“Tavi, wake up!” The call stirred the young mare from her peaceful slumber. She cracked open her violet eyes, slowly getting used to the bright sun streaming through the window. Octavia would not wake that easily though. In one ungraceful motion, she groaned, closed her eyes and pulled her covers over her head. “I don’t want you to be late for the first day of school!”
School. That made the young mare bolt upright. Today was her first day at her new school! She threw the covers off of herself with such force that they flew across the room, hitting the wall opposite her bed.
The earth pony navigated her way through the boxes that had cluttered her room since they moved here. She was still in the process of unpacking her stuff and doubted she would be done in the near future. Plotting out a practice space for her cello, picking places for her posters and noticing nooks for her knick-knacks would take a considerable amount of time.
Octavia pushed the door to her private bathroom open and immediately grabbed the closest brush. Glancing in the mirror, she noted that her charcoal mane was a rat nest, as always when she woke up. Luckily, her stone gray coat seemed perfect, so that was a shower she didn’t have to worry about.
After several minutes of fussing with her mane and getting all of the tangles out, she had it coiffed just the way she liked. It swooped down to the right, just above her eyes. Her mother preferred a ponytail, but Octavia was partial to the more classy-casual side swept look.
She brushed her teeth as quickly as possible and gave herself a once over to make sure nothing was out of place. Staring back at her was one-hundred percent pure Octavia, and that was a pretty good pony.
“Octavia!” The voice of her mother was now urgent. “If you do not get down here right now and eat, you are going to be late!” Octavia rolled her eyes. Mothers were always so fussy.
“I’m coming, Mother!” She yelled down the stairs as she exited her room.
The hallway she found herself in was not unlike her own room, boxes lining the walls and bare nails waiting for portraits to be hung on them. The whole house still felt new and unlived in. Then again, they had only been here for less than a week. Octavia reasoned that making a house a home took some time.
“Do not ‘mother’ me, young lady.” Her mother scolded as she descended the stairs into the kitchen. Octavia’s mother, Lingua Franca, stood in the kitchen looking very cross with her daughter. “Now get over here and eat your breakfast before it gets cold.”
“Good morning to you too, Mum.” Octavia went to the table on the other side of the kitchen counter, where a small plate of pancakes with a side of hay bacon and a glass of milk sat waiting for her. “Where’s Dad?”
“At work.” The older gray mare said with a sigh. “You know him, he works from sunup to sundown.” It was true, Octavia’s father either had an extremely healthy work ethic or an extremely unhealthy obsession with staying busy. Either way, it wasn’t often that she got to see him in repose.
Sitting at the table, Octavia had a good view out the sliding glass door that stood opposite her. Outside, it was a very bright and sunny day. Not a single cloud in the sky was around to block the rays of Celestia’s sun, which was not something the pony was used to. In her hometown of Trottingham, it was rare for a day not to be overcast, but this was a nice change of pace. The only linking factor between this place and her hometown was that a hefty blanket of snow still covered the ground.
“Are you excited?” Octavia’s mother sat next to her at the table, studying her daughter with nervous eyes. “Nervous?” She continued, asking another question. Octavia finished chewing a delicious bite of her syrup drenched pancakes before answering.
“Not really.” Octavia wasn’t one to get worked up over small things like school. No, she’d rather not sweat the small things. Even moving halfway across the country had left her relatively nonplussed. Sure, she had to leave her friends behind but they could always write each other rather easily. Octavia was of the school of thought that saw nothing as problematic, but as an obstacle to be overcome.
“You are your father’s daughter, alright.” Her mum picked a piece of fuzz out of Octavia’s mane. “Not bothered by a thing.” There was a pause. “I just hope you adjust well. I know it’s rough changing schools just for your senior year.”
“I’ll be fine, mum.” Octavia gave her mother a reassuring smile and then promptly polished off her glass of milk. “It’s just another year of school. Nothing’s changed.”
“Well don’t say that!” Lingua admonished her. “You’re graduating at the end of this year. That’s a pretty big change, Tavi.” Octavia only shrugged. She would graduate, then she would go off to university and then on to the rest of her life. As far as she was concerned, that was the natural order of things, so there was no reason to react to it. “I can never get excited about things around you, can I? Now, go get your scarf and saddlebags, It’s freezing outside and I don’t want you catching a cold on your first day walking to school.”
Octavia did as she was told. She found both her scarf and her saddlebags hanging on a hook by the front door. She put the pink knitted garment around her neck, making sure to cover her mouth adequately. The similarly colored saddlebags were laid across her back, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was forgetting something.
“Mum, where’s my cello?” The giant stringed instrument’s case was nowhere to be seen. Octavia could’ve sworn she had put it by the door just last night. No, she knew she had put it by the door last night. Where had it gone?
“Your father took it to your school for you.” Her mother shouted from the kitchen, the sound of a running tap nearly drowning out the words. “He didn’t want you to have to carry it all the way to school in this weather!”
