Chapters Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
It began, as strange days so often seem to, with a pineapple.
Luna's return from her lunar had been recent at this time in our exposition, only several months prior, and it was still the hottest topic of conversation amongst the citizens of Canterlot. The buzz of a nearly forgotten and suddenly returned princess was not something that could be quenched so easily, as well as whisperings of possible charges of treason regarding Celestia that the Royal Guards were still doing their best to quiet before they could get rolling. A moving boulder was much harder to settle into place than a stationary one, after all.
Luna herself was having a hard time adjusting, having to catch up on a thousand years of advancements in law, technology, customs, currency, politics, pretty much everything had moved on without her. She had spent most of her time following her return in the Private sector of the Canterlot Library, the sector that was closed off to the public, in order to catch herself up. Or, well, to attempt to catch up.
She had watched and admired her big sister during these study sessions, and one of the most curiously interesting things, she had noted, that Celestia had done was to begin a school for talented unicorns, and had, she explained, selected one student at a time to give one on one training to. That student recieved personalized visits from Celestia, an advanced study course, and of course fairly special treatment. The school being rather new, Celestia was only on her third pupil. The first had graduated with honors from Celestia's coursework and went on to become a Royal Guard in the military. The second, Luna didn't know much about. Celestia rarely spoke of her, and when she did it was with disappointment. Something had happened, Celestia wouldn't talk about it, and Luna hadn't pressed the issue. The third student was a studious young purple unicorn, and it was this bond with the unicorn that led Luna to decide she wanted to start a school of her own.
Flash forward six months later, to the present day. This brings us back to Luna, and to the aforementioned pineapple.
It was the beginning of the autumn school season, and the grand opening school season of Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too. The name of the facility, while not the easiest to pronounce and certainly not pleasant to say, was the winning entry in a contest to name the facility, a contest which had been primarily devised to gain exposure for Luna herself, who was still regarded with some degree of suspicion.
Luna had arrived promptly early, and unlocked the front doors before swinging them wide and propping them open. The facility was built with a large number of windows in order to promote a naturally lit, 'green' environment which was all the rage these days, and the torches on the walls which normally lit the darkness with their greedy flames were few and far between. Just enough to see by, not that there would be anyone here at night under most circumstances, except perhaps the janitor.
Luna's hooves echoed mysteriously in the long hallway as she used her long horn to unlock the few inner doors to the facility one by one. There was an arts and crafts room, a toy room, an eating lounge for snacks, a padded flight room with a tiny little ramp for jumps, and a very specially enchanted room that would promote the isolation of magical spells while also artificially boosting them.
The final room, the largest of all of them, was a classroom with three desks neatly arranged in a row of three. These desks sat right in front of Luna's own larger one, and in the middle of Luna's own desk sat the pineapple which we have now heard so much about. This confounded the mare of the night, who had locked up the facility the night before after doing a check to make sure everything worked. Between then and now, nopony had been in here. She was sure of it.
Glancing at the sundial, Luna noted the time. It was nearly eight in the morning. Well, give or take, anyway, sundials were a little bit hit or miss, but it was approximately eight
Circling around the larger desk, Luna frowned slightly. She had absolutely no idea where the pineapple had come from, and was only slightly perturbed by it, but decided to make the best of things. The minutes ticked past with absurdly rapid velocity, and when the first child arrived at eight fifteen, the pineapple had been sliced, and little plastic bowls containing equally sized, equally counted pieces of pineapple had been put on the desks.
The door swung open, and a pair of solid blue equines entered. The smaller of the two, younger even than the Cutie Mark Crusaders of whom at this point Luna had no knowledge, was a unicorn. Similar in race was his father, an uppity stallion who peered past Princess Luna from behind round spectacles as if she were a peasant on the street.
"I am Ocean Breeze's father," he announced. Before Luna could respond, he brought forth a scroll, scribbled with fancy cursive containing at least six separate items of seemingly no relation. "Listed here are the things that Ocean is allergic to. I expect you will adhere to it."
Luna bristled at that. "Listen here, now," she began, before getting a look at the list. "Glue-ten? What is Glue-ten?" She had half a mind to kick them out right now being talked to like that, but that wouldn't do well at all after she'd worked so hard to raise her image as kind and social.
"Nopony really knows, he just can't eat it," the father retorted. "I shall pick Ocean up at three. Promptly." Before she could respond, he turned, looking down at his little colt. "Ocean, behave yourself. It won't do to have you get kicked out of another preschool." He turned and walked out, leaving Ocean Breeze looking up at the Princess wide, admiring eyes.
"GREETINGS, BLUE CHILD!" She announced, far more loudly than she'd intended, and sent Ocean Breeze skittering off to a pile of blocks in the back corner of the room. Oh, damn, off to a great start already.
The second and third of the three recruits arrived at the same time, each with their mothers. Fireball, a spunky little orange pegasus who was already flapping his little wings as if itching to get off the ground, rushed right up to her and hugged her front legs with such force that Luna had to hug him back for almost a full minute before he pried himself loose. The third was an earth pony, a little rust colored mare named Clover who insisted she was really a Diamond Dog, undercover as a pony in order to put a stop to a seedy barley smuggling ring.
