Mystery Of The Four

Ms. Cheerilee stepped to the front of the classroom, blocking the students in the middle from seeing what was on the chalkboard. "Good morning class!" The kids stopped chatting as she spoke. "Today we have a new classmate. He's new to Ponyville and I want him to feel welcomed." She explained.

Game Changer stepped inside from the doorway. He didn't show much emotion. Not even nervousness. Which is common for a new student his age. He just wore a frown, and stayed silent.

"His name is Game Changer..." Ms. Cheerilee waited for him to introduce himself but he didn't. She decided to continue speaking. "Go and sit next to Diamond Tiara." She pointed to where his desk was. "We're learning about the Orders Of Operation at this time. Are you alright with that?"

"Yes, I'm good at math." Game Changer went to his seat and sat down. He crossed his forelegs and closed his eyes as if he didn't want to pay attention. He was waiting for the teacher's lesson, but it didn't matter to him since he already knew the ins and outs of the Orders Of Operation.

"Hey there."

Game Changer opened his eyes. He looked to his right and saw a gray filly with baby blue glasses.

Silver had a concerned look on her face. "Order Of Operations is kind of difficult. You may want to pay attention."

Game Changer once again closed his eyes and replied, "I'll know when I need to pay attention." He simply said.

Silver wanted to provoke him again but decided against it. She didn't want Ms. Cheerilee to get angry at her, and besides, it's his own fault if he fails.

The students in the classroom listened to the lesson. They were all equally confused, save for Game Changer, but understood better as the lesson went on.

"Ms. Cheerilee." A white coated, unicorn filly put her hoof up.

Ms. Cheerilee stopped for a second and said, "Yes Sweetie Belle, go ahead."

"Um, what do we do first? Multiplication, or Division?" She asked.

"Either one is fine. Just make sure you answer going left to right, following the order of operations." She made clear.

"Um, okay." Sweetie was still a bit confused, but soon she will get it.

The lesson went on for ten more minutes, with students asking questions left and right. Though it didn't feel like Tartarus for Ms. Cheerilee like some would think. She loved teaching her students. Their innocent confused faces would soon be learning faces.

Ms. Cheerilee glanced at the class every now and then, and she always saw Game Changer with crossed forelegs, looking down with his eyes closed. As if he wasn't paying attention. She decided she would speak to him if he was struggling later, then give him a lecture of why to pay attention in class. The only thing stopping her from not yelling at him in the middle of class was that he said himself that he was very good at math. She will soon see if that is true.

"Okay class," She began. "You will all go in groups of three and practice as I mentioned yesterday." She pulled out a sheet of paper. "I already have some groups made here..." She started to name the groups out loud, and the students started to group up according to her readings.

As she finished calling the groups, Game Changer with his eyes closed noticed that he wasn't in a group.

"Oh!" Ms. Cheerilee realized. "Game Changer, you can work with Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara. They only have two ponies in their group." She instructed.

Game Changer opened his eyes and looked to his right to see two ponies, most likely Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara, smiling and waving at him.

He got out of his seat and went over to the desk they were at. He sat down and asked, "So what do we need to do?"

"Weren't ya payin' attention?" Apple Bloom scowled.

Game Changer noticed that the filly had a country slur.

"I wasn't here yesterday..." He replied.

Apple Bloom noticed how rude she was. "Oh! I'm sorry! A-Ah wasn't thinkin'."

Game Changer crossed his forelegs and closed his eyes. "Don't worry about it."

Diamond Tiara cleared her throat and started to explain. "Ms. Cheerilee said that we have to do twenty questions on Order Of Operations, and we have to do it on Bristol board."

"Alright."

"So? What color should we get?" Apple Bloom asked.

"For the Bristol board? Um... maybe pink?" Diamond Tiara chose.

"You're just saying that because you're pink. Ah think it should be red." Apple Bloom suggested.

"First of all, I chose pink because it signifies elegance. And second, you're just picking red because of apples." She defended.

"Pink doesn't represent elegance, it represents love. And yes, maybe ah chose red 'cause of apples. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't pick it."

The two fillies started to argue.

