The Path

"Now, whomever wants me to read Little Red Cape, please raise your hooves."

High Soprano sighed as the majority of the class gathered around her raised their hooves. Grinning somewhat sadly, she shook her head in slight amusement, wondering why they always wanted that story...

"Alright, alright, I'll read it." Sopra's smile gained some mirth as the young fillies and colts cheered. She gestured for them to come closer, levitated the worn and slightly tattered book of fairy tales off of the shelf, and opened it to The Tale of Little Red Cape.

"Once upon a time," she began, "there was a little village filly, the prettiest that had ever been seen..."

"'...never leave the path and run off into the woods by myself if mother tells me not to.'"

Sopra could only look on in a bemused sort of way as they all clapped and cheered. Honestly, I worry for what kind of adults they'll make, if they find entertainment in  a story that is pretty violent..

At the end of the day, as the young fillies and colts were picked up by their parents, Sopra noticed three certain older fillies hanging back. The first, Songbird, was a 15-year old unicorn with a robin-red coat and dark brown hair. Her cutie mark was one of a robin, its beak open with a music note coming out of it. The second, Spice, was a 16-year old pegasus with a ginger coat, and flaming red hair. Her cutie mark was a wing with flames bursting behind it. The third and final filly, Silky Soft, was 17-year old Earth Pony with a carmen coat, and black hair with purple highlights. Her cutie mark was two pink lipstick marks, one a bit darker than the other.

"Can I help you girls?" asked Sopra.

Songbird fidgeted slightly. "Well, we overheard you telling that fairy tale to the younger ones-"

"-and we're doing this project on the really old versions of fairy tales-" continued Spice.

"-and we were wondering if you knew the origins of that one?" finished Silky Soft.

Sopra's smile faded, and her face became a bit darker. "A-are you quite sure that you want to hear the original story? The one that ended up with this one?"

Songbird nodded, but looked confused. "Does it have more violence in it?" She brightened somewhat. "Oh, that's alright! We've already heard the one that the Perrault guy from Prance wrote back in, like, the 7th Century, or whatever."

"Yeah," said Silky, rolling her eyes, "I'm pretty sure we can handle it."

"So tell us!" exclaimed Spice. The three girls sat down, and looked at Sopra expectantly. Sopra, still hesitating, bit her lip. However, as she saw their eager faces, she let out a resigned sigh, and sat down as well. She levitated an older, dustier book off of the shelf. It was simply titled, Origins of Classic Fairy Tales. She flipped through the pages, before settling on the one for Little Red Cape. She looked up apprehensively at the girls once more, before clearing her throat, and begun to read.