Fair enough. Her instrument of choice was rather cumbersome, and carrying it through the snow would’ve definitely slowed her down considerably. Octavia had to remember to thank her father for that when she saw him again.
“I’m leaving now!” She called into the house. “I’ll see you tonight, mum.”
“Have fun, Tavi! I love you!”
“Love you too, mum!”
Octavia exited the abode, glancing back at it one last time. It was a simple two story home, painted white with a purple and gold roof, just like the rest of the houses around it. The one distinguishing feature was the crooked tree that had a bend in the branches right where her bedroom window was. All in all, it was a fine house in a fine neighborhood.
The city itself is what captured Octavia’s imagination. Canterlot was such a storied and cultured city. It was certainly a privilege that she was able to live here, especially since she one day hoped to be performing in the concert halls in this very city.
She could swear that whatever direction you looked you could see a tower’s spire rising above all of the rooftops. It was almost as if every block had to have a tower to remind the residents of where they lived. Each building exuded a certain class and power that none of the thatched roof cottages in Trottingham could even hope to match. It was class, it was nobility, it was Canterlot!
“Snap out of it, Octavia.” She mumbled to herself. There was no time to get lost in the grandeur of the city. She’d had enough time to do that the last few days, but instead spent it memorizing the route to school. Go north for two blocks, then east for a block and a half. That was it.
The walk itself wasn’t too bad. Fifteen minutes tops. The worst part was the cold, though. The bitter mountain wind blew through the city with an unmatched ferocity and stung Octavia’s throat as she breathed it in. It was one of those things you never thought about Canterlot until it was a problem; you were at the top of an extremely tall mountain. That meant constant cold and harsh winds.
Within the predicted fifteen minutes, she was staring up at a white marble building that had masses of teenage ponies congregating outside. The building itself had a statue of Princess Celestia out front with the words, ‘Canterlot High School East’, inscribed on the podium.
The other ponies seemed to pay her no mind as she made her way through the crowd and into the building proper. The building opened up into a common area immediately upon entry, where even more teenagers were gathered at scattered tables.
If Octavia remembered correctly, she had to turn left to get to the office. That’s where she would get her schedule and any additional information she required. The challenge here would be to navigate the sea of ponies. Before she could begin her treacherous trek into the swath of hormone addled teenagers, she took the scarf from around her neck and stuffed it into her saddlebags. No use having that on in here, the sheer amount of bodies in the room made sure she was plenty toasty.
The gray earth pony now began making her way through the crowd. She gave polite apologies to the ponies she happened to disturb, and glares to the ponies who happened to run into her. She knew that when teenagers were caught up in a conversation, they weren’t looking where they were going. But even a ‘sorry’ would suffice on their part.
After pushing herself through the main mass of ponies, she saw a large room with monolithic windows on every side. If that was the office, it went straight up to the ceiling of the common area, making it a good two stories tall. They had to do everything big in Canterlot, she supposed.
Octavia made her way into the office, unsure of where she was supposed to go from here. She had simply been told to ‘go to the office’ by her mother, and anything beyond that was pretty much uncharted territory.
“May I help you?” An elderly white-maned mare behind a nearby desk addressed her.
“Umm, yes, actually. My name is Octavia, and I’m a new student this year.” Octavia gave the mare a sheepish smile. “I’m not quite sure what to do now that I’m here. I was just told to ‘go to the office.’”
“Oh, of course.” The secretary gave her a knowing smile. “The counselor, Mr. Vibrations, is waiting for you in his office. Just over there.” The mare pointed to a blue colored door just on the other side of the sparsely furnished office.
Octavia took that as an invitation to go on into the office, so she went in. She gave a brisk walk over to the door and pushed it open. Inside, a mint green unicorn was sitting across the desk from a lanky yellow stallion with a bushy black beard.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize-I should’ve knocked.” That was a rookie mistake on her part. An indication of a door was not an invitation to open it, she should’ve knocked whether she was expected or not. It was only polite.
“No, no. Come in. We were actually waiting for you!” The stallion’s voice was smooth and without any indication of worry. ‘Chill’ was the correct verbiage, she believed.
With that said, Octavia did as she was told. She went into the room and sat in the chair next to the mint green unicorn, which she could now see was a mare with bright amber eyes and a smile plastered on her face.
“Octavia, right?” The chill stallion asked. She replied with a curt nod. “Groovy. I’m Dr. Good Vibrations, counselor for all of you students here at CHSE. You can call me Goody, though. Keep it informal, y’know.” This stallion did not seem to be like any educator that Octavia had ever encountered. He was far too relaxed to be working with teenagers. “The unicorn poppin’ a squat next to you is Lyra Heartstrings.”
“Heyo!” The unicorn, Lyra, held out her hoof. Which Octavia shook with gusto. It was good to see a pony in this school that wasn’t being pushy or ignoring her. “I’m going to be your new best friend for a bit, Octavia.” Well that statement was a tad worrying. Perhaps this unicorn was not the breath of fresh air that she required.
“I’m sorry?” Octavia asked, looking to Mr. Vibrations for the answer.
