Persona: Canterlot's Dark Hour

7th of April

Knocking on the door roused Mist from his slumber. It had been a nice sleep while it had lasted but he assume he had to go to school now.

“Hey! It’s Sugar,” came a shout through the door “are you awake?”

Reluctantly he pulled himself out of bed and made for the door. He opened it and was greeted by the sight of the pink mare on the other side.

“Good morning,” she beamed “did you sleep okay?” The only response she got was a brief nod from him. “Moonlight asked me to take you to school. It’s getting late so are you ready to go?”

Mist walked over to the bedside table and put on his m-pony-3 player. He turned back around to face her “Yeah, I’m ready.”

“Then let’s go!” she said. She seemed a little too excited to be showing the new guy around so he was guessing that they didn’t get many new arrivals around here. With that they left for the school.

The metal train made a racket on the outside but inside the passengers could barely hear it. Sugar was smiling but Mist just stood there with a look of indifference on his face, he had been through this routine before. Many times.

“So, that’s it.” Sugar said beside him, snapping him out of his daze. “See? There it is.” A building had come into view.

They walked towards the gates of the school, Sugar was greeted by numerous other mares along the way but other than that nopony came to speak to them. They arrived at the gates and saw a white, stone building that looked like it used to be a temple of some sort. It was big compared to other schools he had been to but Mist wasn’t planning on getting used to the view. He would get moved out again at the beginning of the next year.

That still didn’t stop Sugar from being enthusiastic though “Here we are. Welcome to Canterlot Highschool! Hope you like it.” She was absolutely beaming.

They walked into the school building where there were tons of students milling around. At the front were the lockers but past that was all sorts of stuff that all the other schools had.

“You should go and see your homeroom teacher first.” Sugar told him “The faculty office is down that corridor on the left. Do you have any questions before I go?” Mist thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Hey, about last night. Don’t tell anyone what you saw. Okay?” He knew what she was talking about and he was glad he wasn’t crazy, he nodded in response. “Okay. See ya later!” With that she left Mist to his own devices.

He went towards a bulletin board that the other students appeared to be crowding around, he had deduced that this is where the class assignments were shown. He looked up and down the board but couldn’t find his name, he looked again and saw it on a tiny label underneath the roster for Class F.

Mist walked back to where Sugar had told him the faculty office was, also in the corridor were the nurses office and oddly enough the library. He found the faculty office and entered. Inside was a light brown Earth Pony mare with a matching mane and a book for a cutie mark.

“Oh, so I take it you’re the new transfer student?” she said it as more of a statement than a question. “I was actually just about to read your file. Wow, you’ve lived in a lot of different places. About ten years ago your parents…” she stopped and let out a gasp, she clearly hadn’t read this yet. “I’m so sorry! I’ve been too busy to read this beforehand. I’m Autumn Blossom, I teach composition. Welcome to our school.”

“Nice to meet you.” Mist said politely.

“You’re enthusiastic aren’t you? I’m assuming you’ve seen the classroom assignments. You’re in 2F, that’s my class. First we need to head to the auditorium. The beginning of year assembly will be starting soon. Follow me.”

The old stallion who was the principle stood in front of the microphone in the auditorium giving his speech. “As you begin this new school year I’d like each of you to remember the proverb ‘if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well’. When applied to student life this means…” he continued to speak.

Mist was distracted by a student behind him “Psst, hey. You came to school with Sugar Petal this morning right? Do you know if she has a boyfriend?”

“I don’t know.” Mist replied honestly. He didn’t want to talk to this guy, he didn’t like speaking and he definitely didn’t like stupid questions.

“I see. I thought you might know but… I guess not. So how well do you know her?”

“I hear talking!” one of the teachers called out “I believe it’s somepony in Miss Blossom’s class!”

“Be quiet,” she said from the end of the row “you’re going to get me in trouble!”

And with that everypony else started talking.

The bell rang to signify the end of school and Mist was approached by a dark green stallion with a black goatee and an equally black baseball cap. His cutie mark was that of a clown face. This should be an interesting conversation.

“’sup dude?” He said in a laid back voice “How’s it going?”

“Who are you?” Mist asked, slightly agitated.

“Me? I’m Brawny Spirit, nice to meet ya. I transferred here back in eighth grade so I know what it’s like being the new kid. So I stopped to say hey, see what a nice guy I am?” he said with a laugh.

Sugar Petal approached them both from the other side of the classroom where she had been conversing with some of her friends. Brawny reacted positively to her presence “Hey it’s Sugar Petal! I didn’t think we’d be in the same class again.”

She sighed openly “At it again huh? I swear you’ll pester anypony if you have even the slightest inkling that they’ll listen. Do you ever stop to think that you might be bothering somepony?”

“But I was just being friendly!”

“If you say so.” She turned to Mist “Anyway, it looks like we’ll be in the same homeroom.”

“Yeah, I know.” He replied simply.

“Funny huh?”

“Um helloooo,” Brawny wined “are you forgetting that I’m in this class too? By the way, I heard that you two came to school together this morning. What’s up with that? C’mon give me the dirt.”

“What are you talking about?” she sounded slightly offended “We live in the same dorm, there’s nothing going on okay? Why are ponies even talking about it? Now you’ve got me worried.” She leaned closer to Mist and whispered “Hey, you didn’t say anything to anyone about… ‘you know what’ did you?” He shook his head “Good. But seriously, don’t say anything about last night alright?”

Brawny’s eyes widened, he had heard every word “L-last night?”

Sugar jumped out of her skin when she realised what he was getting at “Don’t get the wrong idea! Listen, I just met him yesterday and there’s absolutely nothing between us. Geez. I’ve gotta go and do something for the archery team but you’d better not start any bucking rumours.” She turned and walked out of the classroom, leaving Mist with Brawny.

Brawny sighed “Nopony takes rumours seriously anyway. She is so paranoid. But hey, it’s your first day here and ponies are already talking about you. Believe it or not she’s actually pretty popular, you are the man!”

Mist simply grunted, there was no point in arguing with this colt. Brawny had insisted on accompanying him home so they walked to the train station together. The gentle spring sunlight was warm and there were many different ponies as they passed, one was in particular was being swooned by mares and looked quite agitated. The track team ran past while on practice. The first Tuesday of school had gone quite well.

He parted ways with Brawny who it had turned out could be amusing when he wasn’t wasting time on mindless speculation and returned to the dorm where he signed in and upon the insistence of Moonlight that he needed rest went upstairs.

Moonlight sat on the couch downstairs with a book in her hooves. The new arrival was certainly and interesting one and he had been awake at that time but one question remained. Does he have the potential?

A red stallion with a grey mane and a dumbbell cutie mark approached her from the stairs, he had a confident air about him and it was almost as if he thought he was the safest pony in the world. “I’m going out for a bit.” Lightning Strength said. Moonlight looked up from her book with a hum “Didn’t you see the newspaper? There’s a lot going on.”

“I know,” Moonlight replied “ponies who had no problems before are suddenly developing acute cases of Apathy Syndrome. It’s been in the news quite often lately, they say it’s due to stress but…”

“Yeah, it has to be them.” His voice suddenly turned to one of contempt “Otherwise it’s not worth my time.”

“You have a one-track mind, will you be alright on your own?” Moonlight was concerned about his constant trips to that place “The Chaircolt will be staying for the next few days but after that I can…”

“Don’t worry. I’m just getting a little practice in.” Lightning Strength walked off.

Moonlight sighed “This isn’t a game, Lightning.” But he was already out the door by the time she finished.