The New Student in Cheerilee's Class
"Kill your teacher before graduation..."
"I'm so excited for today," chirped Sweetie Belle to Scootaloo. Her pink and purple curls seemed especially curly today, an excited aura flowing from her marshmallow colored skin to the blue sky.
The orange pegasus flapped her wings quickly in reply. "I know! What do you think he's gonna look like?"
"He?"
"Yeah, Miss Cheerilee said he's a colt."
"Ah bet he's cute," Apple Bloom butted in with her thick, country accent. Her own crimson hair seemed lively, her golden eyes glowing in awe.
"I sure hope so... This class could use a few more cute colts," Sweetie Belle agreed.
"Ew." Scootaloo stuck her tongue at them, being a tomcolt and usually not caring about such matters. "I just hope he won't have his cutie mark yet. Maybe we can get him to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
"Pah-lease," a sudden rude voice jeered. "Like the new kid would want to join your stupid foal club. He'll want to hang out with us, obviously." The pink pony with purple and white streaked hair walked beside her silver friend on the path to school. A diamond tiara was propped on her head like usual, hence her name.
"Duh," Silver Spoon mimicked, her own pearly beads bouncing with every step.
"And how do ya know that?" Apple Bloom put on a disgusted face. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were the CMC's natural rivals; they hated their guts. "Ah don't think he'll want to hang out with some rude, ol' snobs like you."
"Alright Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo cheered for her friend with a little too much enthusiasm. She immediately felt embarrassed by her outburst, her cheeks turning a slight scarlet.
"I'm just saying the facts," Diamond said as she started to pick up the pace and trot away from them. "I wouldn't want you to be humiliated by the new colt by not having any cutie marks to brag to him about..." She looked behind her, holding out her left hind leg, showing off her marked flank. Her companion copied the action before they both stood on their short back legs, pounded hooves into each other, hit elbows, and finally climaxed with their signature hitting of the butts, all while chanting "bump, bump, sugar lump, rump" in their annoyingly peppy voices.
Sweetie Belle flattened her ears. "Why do they always have to be such jerks?"
"Ay, don't let it get you down." Scootaloo nudged her playfully with her elbow, a smirk on her face. "The new kids still coming, regardless of what they say, and we'll do our best to add him to our group."
"Yeah," Apple Bloom piped up. "I mean, they're just a couple of snobs-" She winked at Scootaloo with a reminiscent grin. "- How much do they know?"
The filly unicorn giggled. "Yeah! Let's get to class!"
The trio raced each other on the dusty paths to the schoolhouse, passing some other well-known ponies from their class. One particular curly, red-maned one slowed down from her own racing to see them.
"Hey guys! Did you hear? There's gonna be a new thudent. I'm tho exthited," Twist snorted, her lisp taking over every word.
"Yep," Apple Bloom perked. She and Twist had been best friends before she had earned her cutie mark, but after that, everything went down hill... They still talked, occasionally, though.
The four of them entered into the one-classroom school, mindless gossip and blabber filling the environment. Each taking their seats, they anxiously waited for their magenta teacher's big announcement.
"Alright students, alright students. Please settle down," Cheerilee began, her sweet, alluring voice drawing attention to the front. Every eye was on her now. "As you may or may not be aware - though, I'm sure all of you are - we're going to be having a new student in class today!"
The chatter had started again. It was amazing how easily children could get talking on any little thing they were presented. Cheerilee raised her hoof to silence them.
"He'll be arriving any moment, so be sure to give him your warmest welcome."
Suddenly, the door creaked open. A tall, lean figure stepped through, much to the surprise of the class. Every individual eye shrunk into their skulls. He - It... This didn't look like any pony anypony had every seen before! The only mare in the room not surprised was Cheerilee, who liked delighted as she always was.
The odd thing stepped beside the teacher, who looked relatively short compared to him.
"Perfect timing, Nagisa!"