“Don’t be, Lyra’s a really good friend and I’m sure you will be too.” Oh, delightful, the counselor was one of those ponies who took things literally. Either that, or he was giving her a hard time and she just hadn’t picked up on it. “Lyra here is the student body president and she’s gonna be your guide around the school. I even took the liberty of making sure your schedules aligned a little bit.” The stallion pushed two pieces of paper across his desk to the young mares.
Octavia swore, if that stallion had taken any of her music classes that she requested off of her schedule, she would be furious. The last thing she wanted was to have to spend a day with little to no music in her life.
Hesitantly, she picked it up and flipped it over. So this particular high school had a six period day with a study hall in the middle. Pretty standard, and it was better than the four block schedule her middle school had.
The schedule read:
1st Semester schedule for Octavia | Locker 457
Period 1: AP Equestrian History | Rm. 302 | Mr. Epoch
Period 2: Music Theory | Rm. 600 | Mrs. Allegrezza
Period 3: Calculus| Rm. 110 | Ms. Nomial
Period 4: Phys. Ed. | Gymnasium | Coach Hoops
Lunch | 3rd Group
Period 5: Orchestra | Performing Arts Center | Dir. Tapper
Period 6: Study Hall | Rm. 408 | Mrs. Freche
“Okay, so we have History, Gym, Lunch, and study hall together. Neat!” Octavia hadn’t even registered the unicorn looming over her shoulder, reading the schedule over her shoulder. “Calc? Wow, you must be a whiz at math or something. I’m still in algebra two.”
“Now I’ll let you two go. It’s probably a good idea to let Lyra show you around the school before classes start.” The chill stallion popped some sort of candy into his mouth as he spoke. Octavia looked to her ‘new best friend’ for guidance, but she simply got up and trotted out of the office. Octavia followed, glad to be out of the presence of that rather strange educator.
“So where’d you move from?” Lyra questioned as the duo walked out of the multi-story office. “I’m gonna guess Hoofington.”
“Trottingham, actually.” Octavia stayed close to the unicorn, who was currently waving at ponies as they passed. “Just moved here less than a week ago.”
“So your cutie mark, it’s a bass clef?” The change of topic caught Octavia off guard. She assumed they were going to talk about her hometown more, as that’s what she was prepared to do.
“Erm..no. Treble clef.”
“Oh, I knew it was treble when you walked in.” The strange pony raised her eyebrows and gave her biggest smile. Tavi simply stared blankly back at her. “Nothin’...?” The smile dropped. “Y’know, like the song….it was a joke.” There was a very awkward silence. “Classical music fan?” Octavia nodded. “Oh well, I thought it was funny.”
“So how do I know where my first class is…?” Octavia elected to change the subject to something more informational. Hopefully Lyra would stay on subject and create no more awkwardness.
“Right, okay. I need you to stay with me here.” That sentence inspired exactly zero confidence in Octavia. “You know the colors of the rainbow, right?”
“Is this another joke?” Octavia asked cautiously.
“You know the rainbow, right?” Lyra insisted on the question again. Octavia gave a short nod. “Okay, then. This school has seven hallways, each one matching the colors of the rainbow in order. So, hallway, one is red, two is orange, three is yellow, yadda yadda yadda.” The unicorn gestured to the halls that split off from the common area as she spoke.
Indeed, each hallways was color coated. The coloration mainly consisted of a single stripe of color running along the floor and the lockers that lined the halls. She could also make out from the few doors that were opened outward, that they two were colored depending on the hall.
“So AP Equestrian History is the second room in Yellow hall.” Octavia deduced, looking towards the yellow colored hall through the mass of ponies.”Convoluted, but I suppose it makes sense.”
“You’ll get used to it, I’ve got faith in you.” Lyra placed a hoof on Octavia’s shoulder. “Now, how about we get to class a bit early? I wanna get a good seat in the back.” Octavia supposed she couldn’t argue with the unicorn. What else was she going to do? Stand around in the common area being awkward?
“So Lyra.” The unicorn turned to look at her. “Your cutie mark, it’s a lyre. Are you a musician?” Octavia had not heard Lyra mention they had any music class together, but perhaps there was some reasoning behind that.
“Nah. My special talent is a bit roundabout. It’s mythology.” The unicorn gave her own flank a tap with her hoof. “Weird, right? But like, when you think about a lyre, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?”
“Mus-”
“-besides music.”
“Classical antiquity, I suppose.” Most depictions of a lyre were on ancient vases from buried cities or in textbooks referencing old gods or mythical creatures. If that was the connection, then it indeed was quite roundabout.
“Exactly. I’m practically a wunderkind when it comes to that kind of stuff. I can rattle off all sorts of those stories.” Lyra had this blank expression for a half second before she shook her head and shot Octavia the same smile she had plastered on her face since Tavi had met her. “But what about you, Ms. Musician?”
“Oh, I play the cello.” Octavia tried to keep her sentences about herself short and sweet. Perhaps the less amount of time she talked, the less Lyra would have to talk at her about.
