiastic, but why would someone come to me at my spot? I turn my head around to see who spoke.

As I suspected, a young filly, smiling like...well, like a happy filly. Nice yellow coat, dark red and lightly messy mane and tail with these occasional streaks of bright green. No horn. That’s the second earth pony that I met so far in my life.

But why did she come to me?

“Um...Hello?” I reply, recovering from my wave of fright.

“Are you Thought Flare?” she asks, seemingly a little confused.

“Yes I am...um...who are you?” As I say that she grows a huge smile and raises a hoof for a hoofshake.

“My name is Green, I’m seven years old, I’m new here, and I’m your new roommate!”

I stay there stunned for a short moment.

A roommate? Me? Why? I know other ponies have their roommates with whom they share the bunk bed, but I never had one before. I never asked for one. I always liked having the room to myself....

“Oh...Um...ok?” I hesitantly raise my hoof to grab hers and shake lightly. It was awkward. She seems nice enough, but I don’t know...

Her smile huge smile I now realize is just plastered there to give the impression that she’s happy, but when I look at her eyes, big and green as they are, the longer the awkward shake lasts, the more I can see that she’s very worried of what I think of her given my very neutral reaction to her. Soon enough, the fake happy smile crumbles away to have a worried one.

She lets go of the awkward hoofshake. “I came in this afternoon, and since there weren't any other rooms free they put me with you... I hope its ok...”

“I guess...”

I stay there, quiet, not showing any expression, nor able to think very well, I’m still trying to take in the news of having a roommate. On her part, she was either waiting for me to say something or trying desperately to figure out something to say to get a positive reaction from me. Her eyes were getting wet. She broke the silence.

“I’ll just go... Sorry to bother you...”

She turns away and starts walking.

After she said that I started to think fast, making links i haven't done before.

If she’s new here, she most likely lost her parents or something recently. I saw many others who came in like that, they were always sad and lost, so they we paired with a roommate so they wouldn't be alone completely, but in the end, if they didn't do a good enough impression, the new kids were rejected by their roommate and thus stuck alone, only sharing the room with the roommate to sleep. That is, until either of the two gets adopted, or that the new kid makes a friend and asks to share a room with the friend they made instead.

I don’t want to reject her. She seems nice, but also very sad about something. If I’m going to share a room with her for a while, best I let her know that I accept her, that way hopefully the awkward will go away and thus saving much trouble later when trying to get to know her.

“Green.” I say, trying to make a good smile, not that I want to fake it; I just never really smile, so I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job.

She turns back to look at me, eyes filled with hope.

“It’s ok ... um ... how about you sit here?” I tap with my hoof a spot on the grass floor next to me.

She gets a small, but very sincere smile. She wipes off the little flood of tears in her eyes and nods lightly.

“Thanks...Sorry for acting like I’m all super happy, I just wanted to do a good impression...”

She sits next to me and leans her back against the tree. I don’t say anything Just sit there looking at the playground.

She then asks:
“According to the nurse, you lost consciousness when you tried to use magic during the magic class right before lunch. Does that happen to all unicorns?”

The question was sudden, and out of nowhere, but it answered my doubts on what happened before I ended up at the infirmary.
I answer her :
“No, not that I know of, it’s just me. I have this little problem when it comes to magic.”

She looks at me, eager to know more, so I answer her question before she asks it.

“When a regular unicorn tries to use magic, he must concentrate to gather and channel enough manna to get the spell working. But for me, I don’t know why, nor does anyone seem to know why, but if I concentrate even a little bit, the manna just rushes through me like crazy so I have to concentrate like crazy to hold it back, ‘cos if I don’t the manna I didn't use will just do some wild and out of control thing.”

Her gaze tells me that she’s lost.

“All I’m saying is that it’s I have a very hard time using magic.”

I said that with some impatience in my tone. I don’t like talking of my issues more than I have to.

She simply says “Oh. Ok then.“

We stay silent for a little bit, me being a little irritated by her last question and her thinking up her next.

“I don’t know much about magic because I’m an earth pony, but I understand what you’re saying. In my old school I was the only earth pony, so whenever magic stuff came along, I was always excluded.”

“Yes but at least its normal for an earth pony not to be able to use magic at all.”

I realize the rudeness in my tone and quickly apologize.

“Sorry... I don’t like talking about my problems...can we talk of something else?”

She looks away from me and nods. “Yeh. What do you want to talk about?”

“Why are you here?”

My mouth went faster than my thoughts. What is wrong with me...I could have said anything else, but no. I just had to ask her the killer question. I hope she’s not going to cry about it here.... I don’t want to attract attention... Oh please oh please don’t make a scene....

*DONG DONG DONG*

The bell indicating the closing of the playground sounded right after I asked the question, everypony is now walking back in through the doors and going to their rooms to prepare for the night.

It was getting dark outside.

Green simply got up and started walking to the door.

“Come on, it’s time to go back inside, right?”

She kept walking, completely ignoring what I said.

I get up and walk up to her, relieved that she didn't do a scene, and hoping that she didn't hear me at all. “Yes! Yes it is.”