By the time this all was underway, it was already eight forty five. When she had the children alone, morning sunlight streaming through the windows of the classroom, Luna rapped on the desk with her hoof. "Attention, please!" She said, and all three looked up. "Before we get started at nine here, we're going to take attendance and sing the welcome song. Does anyone here know what time nine is?" She suspected they all should, but unlike Celestia's school which focused on prodigies, the children who attended this school were primarily underprivileged and poor.
Clover raised her hoof at once, and Luna beamed. "Yes, dear?"
"That comes after 8!"
Luna blinked. That wasn't the answer she'd been looking for, but she wasn't wrong. "Yes," Luna said. "But it's also a morning hour. You can tell 9:00 on the sundial by how long the shadows are. In the morning, shadows are very long, but they're starting to get shorter already, you see?"
"That's stupid," Ocean Breeze said from his seat.
"That's science," Luna responded. "Now then, Ocean Breeze, you're here?"
"Yeah."
"Fireball?"
"Uh huh!" The colt grinned.
"Clover?"
No answer.
"Clover? Clover? Clover?"
"Here!" Fireball announced, and Ocean Breeze snickered.
"Clover?"
Still no answer.
Luna looked annoyed, and went to the far right desk, where Clover was sitting and watching her with perfect attention. "Young rapscallion, thou must answer when thine name is called."
"But that's not my name."
Luna facehoofed. She regretted this already. "What is your name then?"
"I'm Rover. I'm a Diamond Dog. I told you."
"Okay, fine. Rover?"
"Here!"
Luna rolled her eyes and returned to her desk. "Now then, I'm going to sing the welcome song, and tomorrow we can all sing it together. Then we can get started. Welcome little children, welcome one and all! Welcome to the school of fun, where education calls! We're going to have some fun right here while stars are shining bright, so welcome little children and we'll have a lovely night!"
Fireball raised his hoof again. "But it's daytime."
Luna sighed, glancing at the sundial. Just after nine. Off to a great start, and only the whole day to go.
Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
"Alright!" Luna announced. "We have a lot of things to do today, so we're going to get started. This is my first day, and the first time I've done this, so I hope you'll be as patient with me as I will be with you," she said kindly. "There are pineapple slices on your desks if you would like them, I think everypony enjoys a little taste of sweet pineapple now and again."
Ocean Breeze raised his hoof. "Are they gluten free?" He asked.
Luna faltered. Great. Day one, question one, and already she felt that mild nagging sensation in the back of her mind that she'd gotten off to a rocky start. "I... I don't..." She stammered. She had absolutely no idea what gluten was.
"Daddy says if I eat gluten I could die," Ocean said. His voice was calm and unwavering, as if this was completely normal.
"Oh. Well then. You just go ahead and leave it there and I'll clean it up in a bit. We're going to start off the day with circle time, and I'm going to read you a story that has been told to many children over the years and is a traditional favorite. Come little children, I'll take thee away, off to a land of enchantment." She swept up Ocean under her wing and led him to the back of the room where a circle of pillows had been strategically placed. Ocean came at once, but Clover and Fireball, who had found the pineapples and were happily nomming, took a few more calls before they left the treats and came over as well, to join the circle.
"This little book is called The Three Little Pigs, see?" She held up a colorfully bright hardcover book, which indeed displayed three little pigs cowering in a straw house while a nasty, mean looking wolf patrolled outside.
"That looks scary," Clover said.
"Not at all," Luna assured her, and began. "Once upon a time, in the magical land of Hamalot..."
With minimal interruptions from the children, it took approximately twenty minutes to read the story, and Luna used her night magic to cast enchanted, magical shadows on the walls that would enact various scenes from the book for comedic effect. The wall had only finished displaying a shadowy black wolf leaping into a fire, before howling and running around in circles on two legs with his pants on fire. The children were roaring with laughter and applauding at this, before the shadow wolf dissipated into smoke and vanished.
"Now then," Luna said, closing the book. "What did we learn from this story?"
Ocean Breeze raised his hoof, he always seemed to be the first with an answer, Luna noted, with some mild admiration. She did like seeing children willing to participate. "That wolves are bad?" He asked.
"Well," Luna said. "In this story, yes, but not all wolves are bad. Some are very important to the ecosystem. Timberwolves, however, are very, very scary, and they ARE bad."
Clover, or Rover, as she claimed her name was, raised her hoof next. "I think it's about family, and that when you need help, you can always rely on your family to get you out of it," she said.
Fireball, who remained mostly quiet during all of this, shook his head. "No way. It's obviously a metaphor. The house represents a safe zone, the pigs are confidence and bravery, and the wolf is fear and anxiety trying to break into their safe zone and crush their spirits."
Luna, Clover and Ocean all stared at him.
"Whoa," Clover said, her voice tinged with respectful admiration, as if she'd just witnessed Celestia herself give a long and powerful speech.