Before the fight got any more intense, Game Changer spoke up. He opened his eyes and said, "How about a light shade of blue, like the color of the sky. It stands out, and if you need to know, it signifies peacefulness." He honestly wanted sky blue because it made him think of his younger brothers, mostly Blast.

The two fillies stopped arguing and turned to the colt.

Apple Bloom beamed. "Sure! That sounds great! Diamond?"

She shrugged. "It's alright with me. Light blue it is then."

Game Changer once again closed his eyes with his hoofs crossed.

Apple Bloom took initiative and went off to go get their picked Bristol board. Diamond Tiara and Game Changer sat there in awkward silence.

After a minute or two, Diamond decided to start a conversation. "So?" She began. "Why'd you move to Ponyville?" She asked.

Game Changer spoke up. "If you really want to know, I wanted to move to a more peaceful place."

"You mean, you? Or your parents?"

"Me."

"Oh. Well... do you like it here so far."

"I haven't been here for long, only about a week. But yes, I do like this place so far."

"Cool. You'll love it here. Most ponies know each other already. It's like a big family of some sort."

"Interesting."

"So why did you say that you were the one who decided to move here?"

Game Changer didn't want to answer that question. It was too personal and he didn't even know the filly all that well yet. "Can't you mind your own business."

Diamond didn't take that to offense at all. The old one would have.

"Oh... sorry... I'm still not good at that."

"At what?"

"At talking. I-It's a long story."

Apple Bloom returned with a sky blue Bristol board on her back. She placed it down on the table along with a some markers and a sheet of paper with twenty questions on it.

"Here's the stuff. Let's get to work."

The whole class was hard at work. Some struggling but soon picked up when Cheerilee came around to assist.

Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara was so into their work that they didn't notice that Game Changer wasn't helping. It wasn't until Apple Bloom looked up to get a red marker, that she saw the colt doing nothing.

"Hey! Are ya gonna do any work, or just sit there and do nothin'?" Apple Bloom, slightly mad, asked.

Game Changer simply replied, "If I do help. You won't learn anything."

Apple Bloom and Diamond exchanged confused faces.

"What do you mean?" Diamond asked.

"If I do the questions, I'll get them all right in a minute, and you two won't get a chance to experience and learn how to do them properly."

"That's horse apples!" Apple Bloom shot back.

Game Changer didn't respond. Eyes still closed.

"Alright Mr. Smartypants." Apple Bloom took the sheet with all the questions. "What's... question seven?"

Apple Bloom showed the question sheet to Game Changer, who glanced at it for a mere question.

7.  6 + 4 × 9

"Forty-two," He answered as he closed his eyes again.

Apple Bloom looked at the Bristol board. "...Ha! You're wrong. It's ninety." She said with confidence.

"You forgot that you had to do the multiplication first," He said.

Apple Bloom's ears dropped as her confidence dropped tenfold. "U-Um..."

Diamond Tiara showed Apple Bloom a scientific calculator. "He's right," She said.

"O-Okay, lucky guess... What's question twelve?"

"Seventeen." He instantly replied.

Apple Bloom was baffled. "You didn't even look at the question!"

"But he got it right!" Diamond Tiara said while punching in on her calculator.

"What?"

"While I looked at question seven I used the opportunity to look at all the other questions," He explained.

"B-But, how?"

Game Changer sighed. "You should get a new Bristol board, same color. You wrote your mistake with the marker. Get a piece of paper and write rough work on there. I'll check the answers and correct you, and we'll write our finished answers on the new Bristol board."

"Alright! That sounds great! Ah'll get a new Bristol board right away-"

"Class! It's almost time for recess. Organized your stuff for later and get ready for lunch." Ms. Cheerilee instructed.

"Ah guess it's time for recess then."

"We'll continue after lunch." Game Changer got out of his seat and used his magic to levitate all the papers and stacked them from biggest to smallest. He put all the markers back in their case and began to trot back to his desk.

Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara went to their own seats. Waiting for the other students to finish putting away their stuff.

After a few minutes, everypony was finished, and Ms. Cheerilee let everypony out for recess.