“Ah, the good ol’ standing violin.” Lyra gave Octavia an once over, that made the earth pony feel rather uncomfortable. “How do you play it? I didn’t think earth ponies could play string instruments?”
“Well,” Octavia ignored the rather racist statement for the time being. “My bow is custom made to be used with hooves. I’m just as good as any unicorn or pegasus with it.” That came off a little more haughty than anticipated.
“I don’t doubt it! I’m just super interested to see you play it sometime.” Lyra pushed open the door to their first class of the day. Inside, the desks were all arranged in a circle in the middle of the room. “Oh great, more ‘getting to know each other’ activities. I don’t get why we have to do this every year.”
It did seem rather foalish. After all, it would only benefit somepony like Octavia who was brand new to the school. Subjecting a large group of teenagers to such a tedious activity for the sake a few students seemed like the fast track to ponies falling asleep in class on the first day.
“Ms. Heartstrings, how nice to see you again!” A pegasus stallion sitting behind the desk at the front of the classroom stood up. He was sky blue with a pillowy white mane. Bright yellow eyes shone behind the round spectacles on his muzzle. “Who’s your new friend? I don’t believe I’ve seen her before.”
“Mr. Epoch, this is Octavia. She’s our new transfer student from Trottingham.” Well, Octavia would’ve spoken for herself. But she should’ve guessed Lyra would take the liberty to do it for her.
“Ah, Trottingham.” The stallion stepped out from behind his desk, puffing out his chest and stiffening his lip. “”Pip pip cheerio and all that. Quite good.” The comically stereotypical accent got a laugh from Lyra. Octavia simply raised her eyebrow. “Erm, right.” The stallion dropped the accent. “It’s very nice to meet you, Ms. Octavia. I look forward to having you in class.”
With yet another awkward encounter out of the way, Octavia made her way to a desk as far away from Mr. Epoch’s desk as she could manage. Before sitting down she took her saddlebags off and placed them on the ground beside her.
“You’re not much of a talker, are you?” Lyra sat at the desk beside Octavia. The unicorn pulled out a notebook and quill from her golden saddlebags. “I mean, it’s cool if you’re not. Bon Bon tells me I can do enough talking for like three ponies. I already cover me and somepony else. So lucky for you, I have an extra slot.” Octavia did not doubt that the very mouthy unicorn could speak volumes, but that was not the issue.
“I’m sorry, Lyra.” Tavi hated being rude, though. She had been raised to take manners into consideration during every moment and conversation. Lately it seemed she had been forgetting that. “I just seem to be a bit off today.” That was the closest thing to the truth, and that’s what Octavia was sticking with.
“I get it. New school and everything.” Lyra dipped her quill in the inkpot that was embedded into her desk. “Do you have an iTome?” Lyra tapped the sleek black book on her desk, the Bookmark logo on the front flashing as she did so.
“Um, yeah.” Octavia rummaged through her saddlebag until she pulled out a book that looked identical to Lyra’s. The only marked difference was that the logo on Octavia’s flashed a subtle pink, whereas Lyra’s was an ostentatious gold.
The iTome was a little piece of arcanology that had surfaced a few years ago from the company ‘Bookmark’. It was revolutionary in it’s simplicity and brilliance. If two tomes touched, a unique magical signature was shared between them and allowed instantaneous communication between the two books. It was the way that Octavia planned to keep in touch with her friends from Trottingham.
Lyra used her magic to put her tome on top of Octavia’s and tap them together. Octavia wouldn’t object to that. Having contact with somepony who shared more than a few of her classes might come in handy if she needed help with homework. Tavi opened her tome and saw “Lyra Heartstrings’ newly emblazoned on the table of contents in lime green cursive.
“Dude, I love technology. It’s so cool!” Lyra flipped through her tome until it landed on a page that had a yellow bookmark sticking out of it. Without explaining what she was doing, she started writing on the page.
A bell rang out from the hallway, causing a flood of ponies to come pouring into the room. If Octavia were to guess, that was the two-minute warning bell. Some ponies congregated around certain individuals, most likely their cliques or close friends. Some ponies wandered around aimlessly until finally picking an arbitrary seat.
One of the aimless ponies was a rather tall unicorn with a pastel pink mane. Her arbitrary seat was the one right next to Octavia. Everything about the pony exuded grace, from the way she sat to the way her lavender eyes looked around the room. In Octavia’s mind, this was the personification of Canterlot as a whole.
Another bell rang out, causing Mr. Epoch to raise from his spot behind the desk again. The pegasus strode through the opening in the ring of desks into the center of the room. He did a full turn, making sure everypony in the room could see his bright smile.