"...Alright then," Luna said, breaking the silence that followed after this display of intelligence. "It's almost nine thirty now, so we're going to spend the next hour in free play, so do what you like, and then after that will begin the first of three individual sessions to work on your special abilities. Fireball, you'll be first, you'll be getting some basic flight lessons."
"Alright!" Fireball grinned.
"But what about us?" Clover asked, sounding hurt. "We're supposed to just spend half an hour by ourselves? What if the barley dealers find me? I'm undercover! I'm a wanted dog! Things could go down at any moment! I'm a member of law enforcement! I'm a child! I can't be left on my own! That's too much, man! Too much!"
"Not to worry," Luna said. "I have a special guest coming who will be assisting me." She said no more on that matter, and let the children run free in the toy section of the room. Fireball ran straight to the puzzles, while Ocean Breeze went to the little plastic Royal Guard army figures. Clover sat down at the small table covered in crayons and coloring books, and flipped through them.
"Hey," Clover complained. "How come all these coloring books are filled with pictures of you?"
"Oh, are they?" Luna looked away, placing a foreleg against her chest in a mocking gesture of surprise. "I had no idea. What a strange coincidence."
The next hour went smoothly, and as precisely at ten thirty as she could tell by the sundial, Luna called the children to attention. They had hardly moved from their individual stations, she noticed, all engaged in their own separate favorite activities.
Luna smiled a bit, and stood up. "Time to put away the toys for now!" She said and moved towards the door. "I promised a very special guest would be entertaining you today, and I think I hear him now!" She dramatically swung open the door to the classroom, and revealed a completely DONE looking Celestia, dressed in a theatrical green dragon suit, with only her nose and tail sticking out of it.
"Look! It's Dreamy the Dancing Dragon!" Luna exclaimed. The children burst into squeals of joy at once, and immediately surrounded the costumed performer.
Celestia stared daggers at her sister with eyes that almost seemed to burst into flame.
Clover and Ocean were squealing with delight, and Celestia sighed, trying to put on her best cheerful voice. "Hey, kids!" She announced. "Good to see you! We're going to have lots of fun today, and I even brought my special bag of tricks!" Her horn lit up and summoned a bright green bag that looked like it had been bedazzled to death, and opened it. "Now for my first trick, I-" she began, pulling out the first item she could find, which turned out to be a pineapple. "I don't remember putting that in there..."
Fireball, meanwhile, followed Luna into the side room, the one which had padded walls and a little ramp, rising only a few inches off the floor.
"Now, have you ever flown before?" Luna asked.
"Only a little bit," the colt said. "I can't stay off the ground for more than a few seconds."
"Alright. Well why don't you step onto that ramp there and show me your technique?"
Fireball did just that, stepping onto the ramp and flapping his little orange wings as hard as he could. His legs lifted a few inches off the ground as he was clearly struggling, his style was all over the place, but he was off the ground.
"Needs some work," Luna said gently. "You can't just flap like a maniac. You need style. Prose. Grace. Confidence. Come now, on the ground, try again. One, two, three! One, two three!"
Luna spent the next half hour teaching Fireball various calming techniques and breathing exercises, which he, of course, thought were stupid. Near the end of the session, she had him taking a running jump off the ramp. He was nervous at first, but did as she asked, and ran right off the edge of the ramp. Luna's horn lit up at once, creating a gust of wind that wafted straight up off the floor like an air vent in one of the video games that Celestia had introduced her to, and which she found she rather liked.
Fireball hit the gust of wind, completely unaware of it, and soared higher at once until his head bumped the padded ceiling. "Luna! Luna! I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" His joy was absolutely contagious, and as she breeze died down he lowered to the floor again after a few seconds, and the night princess caught him, quickly finding herself being fiercely hugged.
"Thank you, Luna. You're not as bad as everyone says," Fireball said. "I'm gonna tell my mom that Princess Luna is my favorite, and maybe even be an astronomer when I get older!"
Luna nearly melted at that. Her plan was working! Without any hesitation, she hugged him back.
It was just after eleven thirty.
Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
"Gather around, children!" Luna called, as she and Fireball emerged from the padded room. Under normal circumstances that arrangement would have been wildly inappropriate, but here it was standard procedure. Especially with Fireball being new to flight, she didn't want him to hurt himself while trying to fly and then wind up with herself on the receiving end of a lawsuit wrapped around negligence. That just wouldn't do for her image.
Clover and Ocean, who had been watching Celestia in her dragon persona sitting on her hind legs and juggling a multitude of brightly colored plastic balls, suddenly cheered with such wild ferocity that the daylight horse yelped with surprise, losing her balance and allowing the plastic spheres to go clattering to the ground. She glared at Luna once more, but there was love in that gaze despite her annoyance, and she said nothing this time.
Fireball ran to join his classmates, excitedly regaling them with tales of his flight, which somehow now involved flaming hoops of fire and a giant monstrous golem. Certainly a far more exciting version than his brief lift off the ground.
Celestia sat off to the side now, having wriggled out of the dragon suit and appearing much more properly regal, sitting straight up with her hair flowing majestically off to the side. She seemed wildly amused by Fireball's tale, and was watching her sister with great interest. Perhaps if only to see what would come next.