"Nagisa?" Sweetie Belle leaned over and whispered to Apple Bloom, her eyebrow cocking. "What kind of name is Nagisa?"
"Class, this is Nagisa Shiota. It's a very exotic name, wouldn't you agree?" Cheerilee seemed to stress the word "exotic," obviously hearing what some of the fillies and colts were snickering about his name. "He comes from 'Earth.'"
Twist shot her hoof up.
"Yes, Twist?"
"Where'th Earth? I'm never heard of that place before."
"Excellent question. Earth is a planet in another universe."
"Another universe?!" Scootaloo's grey eyes were practically bulging out of her skull. "We're in school with an alien?!"
The teacher glared at her. "Scootaloo..."
Her ears flopped down, but she was still greatly in shock, along with the rest of the room. "Sorry, Miss Cheerilee."
Nagsia looked around his peers with the same expression Scootaloo had (except a little duller.)
"Now, does anypony have any questions for Nagisa? And please, let's keep them school appropriate and friendly." Cheerilee looked at the orange filly again before flashing a bright smile to her new pupil. "Yes, Archer?"
"Why does he look like a girl?"
The whole class burst out laughing at the pony's remark. Nagisa's cheeks turned red, tugging on her crystal blue, bundled hair that could easily be mistaken for a girl's haircut.
"Archer! That wasn't very nice!"
The blue earth pony ignored her teacher's scolding. Cheerilee gave him another reassuring grin to ease up his crimson face.
"She apologizes, Nagisa. Now why don't you go sit next to... Ah! Truffle Shuffle." She pointed to an empty seat by the grey colt, who was, as usual, munching on a scrap of cake from the previous day.
The blue-haired boy nodded to her, padding softly over to his newly awaited destination. As he walked, everypony turned their heads to admire him. He stood on two legs; a bipedal creature, as Miss Cheerilee had taught them before. No fur lined his soft, pink skin, spare a few shiny, short hairs on his arms and the obvious clumps of hair on his oval head. His snout was short and dug into his face, pearly blue eyes at the end of the bridge. He was amazing to look at - strange and interesting... Too bad he was only walking for half a second before he sat.
"Let's begin class, then." Cheerilee stood onto her hinds, something ponies could only do for a few minutes. She grasped a piece of chalk in her mouth, squeaking words onto the blackboard. She dropped it, displaying her words like a new car. "You may recall that yesterday we were working on our double digit multiplication tables. Please turn your arithmetic books to page twenty-seven. That is where are lesson will begin. Oh, Nagisa. I'll get you a book in a jiffy. Just one second here..."
She made clops on the floor as she made her way to a supply closet positioned near her desk. Nagisa didn't pay much attention to this. He had but only one mission here, and that mission wasn't to waste his time studying the same things he had known since third grade. Reaching into his cargo pants pocket, he gripped onto the handle of something, hesitantly bringing it out, but not so the open could see. He quickly slid it into his desk.
"Ere ou go." The mare grasped the packet in between her teeth, muffling her words. She dropped it on his desk with a tiny lining of saliva. He scrunched his nose.
As Cheerilee turned around to walk back, Nagisa quickly reached into the desk, not caring about his new packet. He brought the object he had gotten earlier out, locking his eyes on her back.
"Gah!" Apple Bloom had been focusing on him, still in wonder, before she saw the object. "Miss Cheerilee! Knife!"
"What?" Cheerilee quickly spun around, only to have said knife plummet into her skin. The whole class had turned to look now, their throats emitting all sorts of gasps as it hit her.
Surprisingly, though, nothing happened. The knife had simply hit against her fur, waved out in a rubber motion, and retracted back to Nagisa, flicking him in the nose.
Everypony stood in silence for a moment, anxious as to what Cheerilee would do to him. What had just happened? It spun by so fast.
"Nagisa." A stern, unfamiliar voice began. "What was that?" The class had never seen Cheerilee so angry before.