Fillies and Colts were running around, playing. Some were on the merry-go-round, at the slide, or playing tag.

A group of fillies and colts from Ms. Cheerilee's class and some from other classes were about to play some stallionhunt.

"Alright, so Scootaloo's it." Sweetie asked.

Scootaloo didn't mind since she was one of the fastest in their class. It didn't even serve as a challenge.

But something was on her mind. She looked over to the swing set and saw the new colt reading a red colored book by himself.

"Hey, everypony. Want to ask the new kid if he wants to play?" Scootaloo asked.

"Ah don't know. He seems really into that book." Apple Bloom used the book as an excuse. She felt as if this colt wasn't the playing type.

"Oh come on. It's not like he's Twilight or anything." Scootaloo began to trot over to Game Changer.

"Scootaloo! Wait!-" Apple Bloom sighed in frustration.

Game Changer flipped a page through the book titled: Creatures In Equestria. He heard hoofsteps coming from his right and looked up to see an orange pegasus coming his way.

Scootaloo smiled at him and asked, "Hey there! Do you wanna play stallionhunt with us?"

"I'm busy at the moment." He returned to read his book.

"Come on! Don't be such a bookworm." Scootaloo reached in to grab the book to stop him from reading.

Game Changer reacted quickly and pulled back, making Scootaloo miss the book by an inch. "I said I'm busy!" He got up from the swing set and started walking away. "Now leave me alone!"

Scootaloo frowned and scratched her head. "What's his deal?" She turned and walked back to the group.

"Taken by how he stormed off, he doesn't want to play with us, does he?" Diamond asked.

"Nope."

"Ah told you he wasn't going to play." Apple Bloom told.

"He's so stubborn," Scootaloo said with a frown, as she crossed her forelegs and sat down.

"Not so much stubborn. But..." Apple Bloom was lost in thought, not knowing how to describe him.

"It looks to me like he's hiding something." Scootaloo thought.

Others started to nod in agreement.

"What makes you think that?" Apple Bloom asked, clearly a bit mad at Scootaloo's conclusions.

"Well he's always quiet, he keeps himself away from others as much as possible. He's... just so secretive."

"He's just nervous that's all... Right?"

"Really Apple Bloom?"

"Alright, maybe not."

"I agree with Scootaloo." Diamond Tiara said. "While Apple Bloom went to get supplies for our work, he and I talked."

"What happened?" Dinky asked.

Others started to surround Diamond.

"Nothing really. I just asked where he came from, if he liked it here, and so on." Diamond Tiara put a hoof to her chin. "But one thing did seem suspicious."

"What?" Rumble asked.

"He said that he decided to move here, and he didn't mention his parents at all." She informed.

"Hmm, that does seem odd." Sweetie Belle added.

"And when I asked him why he said that, he told me kind of rudely to mind my own business. I know it wasn't my business, but his reaction seemed odd."

All heads, except for Diamond Tiara who was still lost in thought, turned to see Apple Bloom.

She stared, frowned and finally admitted defeat. "Okay! Yes, he's probably hiding something. Ah just didn't want to invade his privacy, but the anticipation is killing me!"

The others smiled at her response, as the school bell rang to indicate the end of recess.

"We better get back to class." Silver Spoon said.

They all got up and went back to their classroom.

For the rest of school. The kids went on with their work.

Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara worked on the questions while Game Changer sat there with his eyes closed, forelegs crossed. Once they were done, Game Changer looked at the rough work and pointed out their mistakes. They got the "multiplication first" right, but still didn't understand division. After he corrected all of the work, he helped put it on their sky blue Bristol board. They handed it in right after, and Ms. Cheerilee was surprised of how early they finished. She looked over the answers and was shocked to see every single one right. They even put brackets down to help organize the equations. She smiled at the three and congratulated them on their fabulous work.

For the rest of class, Diamond, and Apple Bloom played board games, that Cheerilee supplied them with, to pass the time. They also secretly talked about a plan to find out Game Changer's possible secrets.

After school, the group of school kids gathered at the Cutie Mark Clubhouse to discuss the plan.

What are these devious, but curious, kids up to? And what will they find?