"Next we're going to do a bit of learning," Luna said. "It's time for math."
All three children groaned perfectly in unison.
Luna brought them forth to their desks, and when all three were seated, her horn lit up with a brilliant blue aura and wooden structures unlike anything the three had ever seen before appeared on their desks. Clover looked disgusted and poked at hers with a foreleg as if it were covered in crawling insects. "We're supposed to do math on THESE? What is this?"
"This is an abacus," Luna said, sitting before them. "They are the top of the line, state of the art instruments of choice by up and coming mathematicians, and a wonderful learning tool."
Celestia coughed loudly. Luna ignored her.
These in particular were simple tools, little wooden structures about a foot in height, and a foot across. There were four rows in total, each row containing ten bright red beads. The children all looked at the devices as if they were covered in molasses. Next to each abacus lay a pile of rubber bands.
"Uhhh... these are state of the art?" Ocean Breeze asked, suspiciously.
"Yes indeed!" Luna confirmed. "Now we only have half an hour allotted for math, so let's move right along. The first row is singles, the second row is tens, the third is hundreds, and the fourth row is thousands."
Ocean Breeze, who had never been the brightest of ponies, scoffed incredulously. "That's ridiculous, there can't be thousands of beads on that little frame, not even magic can displace physics. I call shenanigans."
"Ocean, that's not-"
"Shenanigans!"
Celestia facehoofed off in the corner.
"No, Ocean," Luna said. "It's not about how many beads there are, it's about the math. That's the point. Now, for instance, can any of you, tell me how to count to fifteen on an abacus?"
Ocean and Fireball stared at the devices with absolute confusion and indifference. Clover, however, was working on her abacus already, moving beads around with surprising, intelligent speed. "Done!" She announced!
Luna came over, looking from the abacus to the filly who was using it. "Very good. Can you show your work?"
"Of course," Clover said, and gestured to the beads. On the first row, the beads were separated in half by one of the rubber bands, half on top, and half on the bottom. "Here's five," she said. In the second row, the tens, a single bead was separated, one on top, and nine on the bottom. "And here's ten. Five and ten are fifteen."
"Excellent!" Luna exclaimed. Clover looked pleased. Luna's horn lit up, and a gold star appeared out of nowhere, attaching itself to Clover's chest with a harmless tacky side. No pins or pricks required.
"Hey, I want a gold star!" Ocean Breeze announced.
"Then you have to actually be useful," Fireball said. Ocean gasped, and tackled him to the floor, the two bucking and rolling around on the ground.
Luna narrowed her eyes at once, and pulled the two apart. "Since you are so eager to learn, Ocean, then you can have the next individual lesson. Clover, Fireball, you can take this time to yourselves to nap or play quietly. Celestia will oversee you while I work with Ocean."
"Yay!" Fireball and Clover seemed to be pleased with the idea of having some one on one time, or two on one time, with Princess Celestia herself. It wasn't as if this was a private or gifted school, these three particular children had been randomly selected from hundreds of applicants to compose Luna's very first class. If things went well, a full sized class would be chosen the following semester, each 'class' lasting only half a school year.
Ocean grumbled, and Luna nudged him. "Come on, little one. It's time you had your lesson." Ocean grumbled, but followed along, and Luna glanced at the sundial again as they passed out of the main room. Just around noon exactly, the math lesson had taken about half an hour. Right on schedule.
Luna led Ocean Breeze down the hallway to a brightly lit, sunny room filled with plants and seedlings, a small garden of sorts, with more pots in planters along the windows. The wallpaper was tacky, a pale blue superimposed with repeating patterns of pineapples.
"What's this about?" Ocean asked, not the most polite of children. "I hate plants, they're stupid."
"They're mostly for decoration," Luna said. "But you shouldn't hate plants. They provide us with many wonderful things. Like flowers."
"I hate flowers too. They're girly. I wish all the plants would die," he said. "They don't do anything."
Luna smiled still, patient as ever. "If all the plants were gone, all the life in Equestria would die out without the oxygen that plants create. Did you know that? It's part of why it's very important that we take care of the trees. They don't look like they're doing much, but they're keeping us alive. It's called photosynthesis, which is a very big word and not a lesson you'll need to worry about for some time yet, but it's important that you know that."
"Oh," Ocean said, looking doubtful now. "Well I guess they can stay then. So what are we doing here? You can't teach me anything."
"Oh?" Luna mimicked. "And why is that?"
"Because I'm an earth pony, and my father says that Equestrian economy is controlled by unicorns while the weather is controlled by the pegasi, leaving the earth ponies to do all the grunt slave labor. He says we're a minority."
"Is that right?" Luna asked, frowning. She made a mental notice to scold Ocean's father for surrounding his colt with a negative environment. No child needed that. "Well he's wrong. You may not believe me, but he's very wrong. Earth ponies can do many wonderful things. Maybe you can't teleport or do magic, but because you do not rely on those things, that makes you all the more special. Equestria owes its beginnings to earth ponies, did you know that?"