“Hello everypony! Good morning!” A chorus of ‘good mornings’ and groans answered him. “Welcome to Advanced Placement Equestrian History. My name is Mr. Epoch, and I’ll be your captor for the first hour of your day.” A few chuckles came after the joke, but not enough to consider it a successful attempt at humor. Tavi was glad she wasn’t the only one to not find the stallion’s jokes funny. “I know most of you already, but I do see some fresh faces here today. So to start out, why don’t we get to know each other, hmm?” More groans. “Oh, don’t be like that. What we’re going to be doing is standing here in the center of the circle, introducing ourselves, and then telling the class a fun little fact. It can’t be about your special talent, I want something nopony else here knows about you. Here, I’ll even begin.” The stallion cleared his throat. “My name is Laborious Epoch, and my favorite band is the Beastly Boys.”
A few chuckles came from the students that time. This was going to be interesting to hear, to say the least. Complete strangers getting up and spouting something irreverent sounded like a good enough time. At least the teacher wasn’t going straight into syllabus talk like some educators.
“We’ll start with you.” Mr. Epoch tapped the desk of a deep purple mare that was on one side of the opening that led to the outside of the circle. The mare, a pegasus with startling blue eyes, stood up and went into the circle.
“HI! My name is Precious Stones, and I’m originally from Las Pegasus.” The bubbly mare spoke as she twirled her sapphire mane with her wing.
“And also the school bicycle.” The sentence almost made Octavia burst out laughing, but she caught herself before it was too late and passed it off as a cough. It wasn’t often she heard another pony speak in Prench, and she was not expecting the one time she did for an insult to be layered in with it. Tavi turned to her left, the source of the voice.
It was the tall unicorn who had taken a seat beside her. She had muttered the offending sentence. So the classy unicorn spoke Prench and probably thought nopony else did as well. Luckily for Octavia, her mother was a translator and her favorite language was Prench. So naturally Tavi had been taught the foreign language and had grown quite fluent over the years.
This was quite a development, and Octavia could see it coming in use later. After all, if she ever wanted to make friends with somepony here besides Lyra then a common foreign language would do nicely.
A multitude of students went into the center of the circle and spouted facts about themselves. Some were good artists, others made the most fantastic dish of a particular meal you’ve ever had, and one pony even liked tilt shift photography. All in all, mostly bland answers but one or two genuinely interesting tidbits. Every single ponies fact was followed by a sly or venomous comment in Prench from the mare
“Ms. Heartstrings, you’re up.” The call came from the teacher.
In an instant the hypervocal unicorn shot up and leaped over her desk in a display of energy that nopony should be able to accomplish this early in the morning. She stood in the center, clearly relishing the attention for a few seconds, and cleared her throat.
“My name is Lyra Heartstrings and I’m the best fiddler there’s ever been.” Lyra looked around at her confused classmates. Octavia knew she was lying, but for what purpose?
“A true fact, Ms. Heartstrings.” Mr Epoch called out, a sigh following his words.
“Well, you never said it had to be true.” The unicorn responded. “Okay. True. Ummm...I can burp the entire alphabet without stopping!” Lyra looked to the teacher, who rolled his eyes at the unicorn. “What, you don’t believe me?”
“Not really, but I’m a little frightened to let you demonstrate it.” Mr. Epoch retorted flatly. “Now please sit down, Ms. Heartstrings,” Lyra went to the front of her desk and prepared to jump. “And this time please do not jump over the desks.” Lyra bowed her head and walked dramatically out of the circle and back to her desk. “Ms. Octavia, your turn.”
Octavia got up from her seat and went around the outside of the circle. Several ponies along the way mumbled as she passed them. They were mostly wondering who she was and where she is from.
“Hello.” Octavia started as she stood in the center of the ring of desks. “My name is Octavia, I’m a new student here, and I speak fluent Prench.” The decision for her fun fact had been made after the third or fourth comment from the pony sitting next to her, who now had her mouth slightly agape in shock.
“Very interesting, thank you Octavia.” The teacher dismissed Tavi to her seat, which she gladly went back to. The mare in the seat to her left glanced at Octavia, a nervous smile plastered across her face. “Fleur, your turn.”
The nervous mare stood up and trotted slowly into the center of the ring. Several ponies in the class, mostly the stallions, were whispering to one another.Octavia guessed they were all making lewd comments as teenage stallions were wont to do.
“Hello.” The mare spoke in a heavy Prench accent. “My name is Fleur De Lis, and I am the daughter of the Ambassador of Prance to Equestria.” There were a few slight pauses in her speech, signalling that she was indeed not a native Equish speaker. Octavia had to wonder why the daughter of an ambassador was at a public school. There were a few private schools situated around Canterlot that would be acceptable for a mare of Fleur’s chapter, and CHSE was not one of them.
Once the mare sat back down, she glanced at Octavia, obviously still rather nervous about the things she had said about the other students. Octavia wasn’t planning on giving her a hard time, though. If she was keen to, she would’ve done the same thing.
“You understood everything, then?” The question came from Fleur in hushed Prench. She was trying to speak quietly enough to not get picked up by the teacher.
“Yes.” Octavia replied. “It was actually quite humorous. I had to stop myself from laughing a few times.” It was the truth, the little observations and jabs were always funny and unexpected. Each one left Tavi feeling a bit better about being in this room of strangers, it let her know that they were the same flawed teenagers that she had left in Trottingham.