Nagisa only looked down before he swiftly brought the knife across her skin, hoping to scrape some of the beautiful, maroon fur off and slice into her skin. Still, it did nothing.
"Stop that!" Cheerilee bucked him off of her after he had grasped onto her flank to get more leverage. She grabbed the knife.
'Dammit... I would of thought she would be easier,' Nagisa thought with a sigh.
"I want you home, right now! I can't believe it's your first day and you're already misbehaving! This is extreme! Why would you try to kill me?! Why would you even bring a weapon into school?!"
He swallowed hard before clonking out the door, pale fists clenched tightly into balls. All around him, the world was vaguely familiar. Birds still chirped around him, filling the blue sky with songs, trees swayed in the gentle breeze, and the dirt underneath him swirled into the air. The only difference was who lived here: ponies. Bright, colorful, talking ponies. It was surreal.
Putting that matter aside (although it was hard to,) Nagisa brought the current situation into his vision. He was suspended. Probably expelled. He didn't have anywhere to go here. And more importantly, he had failed his mission: killing his teacher before he graduated.
'W-what am I supposed to do...?' Nagisa was racking his brain. 'I can't believe I already failed... Koro-sensei is so much f-faster... And stronger... And yet, I still couldn't do it. She didn't even expect it like he would of... How?'
Suddenly, he felt an overwhelming swelling in his nose. Impacting with something hard, he fell backwards, landing on his butt and stirring up a bit of dirt as he did.
"Nagisa Shiota? a kind, welcoming voice asked. He looked up, seeing a violet-colored pony. A spiraling horn stuck out of her dark blue fringe of hair, and in addition, feathery wings lined her back: an alicorn.
"Who... A-are you?" Nagisa stammered.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Sorry for bumping into you." She extended a hoof towards him, offering to help haul him up. He blushed at his ordeal and took it hesitantly, the finger-less appendage feeling odd in his own hand.
"Sorry..."
"It's okay. I wasn't looking where I was going. Hey, aren't you supposed to be in school? I thought you were signed up for Miss Cheerilee's class."
"I was..." Nagisa thought back to the memory, rubbing the back of his neck.
Twilight turned her head around and glanced at the clock tower that planted itself in Ponyville Square. She retreated back to him.
"It's only ten o'clock," she informed. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't school supposed to last for six more hours or so?"
The boy bit on his lower lip and slowly shook his head. "I s-sort of got in trouble..."
"Huh? On your first day? What happened?"
"I'd rather not talk about it..." He perked up. "So how do you know all this stuff about me anyway? Isn't that the most important question here?"
Twilight looked down at him with wide, purple eyes. She laid a hoof on his back, seeing as she was at least two inches taller than he was.
"Maybe you should come to my house?" The alicorn looked around suspiciously. "Nopony else is supposed to really know."
Nagisa agreed with another nod to his head, as they started off towards a gleaming, tree-like mansion.
"This is your house?" he said in awe, eyes sparkling.
"Y-yeah," Twilight bashfully admitted. She opened the door with a magenta stream of magic and clopped her way to a plush, hot pink couch. "Why don't you sit?" As he did, she sat down as well, staring at the crystal coffee table in front of her.
She looked down at him, who seemed to be staring off into blank space with anxiousness and curiosity. Sighing, she began.
"I can tell your curious, so I'll just start. A couple of years back, I went to your world: Earth. I was transformed into a human, with the same features as you... Anyway, putting that whole thing aside, when Princess Celestia said that a new student was coming from that world and was joining Miss Cheerilee's class, given he was still in middle school, I was asked to inform Cheerilee about you, seeing as I was the only one who had visited Earth. Princess Celestia told me basic information, like your name, obviously where you came from... Things like that. That's all." The mare clapped her hooves together with a grin. "That's all."
"Oh," was all Nagisa could reply. "That explains it, I guess." Inside his mind, he was thinking a bit differently.