Ocean shook his head. "So, like, there's more to us than just being used for slave labor?"
"Yes," Luna agreed. "And I don't want to hear you talking like that. Come over here." She gestured for him to join her, where she was standing by an empty flower pot. "This bag of seeds here represents all ponies. The seeds all look the same before they have been nurtured and loved, but there are actually several kinds of seeds here that will grow into many different things. Go on and plant it in the dirt."
Ocean hesitated. "I'll get dirty."
"Go on," she said again, a bit more firmly.
Ocean did, and reluctantly planted the seed in the dirt. He patted it down with his foreleg, looking up at Luna again, who nodded, then he took a small cup of water that was nestled among the materials and poured it over the dirt. Nothing happened for a moment, then the tiniest little green stalk, only half an inch in height, grew and unfurled from the dirt.
"Hey!" Ocean exclaimed suddenly, his eyes bright. There was an excitement in them that Luna had not seen until now, and suspected that his father had never managed to light. "I did that! Did you see that? I did that!" He caught himself, and quickly tried to return to his old habit of crotchety indifference. "I mean... whatever. It's still stupid."
Luna just shook her head. "There is nothing stupid about nature, Ocean. It's a necessary part of life. Perhaps you might not be destined to work the earth, you may grow to be a banker or an amusement park ride attendant for all I know, but it is important you understand the value of life."
"Okay," he said slowly, looking down at the sprout, then back up at Luna. "Can I do another one?"
Luna smiled. "Of course you can, Ocean. Of course you can."
Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
Ocean Breeze's lesson, similar to Fireball's before him, lasted approximately half an hour. There was no serious or heavy amount of practice or practical work, only some verbal history into the history of the particular race to which he was assigned, as well as a few exercises that would increase in seriousness as the short school semester rolled onwards. This was only day one, after all.
When twelve thirty rolled around, Ocean Breeze, now covered in a fair amount of dirt, rocketed from the side door that Luna opened for him, and returned to his classmates. He had planted several seedlings in that time while Luna talked to him, and although he displayed some excitement for the procedure, Luna suspected he was really just more excited about getting dirty than he was about actually planting. He had the typical earth pony knack for nurturing, she could tell that much already, but he did not appear to have a career-driven passion for it.
Luna arrived back at the main classroom to find the three children already reunited, the other two being presented with grand tales of exaggerated plant magic and wildly eccentric gestures as Ocean Breeze proceeded to lie about pretty much everything that had gone on in his lesson. Luna only rolled her eyes.
"Alright, children!" She called. "It's lunchtime, so go ahead and get the food you brought, and then afterwards we're going to play for a while. After that, Clover, it's-"
"It's Rover!" Came the expected protest, which was equally expectedly ignored. Clover's insistance that she was, in fact, a diamond dog, had slowly deteriorated from its initial cute factor to a factor of mild obnoxiousness.
"-It will be time for your lesson," Luna continued smoothly, "And then we're going to do some crafts until your parents return at three." Promptly at three, Ocean's father's voice echoed in her mind for some reason. In any case, all three children rushed to get their lunchboxes, hard plastic and brightly colored in all three cases. This was followed by an excited squabbling as the trio gathered together, and started bickering and trading the various components of their lunches. Who was to say, for instance, that the market trade value of a daisy sandwich was equivalent to that of half a dozen slices of pineapple, such as those which had initially sat on the children's desks? Or that a bag of gummy candy grasshoppers was a fair trade in exchange for cold vegetable pizza?
While the children were busy, Luna kept an eye on them, but also returned to sit with her sister, who had abandoned the facade of Dreamy the Dancing Dragon and sat by the window, sipping tea from a thermos.
"I must say," Celestia began. "I am wildly impressed with the apparent success of this little school. I was nervous at first that it was just a jealous attempt to emulate my own school for gifted unicorns, but this is not the same at all, is it?" She asked. Her voice was steady and calm, but there was an underlying worry that Luna's jealousy might yet get the better of her again.
"Not as such, no," Luna said, "I wanted a side project to spend my time with, as well as something which would help to restore my name to its proper, uncorrupted legacy. This seemed like as good a way to do it as any. And the children are enjoying it."
"Well of course they are, they're attending a class taught by one of the princesses. They won a contest, did they not?"
"Sort of," Luna agreed. "There were only three openings at first, and hundreds of eligible applicants. But opening a school, especially with my background, has proved difficult. Limited funding, and all that. If this goes well, I'll be cleared for a full class next year."
Celestia nodded. "As long as it doesn't get in the way of your duties," she said. "You're still in charge of the night, I'll remind you."
"Which reminds me, how is it that you are here?" Luna asked.
Celestia frowned. "I don't follow you."
"Aren't you on duty right now?"
There was a laugh. "Oh, I found someone to fill in for me, just for one day. I haven't had a day off in a thousand years, nopony's going to argue with my wanting to see how my sister is doing."
Luna nodded. "I'm glad you could come. I missed you something terrible."
"Aw. And I missed you as well." Understatement of the millenium, that.