“Octavia, right?” Tavi nodded. “Your Prench is excellent, where did you study?”
“My mother is a translator, she taught me.”
“Magnificent. I have never encountered another Prench speaker here. It is wonderful to have somepony to speak to besides my parents.” As she spoke, Fleur’s cadence and attitude seemed to pick up. No longer was she the snarky and slightly bitter pony commenting on the acts of others, but instead a rather gleeful mare.
“Your Equish is good, though. You could talk to anypony here.” Octavia was now looking at the unicorn. Her Equish seemed good enough, even from the small bit Tavi had heard. It wasn’t hard to understand or even unintelligible.
“It is garbage. I still have to take classes to help me with it.” Fleur retorted, a small sigh following the statement. “I fear it may never be good enough for regular conversations.”
“No, no.” Octavia responded, placing a hoof on Fleur's desk. “Equish is a very complicated language. Very complicated and boarish.” Now she was just parroting what she had heard her mother say several times when going off on a tangent about language complexity. “Prench is for much gentler tongues.” Octavia finished with a smile.
“Wow…” Octavia turned to see Lyra staring at her with wide eyes. “First time I’ve heard you say more than one sentence and it’s in a language I don’t even understand.” Octavia could feel her face heating up. “But hey, you made a friend and that’s pretty sweet.”
The rest of the class went by rather smoothly. Ponies got up, said something about themselves, then sat back down. Fleur went back to her little comments, telling Octavia a little about each pony.
Then Mr. Epoch started giving an outline about the syllabus. It was pretty standard, telling them about the textbooks, how they were graded and the general units they would be going through, and expectations. Pretty open and shut, really.
They were released from the class when the bell ended. Octavia opted to hang back for a few seconds to talk to Fleur. It turned out they both had third group lunch, and other than AP history, that was it. Octavia felt a bit of of sadness at that point, Fleur was such good conversation.
The rest of the day up until lunch went without a hitch. Music Theory was taught by a pushy mare who went through the syllabus extensively for the entire period, which almost put several ponies to sleep.
Calculus was taught by a rather eccentric mare who seemed to be truly infatuated with numbers. Even the slightest hint of a conversation about a theorem or math problem sent the teacher into an unstoppable tangent. Needless to say, she spent most of the class period actually teaching things rather than rattling off bullet points from a paper. Octavia preferred that to what came next.
Octavia positively hated Physical Education. Besides being the only earth pony in the class of fifty-some ponies, she was also the only one who had not brought her horseshoes today. It wasn’t her fault, either. She had been told at her old school that she never had to take another gym class ever again. So once she was done running the mile that the coach had demanded they all run, her hooves ached to high heaven. Not even the shower in the locker room afterwards helped her hooves or demeanor.
It was time for lunch now, and Octavia was starving. Running a mile had left her starving, so even school food would suffice. She queued up and went through the line with the rest of her classmates, grabbing the piece of cardboard that the school deemed ‘pizza’ and grabbing a carton of chocolate milk to go along with it.
For a few seconds, she stood idly just outside of the lunch line. She wasn’t quite sure where to sit, given that she was new here. Her first instinct was to look for either Lyra or Fleur. Either one of them would be acceptable.
“Octavia!” Well the former it was. The green unicorn was sitting at a table almost smack dab in the middle of the common area all alone. She had her hoof raised and was waving it at Octavia. “C’mon and sit by me!” Octavia had no other choice, so she headed right for the circular table and sat on the opposite side of it from Lyra.
“Pizza day on the first day back? Is it Hearth’s Warming again already?” The unicorn took a big bite out of her pizza happily. “Ish reely good.” She said, mouth full of mush.
“Lyra, close your mouth when you chew.” A cream colored earth pony said as she trotted up to the table and took a seat right next to Lyra. “It’s impolite.” Well at least somepony said something about it, or else Octavia was going to.
“Hi Bon Bon!” Lyra smiled as she swallowed her food. The two ponies leaned in and gave a quick peck on the lips.
“Oh.” Octavia involuntarily let out. “You two are…” She didn’t want to say it out loud and she wasn’t sure why. It was a bit of a cultural taboo out in Trottingham, so maybe it was just the irregular sight.
“Best friends? You bet’cha!” Lyra got a knee to the ribs from the earth pony, Bon Bon. “Just kidding, we’re totally banging.” Another knee to the ribs, this one hard enough to elicit a response. “Ow! What? I was telling the truth!” Lyra whimpered as she rubbed her now sore ribs.
“Yes, but you did it in your own ‘Lyra’ way.” Bon Bon shot a playful glare at her marefriend, and then turned to Tavi. “I’m sorry about that. You must be Octavia, right? Lyra’s been messaging me all day about you.” Oh, so that’s who the yellow bookmark in Lyra’s iTome was for.”My name’s Bon Bon. I’m Lyra’s marefriend.”