'Didn't that Princess Celeste, or whatever her name was, tell Twilight that I was on a mission? Didn't she inform her that I was trying to kill one her subjects? This explanation seems to be filled with plot holes.'
"So... Since you're going to be out of school for six more hours, I figure you want to stay here? Or do you have somewhere else to go?"
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble to stay here...?" Nagisa asked earnestly.
"Not at all! Hey, are you hungry? I could make you a daisy sandwich, or something."
"A... Daisy sandwich?"
"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you humans have a completely different food variety... Hm..." She strained her brain trying to think of something both suitable for humans and ponies alike. Her face illuminated. "How about some buttered toast?"
"Sure." He offered a sweet smile, which practically melted the princess' heart. "Thank you."
"Aw... You're so sweet." Nagisa blushed at the compliment while Twilight tousled the boy's hair as grandmother might do to her grandfilly or grandcolt. She stood up and strode her way into the kitchen.
As soon as she had disappeared from the room, his breath quickened, astonished.
'Talking pony... Talking pony... There are talking ponies here.' Nagisa tried to slow himself down, his breath staggering. 'Okay Nagisa... You've seen worse. Think of Koro-sensei... He's an alien octopus... Try to relax.'
In a jiffy, the mare had returned with a plate and four slices of crispy, warm toast on them. A bit of a dark pinkish colored jelly dripping off the sides, making it look one hundred more times appetizing to the hungry human, who had not eaten since he'd been through the portal.
"Thank you, Twilight-sama." Twilight rested the plate on the coffee table just in his reach, a bit surprised by the suffix "sama."
"Oh, you don't have to call me that. Just Twilight-san would be okay," she corrected politely, although she understood why he might call her that.
Nagisa looked at her one more time, nodding again. Hesitantly, he took a flaky piece of bread, biting into it slowly. Although it was unlikely, it could very well be poisonous. The things who populated this place were advanced, talking equines. How was he to know what they were capable of?
After he devoured his snack, he yawned.
"Thank you again, Twilight-san."
"It was no trouble." She winced at the crumbs he had unintentionally spilled onto the floor and scattered onto the couch cushions. Seeing him stretching out his obscure jaw, she inquired, "are you sleepy, Nagisa?"
"Yeah... Just a little."
"There's a room upstairs, if you would like. Follow me."
The boy followed Twilight up a case of what seemed like fragile, crystal-crafted stairs. With each step, they let out a "dink." Nagisa could practically see the reflection of his soles on each step.
She led him to a giant room; a room which seemed way to big for one person, or pony in this case. A queen-sized bed sat in one corner, a purple, starry blanket hanging off the side of the mattress. Five pillows were skewed about in addition to a small, white unicorn plushie, and a small mahogany dresser pressed against the wall, sporting a few open drawers and some pointy looking figurines displayed on top. Where there was open space, "Power Ponies" posters hung crookedly.
Twilight let out a small mutter.
"Yeesh, Spike is such a slob." The alicorn revved her magic, positioning a Maneiac poster to be straight.
"Spike...?" Nagisa prodded lightly, curious.
"Yeah, he's my assistant... But he's more like a family member." She faced him with a warm smile. "This is his room, and I constantly have to tell him to straighten it up."
Nagisa let out a low chuckle, his eyelashes fluttering.
"Here." Twilight gestured her head toward the messy bed. "The sheets might be a little ruffled, but you can sleep there if you'd like. I'll wake you up when you're ready for dinner, okay?"
"Thanks, that'd be great." He flashed another warm smile, propping himself onto the bed. Slowly, he tucked himself under the wrinkles of the cloud white bedspreads and the violet blanket. Reaching into his hair, he pulled out two rubber bands, letting it fall loose.
"Goodni- Good evening, Nagisa." The purple pony giggled cheerfully.
"Good evening, Twilight-san." Nagisa put emphasis on the word "evening" before closing his eyes and eventually falling asleep.