Luna and Celestia bantered back and forth for the remainder of the hour lunch period, bickering occasionally but for the most part laughing and exchanging stories while the children ate and played their own little games.
At one thirty, with lunch cleared up and the lunchboxes tucked neatly away again, Luna rose to a standing position. "Come, children! We're going to play outside in my dear sister's sun for a while. I have a surprise for you all."
This was met with cheering and the youngsters immediately rose and raced out the classroom door, with Luna hurrying to catch up, and Celestia slowly making her way behind, not in any particular hurry. It was her day off, damn it, and she was going to enjoy it at her own leisure.
Outside, Luna led the attention of the filly and colts to an enormous area about 4x4 feet, covered with a large blue tarp. Ocean, Clover and Fireball looked at her expectantly with varying expressions of confusion.
Celestia, however, understood at once. "Luna, you didn't."
"I did!" Luna exclaimed, beaming. "Every child loves these!"
"What is it?" Clover asked, nearly jumping up and down.
Celestia buried her face in her hoof. She already knew exactly where this was going. "Luna, I swear to Starswirl, don't you say it, don't you dare say it..."
Luna wasn't listening. Her horn illuminated and snatched the corner of the tarp, yanking it up and off of a brightly colored, short little 4x4 wooden fenced in garden area with a flourish. Only instead of carrots and potatoes, the fenced in area was filled with-
"Ssssaaaaaaaaand!" Luna exclaimed.
The three children squealed at once, and leaped into the fenced in area, taking possession of the plastic tools and trucks which littered the area.
Celestia's face was still buried in her hoof, her eyes closed tightly, her expression that of someone who was going through a serious migraine. "Luna, I'm going to kill you," she muttered.
But Luna was far too amused to take notice of this, and immediately set about using her magic to take control of a large, plastic red truck, which started slowly trundling and rolling around the perimeter of the sandy area.
Ocean Breeze and Fireball were watching Clover, who was trying with all her might to use her magic to lift up one of the plastic buckets. Her horn pulsed on and off instead of humming steadily, the magic unstable and out of practice. She could not for the life of her get it to work the way she wanted it to. At last she managed to snatch her magic around the handle of the plastic pail, but when she tried to lift it, the bucket rocketed straight up into the sky like a bullet, grew smaller and smaller, and eventually disappeared from view.
"Whoa," the two colts echoed admiringly.
Luna stared up into the sky where the bucket had gone and was no longer visible. "Well that happened," she said slowly. Then looked down at Clover. "Hey, since when can diamond dogs use magic?" She asked, narrowing her eyes. "Last I checked, they can't. Unless you're really..." dramatic pause. "...A unicorn!"
Ocean and Fireball pretended to gasp.
Clover looked alarmed at once. "That's not true! That's impossible!"
"Oh, but it is!" Luna said, stepping forward. "I think you're really Clover Fields, notoriously wanted criminal and mastermind behind the sapphire smuggling ring that's been plaguing Canterlot for years! The game is up, Clover! I'm onto you."
The young unicorn fell into her role at once. "Drat! The jig is up!" She immediately made a run for it, darting out of the sandbox, with Fireball and Ocean chasing after her. She disappeared around the corner of the school, the two colts chasing, and disappeared from sight. Luna and Celestia exchanged a glance, and a moment later Clover came charging around the opposite corner again, still followed closely by the boys. She leaped over the edge of the fence and threw down the bright red truck between herself and the boys. "Oh no!" She declared. "Roadblock! You'll never get me!"
Standing on the other side of the metal truck, Fireball gave an exasperated groan. "We'll never get around that, Ocean! She's bested us again!" Ocean looked at Clover, and all three collapsed with laughter into the sand.
"Alright, Rover, that's enough," Luna said gently.
Clover stood up, shaking herself off from the sand and dirt. "Nah, it's just Clover now. I wanna be a unicorn again." She trotted back into the building, and Luna sighed with relief.
Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
The children had gone to sleep, at least temporarily. Coming in from the sandbox outside, the young ponies had retired to their desks, Luna had to remind herself that this was, in effect, a preschool, and the young ones who displayed such an affinity for learning and laughing became tired very easily. All three were asleep at their desks with their heads in their hooves, and Luna was taking care to clean up the place, moving slowly and using her magic to put toys and books and things back in their proper recepticles.
While the children slept at their desks, right on schedule until 2:00 when the final lessons would be administered, Celestia approached her sister, and gazed at her with what could only be described as an unbelievably infinite amount of love. Her patience, however, while extremely lengthy, was not quite infinite, and the two would often bicker even now in these days of making up lost time, falling right back into the roles that were defined by just about every pair of siblings ever.
"Luna?" Celestia asked, keeping her voice low so as not to wake the children. She was using her magic to restore several scattered crayons, back to their box, one by one. "Are you alright?" She asked.
Luna looked surprised, and nearly dropped the truck she'd been trying to put back on the self. "What? Of course I'm alright. Why would you ask such a thing?"
"It's just... I know things have been stressed between us, lately, since your return and all, and if there's anything at all I can do-"
"Don't worry about that, Celly. It's behind us now. I'm fine, I promise."