“Delighted.” Octavia gave a smile and a nod. “How long have you two been….together…?” It was still fairly odd to Octavia. She had run into a few same-sex couples when her mother had taken her to Prance for vacation a few times, but other than that she had never actually talked with such a couple.
“Yeah Lyra, how long have we been together?” The cream earth pony looked to the unicorn, who stopped chewing.Lyra’s eyes widened as she turned to look at Bon bon.
“D-did you do something new with your mane today? It looks really good.” Lyra used her magic to bob one of the curls in Bon Bon’s pink and blue two-tone mane. She was met with a harsh stare. “Umm….uhh….two-no three! Three years this summer!” Lyra grinned at Octavia with confidence.
“Two and a half this summer.” Bon Bon corrected. Her glare softened and she sighed contently. “But you’re getting closer each time. Sooner or later you’ll get there.” Lyra gave a little ‘woohoo!’ and went back to eating.
“Hello Vinyl.” Bon Bon said, seemingly to nopony. Octavia had to turn around to see a white unicorn mare with a shockingly blue mane trotting towards them. She had on a pair of oversized magenta sunglasses and a pair of headphones over her ears.
The unicorn, Vinyl as Bon Bon had called her, sat right next to Octavia and immediately started rummaging through her saddlebags. She pulled out a paper bag and removed a few sandwiches.
“Hello. Vinyl, is it? My name is Octavia.” Octavia smiled and waited, but Vinyl did not acknowledge her. “Hello?” Octavia waved her hoof in front of the pony, which seemed to catch her attention. She looked and Octavia and simply gave a small nod without saying anything.
“Guess she doesn’t like you.” Lyra said, pushing her now empty tray away from herself. “Or else she’d be talking to you.” There was a split-second before the unicorn cried out, though. “Ow! Will you quit hitting me?”
“Once you stop being a nuisance.” Bon Bon fired back. “Don’t take it personally, Octavia. Vinyl doesn’t talk, she’s a mute.” Oh, well that was something. Another thing that Octavia had never encountered in her day-to-day life. “She’s deaf when she has those headphones on too!” Bon Bon raised her voice enough to apparently cut through whatever Vinyl was listening to, because she pulled the headphones off. “Vinyl, will you please be a bit sociable and at least say hi?”
The white unicorn once again rummaged around in her bag and pulled out what looked to be a miniature chalkboard. She used her magic to draw the word ‘Hello’ in blue chalk. She accompanied the word with a smile. ‘I’m Vinyl Scratch.’ was then written underneath the greeting.
“I’m Octavia. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Vinyl.” The unicorn acknowledged the statement with a nod and then put her headphones back on. A bit rude, but she could forgive Vinyl on account of the whole ‘being a mute’ thing.
“Bon Bon, you will never guess who Octavia got to talk to today.” Lyra looked to Bon Bon, who simply stared as she chewed her food. “Legs For Days.” Bon Bon’s eyes widened and turned to look at Octavia.
Had Tavi done something wrong?Who had she got to talk today and why did they have a codename? She tried to think about the ponies she had spoken to and nopony really stood out. Were they talking about Fleur?
“How?” Bon Bon asked.
“Octavia speaks Prench, and so does she apparently.” Lyra responded. “It was so weird. It was like two aliens talking or something. No offense.” Lyra was acting like talking to another pony was so bombastic or a revolutionary experience. Octavia had just talked to her.
“Wow, really? That’s really impressive.” Bon Bon hesitated. “And can you quit calling her ‘Legs for Days’, Lyra?” Octavia saw the pony in question, Ms. ‘Legs For Days’, making her ways towards the table. Octavia thought about stopping Bon Bon and Lyra from going any further, but she had suffered at a few of Lyra’s jokes today. Now the unicorn was going to suffer for one of hers.
“Listen Bon Bon, once her legs quit so will I. Have they yet, no? So you tell her to stop it first.” Now Fleur was standing squarely behind Lyra. Octavia gave the statuesque unicorn a smile and a slight wave. Lyra followed Tavi’s line of sight and was met squarely with Fleur’s neck. “Oh buck.”
“Hello Octavia,” Fleur began in Prench. “Would it be good if I sat here?” Now she was addressing the table as a whole in Equish. “If no, then I will find somewhere different.” Octavia was fine with Fleur sitting here, it was up to the others.
“Please, sit.” Bon Bon motioned to any one of the multiple open seats around the table. As Fleur made her way to one of the open seats, she whispered to Lyra. “This is why we don’t talk about ponies if we don’t know where they are…”
“Fleur, this is Lyra, Bon Bon and Vinyl Scratch.” Octavia pointed to each of the ponies in order. “Vinyl is not able to speak, so do not worry about her.” It was probably for the best to address that elephant before it snuck up on another pony.
“It is a pleasure to meet you all.” Fleur said with a smile in heavily accented Equish. “I’m afraid you will have to forgive my Equish though, it is very not good.” Fleur got a container from her saddlebags. Octavia wasn’t sure what it was, but it looked warm and delicious. Unlike the pizza Tavi was having.
