Prospect of Fire

Phoenix woke up staring up at the ceiling and groaned as he heard his mother calling to him. "Get up honey! First day of school!" Phoenix groaned again when she reminded him that it was school, as if that was supposed to cheer him up. Phoenix untangled himself from his blanket and fell out of his bed with a thump.

"Everything all right?"

"Yeah! Sheesh."

Phoenix rubbed his head and staggered his way over to his bathroom. Once Phoenix had woken up he stumbled down the stairs and sat at the table alone.

"Where's Pops?" Phoenix asked still a little groggy.

"Your father came home after midnight, he was very tired so he probably won't be awake to send you off. I'm sorry." Came his Mother's reply as she set a steaming bowl of oatmeal in front of him, with just a tad of brown sugar in it.

Phoenix frowned slightly at the thought of his father sleeping in, but he didn't blame him, thats what he would be doing right now if he could. Phoenix scanned the dinning room of their house and felt like he was a fly inside of his bedroom. The room was bigger then it needed to be for a family of three, and its not like they had guests over often. Phoenix just kept eating his oatmeal.

Once Phoenix had finished he put his bowl in the sink in front of his mom so that she could wash it. His mom simply smiled at him and went back to washing dishes from last night. Phoenix felt a little guilty for not helping her but decided that he would make it up to her some how. Maybe he could make her a card in school? Yeah, he could do that!

Phoenix felt a little better and went back up stairs to retrieve his saddlebags for school. When Phoenix finally found them he sighed when he was reminded that he didn't have his cutie mark yet, he was getting kind of impatient. Phoenix stuffed his pencils and some paper into the bags and threw it over his back. He was ready to go.

Phoenix tromped down the stairs and walked towards the front door. However, his mom stopped him before he could leave.

"Hold it right there mister! You forgot your lunch and what about my kiss?"

Phoenix turned his beaming face to his mom and gave her a peck on the cheek before taking his lunch in his mouth.

"Thankf fom!" She just smiled.

"Have a great day!"

Phoenix nodded his head in answer and trotted out of the house heading to school.

Phoenix felt the usual nervousness of going to school after being gone for a while, everypony looked different! Phoenix frantically searched for his friends in the sea of Colts and Fillies. They weren't anywhere! Phoenix turned his head around when he heard a voice calling his name.

"Phoenix! Yo Phoenix! Is that you?" A brown unicorn colt with a white mane and tail came running up to him and stood in front of him smiling. The colt looked the same age as Phoenix but he already had his cutie mark which was displayed on his saddle bags. It was a green square with four orange squares branching off the corners of the red one. Phoenix had no clue who the colt was.

"Y-Yeah that's me. Why?"

The colt's smile grew bigger and he reached out a hoof towards Phoenix

"M'name's Color code, Your dad made my dad's armor and it saved his life, I wanted to meet you personally and hopefully make friends with you. Color code  had a hopeful smile as he finished his introduction.

"Uuum, sure. I don't mind, you may not like my other friends though. No one else seems to." Phoenix's voice took a sullen mood as he mentioned his other friends.

"Aww, that's too bad. I'm sure I'll like them. Hey, does your dad really make all the armor for the royal guards!" Color code asked with an excited hop to emphasize his enthusiasm.

"No he doesn't make ALL the armor, but he does make a lot of it. There are a couple other Blacksmiths around Canterlot who help out with the process. He does make all the weapons though."

"Awesome! Can I have one?"

Phoenix looked at the excited colt that was bouncing up and down beside him.

"No."

Color code just shrugged and followed Phoenix as he head off to a section of grass that was away from the rest of the students. Some of the older students sat away from the rest of the group too. One particular Filly with a purple-ish coat and a very dark purple mane with a single highlight running through it, was laying against a tree with a stack of text books next to her and it looked like she was reading through them for every word. Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's Pupil.

Phoenix sat down with his new friend in a patch of grass and scanned the crowd of mingling ponies for his other friends. Color code just sat next to him and hummed quietly to himself. Phoenix didn't see Color code looking around for any friends and he wondered why.

"Hey, you have any friends?" Phoenix asked Color code without looking at him.

"Hm?"

"Friends. You have any?"

"No, we just moved to Canterlot a month ago didn't have much of a break." Color code replied before he laid down in the grass to stretch his front hooves.

"Where did you move from?" Phoenix asked.

"A place called Ponyville, ever heard of it?"

"Sorry, no."

"Eh, I'm not surprised, not a lot happens in Ponyville, it's a quiet town and everypony knows everypony."

Phoenix took one last look through the crowd of ponies before he gave up on trying to find his friends.

"You play any card games? I got a deck." Phoenix asked his new friend.

Phoenix met up with Color code outside of the school when they were dismissed for the last time that day. Thankfully they had the same teacher and were able to hang out at recess. Phoenix still felt troubled that he hadn't found his other friends, he had looked forward to seeing them.

"Hey Color."

"Wat up?"

Phoenix sighed before shrugging his shoulders and looking pointedly at his friend.

"School."

They both shared a laugh and trotted off in the same direction, fate was on his side because apparently Color's family had been the new neighbors that moved in near Phoenix's house. The two friends chatted about the subjects that they were going to be taking and the cute filly that sat in front of Color. Another new student.

"Did you hear about the Royal Guard Training Academy is looking for new students, they are having a presentation in front of the castle on Saturday night." Color said excitedly.

"Really? Thats kinda cool, you gonna go?" Phoenix asked.

"I hope so, but I don't think my parents will let me sign up." color looked at his hooves a little downcast. They trotted in silence for a few heart beats before Color spoke up again.

"You are so lucky that you don't have a horn." Color said

Phoenix blinked. "I thought it would be the other way around. I have always dreamed of having magic."

"Naw bro, You have to take an extra class on practicing magic on the week-ends. At least thats how they did it in Ponyville, it was horrible." Color visibly shuddered.

Phoenix winced at the thought of giving up your weekends to go to school, that was horrible. Both friends stopped at the intersection that split their respective streets up.

"Well see you tomorrow yeah?" Color asked as he held out his hoof.

"Yeah." Phoenix hoof bumped Color and trotted off towards his house, feeling happy.