The elder mare smiled briefly. "You still owe me a thousand years worth of birthday presents, you know."
"Oh shut up!" Luna cried out in exasperation, and hurled a stuffed pony plushie at her sister. Celestia ducked, and it rebounded off one of the cubbies with a squeak.
"Hah, missed me." Celestia stuck her tongue out.
Luna smiled. As she gazed at her sister in that moment, her heart swelled with love, and she felt herself burdened suddenly with emotional exhaustion."Yeah." She said. "I did."
The final lesson of the day took place thirty minutes later, and it was Clover this time who had been led into a side room, this one holding only a small wooden table lined with various objects of seemingly no relation. A teddy bear, a jigsaw puzzle laid out and half completed, a pineapple, a bowl of apples, a plastic teacup on a plastic saucer.
"Welcome to magic training," Luna said. Clover, who by all means should have been elated to learn magic, after all, who wouldn't?
"I don't like magic," Clover said. Her admission was so sudden that Luna was momentarily taken aback, and thought perhaps she had heard incorrectly.
"You don't like magic!" Luna echoed. "Whyever not?"
"My mother doesn't care for it. She says it's a fancy shortcut from physical labor and it's not fair since not everypony can do it."
Luna frowned at this. "While it is true that not everypony can do it, it's not any less of a physical activity. It simply taxes the mind instead o the body. Unicorns work just as hard as all the others." She gestured to the table. "Now, come on over here, and we're going to start the first day with a simple example using the simplest and easiest of magical trials. Pick one of these objects and levitate it."
Clover did exactly that, and then some. The small filly approached the table, standing a few feet away from the table in the exact center. Her horn lit up, enveloped by a glimmering aura, and despite her young preschool age, she lifted not just the teacup but the bear as well, the two objects lifting right off the table and proceeding to tip the cup to the bears nose. "Tea is served!" Clover announced.
Luna looked astounded. Such control and precision at such a young age... Celestia would want to know about this. She stood there, dumbfounded, for several moments, such a long time in fact that Clover waved a hoof in front of her face. "Miss Luna, you okay?"
Luna blinked. "Yes, yes, of course." She snapped back to attention. "You appear to be exceptionally talented from my first impressions, I'm going to continue my lessons with you and then I'm going to recommend you for my sisters school when you get a little bit older, is that alright?"
Clover's eyes lit up with delight. "Oh, yes! That'd be sweet!"
"But first," Luna said firmly. "Practical applications and the study of magic theory."
"What's that mean?"
"It means," Luna said, slamming a heavy dust covered book down on the desk. "Bookwork."
Clover groaned, but flipped open the front cover. She immersed herself in reading for the next ten minutes or so, with Luna helping with the bigger words, and Celestia stuck her head in the door. "Sister," Celestia said. "Winter is coming."
Luna narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "I enjoy a good reference as much as the next pony, but really, Celestia, can't you at least TRY to be subtle about-"
"-Shush," Celestia interrupted. "Winter Storm? Clover's mother? It's nearly three, the parents will be here to pick up the children at any moment."
"Oh." Luna felt her cheeks burning. "Yes, of course. Thank you, Celestia."
Sighing, Luna looked back over at the studying child. The first day was nearly over already. Where had all the time gone?
Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too
Just as Luna and Clover emerged from the side room where Clover had been receiving her magic lessons, the pair turned the corner to see Celestia talking to a full grown unicorn mare with a brilliant light blue coat. Celestia was talking and making excitedly grand gestures with her foreleg, while the secondary mare was standing in stunned silence with a look of astonishment on her face. Before Luna could properly approach, Clover dashed between her legs and made a run for the younger mare with a cry of excitement.
"Mama!" She exclaimed.
Her mother scooped her up in her front legs at once. "Clover!" she said joyfully. With a bright look of excitement, she turned her attention on Luna.
"You must be Winter Storm," Luna said kindly.
"Yes indeed," Winter said. "Princess Celestia was just telling me of Clover's affinity for magical talent, and how she'd love to have her at the next orientation for her School of Gifted Unicorns. I cannot express my gratitude to the both of you, I always knew that Clover was special, and I'm absolutely pleased to have the chance to share her talent with the world."
Luna nodded. "Clover is very imaginative, a strong imagination is key to a strong magical aura. I'm sure she'll do very well. In the meantime, will she be returning for the rest of my sessions?"
"Yes indeed!" Winter promised. "Come, Clover, we need to get along home for today."
"Okay, mama." Clover looked over and hugged both Luna, then Celestia. "Thank you!" She said again. "See you tomorrow!" Clover the self proclaimed ex-diamond dog scampered out the door, followed closely by her mother, who offered a final wave.
Luna and Celestia exchanged a loving glance of similar affection. It was moments like this that reaffirmed why they did what they did, and truly began to feel like they were making a difference in the lives of their little ponies.
During all this, the remaining two colts Fireball and Ocean Breeze had been playing Uno at one of the brightly colored child sized tables. Ocean Breeze laid down a DRAW 4 card on Fireball, who had only two cards left. Fireball exclaimed a surprisingly strong obscenity and threw his cards into the air with a flourish, effectively rage quitting. "I don't wanna play with you anymore, you're a cheater!"