“It’s fine, Fleur,” Bon Bon said. “Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself. I don’t think any of us have actually talked before.” It looked like Lyra was going to speak after Bon Bon, but then the unicorn rubbed her sore ribs and kept her mouth shut. “Like, what’s your special talent?”
Octavia hadn’t exactly studied Fleur’s cutie mark. A cursory glance revealed it to be her namesake, a trio of fleur de lis all emblazoned in gold. That could be for any number of things, from just being of royal blood to being a talented florist.
“Umm...how do I say….” She turned to Octavia. “It’s military history.”
“Really? Wow.” Octavia turned to Lyra and Bon Bon. “Her special talent is military history.” There looks mirrored her own surprise. “How does that relate to the lillies?” Everypony sans Vinyl at the table were all eager to know the answer to that particular question, so she figured to ask.
“The lillies were used as a symbol for elite units in the Prench War for Liberty, and even several Equestrian and Griffon units around the world. It means much to Prance’s proud military history, to say the least.” Fleur got that hint of passion in her voice that all ponies got when they started to speak about their special talents. It was something Octavia loved hearing.
“Apparently the fleur de lis, the three bound lily petals she is named after, was used by a lot of military units in Prance and around the world.” The other two nodded along with every word. It was pretty simple to follow along with a special talent, because if your cutie mark was vague like some ponies, you could have it be anything within any field as long as it was tangentially related.
“That’s pretty cool.” Lyra spoke up, thankfully not being obnoxious for at least one sentence. “I’ve always wondered what somepony like that would do for a living. Like, are you going to join the royal guard?”
“No, no guard.” Fleur shook her head. “I want to be a teacher.” She certainly had the demeanor it seemed, at least what Octavia had seen of it. “What are your talents? All of you.”
“I play the cello, so music is mine. Lyra’s is ancient mythology, and I’m not sure about Bon Bon.” Bon Bon was the pony she knew the least about at the table except Vinyl, but at least she seemed to be Lyra’s better half in every sense of the expression.
“Well I heard my name last, so I’m going to guess your asking about me.” Bon Bon chimed in. “My special talent is candy making, and Vinyl’s is making music.” Fleur nodded along, Octavia assumed that meant she understood everything and required no translation.
They spent the next ten or so minutes just chatting idly amongst themselves. They all shared little tidbits about themselves and talked about school life in general. It turned out that Fleur had actually lived in Canterlot for about five years now, but had been tutored privately for two of them and only been in this school since her Sophomore year. The problem was, she could never talk to anypony so she just kept to herself.
Lyra and Bon Bon, well they had been in Canterlot their whole lives. They had been friends since elementary school and had only started dating just two and a half years ago this summer. Vinyl was pretty much the same it seemed, or at least that’s what Lyra and Bon Bon had said. Vinyl was too busy being lost in her music to contribute, but that was fine.
The rest of the day was pretty standard after that. In her Orchestra class, they all had to tune their instruments and practice a bit in their new environment. It had been Octavia’s favorite class throughout the whole day because it allowed her to use her cello.
After that came study hall, which was the most boring class of the day seeing as how they had no homework to do. Study hall without the studying was just sitting around and doing nothing. She had spoken to a few ponies, but they were all relatively sluggish and antsy for the day to end, as was Octavia.
As soon as the final bell rang, students flooded out of every classroom and headed for the door. There were small pockets of students that hung back in the commons to talk with their small groups of friends. Not Octavia, though. She was eager to get home and spend the rest of the day unpacking her things.
Before she stepped out into the blistering cold of Canterlot, she threw her pink scarf around her neck. It was probably warmer than when she left home, but she still did not want to risk it.
“Octavia, please wait!” Octavia spun on her hooves and saw Fleur trotting towards her at a brisk pace. “Tell me, do you have an iTome?” Octavia pulled out the small black book from her saddlebag to affirm the query. “Would you mind if we exchanged contact information? I don’t get to talk to many ponies, and you are a wonderful conversation partner.” How could Octavia possibly say no to that? It was impossible.
“Absolutely, we can.” Octavia replied. Fleur pulled out her own iTome and they touched the bookmark sigils on the front, sharing the information. “Perhaps we can talk tonight?”
“Of course!” Fleur responded jubilantly. “I must do my Equish lesson first, then I will message you.”
As she watched Fleur leave the building, Octavia reflected on the day. It wasn’t a bad day at all. Sure, Lyra was a bit of a nuisance but not in an overtly obnoxious way. She was a valuable friend as well, seeing as how she knew the school and the ponies in it well. Fleur was a good new acquaintance as well. She allowed Octavia to express herself without having to show too much to every pony listening.
All in all, it was pretty good day.
Author's Note
I wrote this because I felt a need to diverge from the very hectic and drama filled escapades in my story 'A Scratch On Shining Armor'.
A nice safe slice of life story was just the thing I needed. I think I'll keep this as a little side project to get away from the angst from time to time.