"I am not!" Ocean stuck his tongue out. "You're just a sore loser!"
Celestia gently came over, and separated the two. "Now, now," she said gently. "You two need to play nice. There's no need to get all discouraged. It's just a game."
"It's a game that he's not playing fair at!" Fireball said. "I almost won!"
"And now I'm winning," Ocean said, with quite a bit of amusement in his voice. If smirking could be expressed in vocal tones, that was it.
It was precisely 3:01 at that point, although by sundial standards, it appeared to be exactly 3:00. It was very hard to determine times down to the minute using sundials. Because it appeared to be promptly on the hour, it was at this point that Ocean's father, the rough voiced stallion with an almost militaristic attitude, made his reappearance through the main door.
"I have returned," he announced. "Has Ocean behaved himself?" He looked over at the two colts playing their game, and frowned.
"Yes," Ocean said, putting his cards down. He spared only a glance at Fireball, who made no effort whatsoever to hide his snickering.
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, sir!"
Ocean's father looked at Luna and Celestia for confirmation.
"Ocean behaved brilliantly," Luna promised. "Fireball here is just a little upset because Ocean was beating him at the game they were playing."
Ocean's father laughed at this. "Well of course Ocean's beating him!" He said. "Our family is full of winners, superiority runs through his genes! Come, Ocean, we have a schedule to keep. You'll see the Princesses again tomorrow morning."
"Okay, daddy!"
This was met with a frown and a stern glare.
"Okay, sir..." Ocean corrected, and unlike Clover's rapid, wild scampering, he neatly composed himself and rose swiftly and quietly, walking out of Luna's center with his father following, the latter of which who gave the two Princesses a neat and courteous nod of thanks, before leaving completely.
Fireball looked a little bummed that he was by himself now, and had moved from the table to the toys, where he was making siren noises and pushing a red fire truck back and forth.
"Fireball, are you being picked up?" Luna asked.
"Uh-huh," he promised. "My mother might just be a few minutes late. Sometimes she can be a little forgetful. She accidentally left me at Hay-mart once. But she means well." He smiled at this, and continued playing with his truck.
Luna and Celestia exchanged a glance, and it was just as Luna was preparing to ask another question when Fireball's mother entered through the main door. She was a bright and fiery orange pegasus, similar in design to Fireball himself and was panting heavily, as if out of breath.
"Sorry," she said. "Came...as fast... as I could."
"Not a problem at all," Celestia said. "We haven't been waiting that long, and we have more than enough toys and snacks to keep the little ones occupied."
"Thank you so much again," she said, and glanced at her son. "Fireball, you ready to go? I want to hear all about your day, don't leave a single thing out."
"Okay!" Fireball ran to her, waved to Luna, then Celestia. "See you tomorrow! Thank you for a fun day!" He smiled, and the final of the three children left with his mother. Luna and Celestia watched the door as it closed, leaving them alone in Luna's preschool, and the two princesses exchanged a glance.
"Well, how did you like your first day as a teacher?" Celestia asked.
"It was wonderful," Luna said. "I really think it will help my public image, and the children are wonderful to work with."
"And I'm glad I got to see you on your first day," Celestia said. "It was really nice to see you at work for once."
Luna frowned. "That reminds me, who DID you get to take over for you for the day?" she asked.
Celestia grinned. "My niece," she said.
"HER?" Luna gaped. "I mean, no offense, she certainly seems capable, but are you sure she can handle such responsibility."
"Oh, I'm sure," Celestia responded at once. "What's the worst that could happen?"
CANTERLOT
Princess Cadance sat on Celestia's royal throne, a seat which was, unmistakably, a bit too large for her. She had been holding audience all day, taking requests, hearing problems, and doing her best to solve them. It was nearly three thirty now, and nearing the end of visiting hours. The line which had intially stretched out the large double doors had since been taken care of, and there didn't appear to be anypony else to hear out.
"That appears to be everyone," Cadance said calmly. "Guard, you may close the doors. I've a pile of paperwork that needs to be gone over."
The guard nodded, and moved to close the doors. Just as he was beginning to close the doors, there was a loud crashing noise from just outside the palace.
"My pineapples!" A dismayed voice cried as some poor vendors cart was presumably destroyed by the sound of the disruption.
A moment later, a clearly distressed looking pegasus burst through the main doors to Canterlot Castle. She was a plain looking gray in color, a sorrowful looking expression upon her crossed eyes.
"Ma'am, the hours of visitation are over," the guard began.
"I'm sorry if I was late, I got lost on the way here," the pegasus replied. "I must see the princess at once!"
Cadance smiled patiently, and looked down upon the flustered mare with seemingly limitless amounts of tolerance and understanding . "Stand down, guard, she's clearly come a long way."
The guard frowned, but did as he was asked.
"What is your name, my dear?" Cadance asked.
The cross-eyed pegasus shook herself off, folded her wings, and turned her attention to Cadance with an expression of gratitude.
"My name is-"
