Sweetie Belle was tired.
But tired couldn't even begin to explain how completely tired she was. Weary. Sapped. Beat. Exhausted. Worn out. Fatigued.
There, that was better.
Glancing sleepily at the ticking, chicken-shaped clock on the wall, Sweetie internally groaned. There was still an hour and a half left of school, which meant an hour and a half more of total boredom before Sweetie Belle could go home and hibernate. For years. Stocked up on then not-so-secret stash of Caramel Oat Swirl Surprise the Rarity kept in the freezer of Carousel Boutique's basement for "The Worst Possible Thing". For once, Sweetie was glad she had such a dramatic big sis—it meant an endless supply of ice cream.
"Now, class," Cheerilee said suddenly—or maybe she had been talking all along and Sweetie Belle only tuned in now—"can anypony explain to me what ¿Qué hora es? means in Spanish?"
Sweetie Belle wrinkled her snow-white muzzle in confusion. They were learning Spanish? She could of sworn they were in Social—
"What time is it?" Diamond Tiara proudly declared, breaking the unicorn's train of thought. But instead of the pink filly's answer causing annoyance and contempt like it would of before, Sweetie Belle actually felt proud, too. That was her friend, and she had gotten the answer right, unlike Sweetie, who was terrible at—aww, dang it, why did everything have to be about time?
Once again, Sweetie, who had previously forgotten her boring fate, looked at the clock and sadly sighed. She just wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep. She swiveled around to face Scootaloo, who was also staring at the chicken clock with an odd expression on her face, almost like pity. The orange pegasus caught her friend staring and winked, but Sweetie, not wanting to get in trouble, quickly turned away.
Aggh, what was the point of having school in June, anyway? As soon as it got hot, nopony even paid attention anymore to the lesson. At least, not any pony that Sweetie knew.
Everypony just wanted to sleep. Or maybe that was just her.
Sweetie Belle yawned, slowly blinking. This was all Opal's fault. Her sister's cute, annoying, fluffily-stupid cat. Of course, it had started with an awesome idea, between the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Well, it was Apple Bloom who thought of it, and all three of them agreed that it was a super great idea. Which it seemed like, at the time.
The plan was simply to 'prettify' Opal; give her a haircut, makeup, dresses, fur brushing, ect. Rarity had a whole kit full of amazing stuff, like lipstick and blush and eyeshadow and mascara, that Sweetie 'borrowed' for the experiment. The only problem was Opal wasn't a very agreeable cat. Not at all.
As soon as Sweetie carefully levitated a pair of scissors to the soft white fur, Opal freaked out and skirted away, causing a whole tuft of hair to be cut off. And at the same moment, Opal bumped into Apple Bloom, who spilled the bright pink makeup all over the dumb thing.
So Sweetie Belle spent all night trying to fix the cat, scrubbing and scrubbing for hours, and managing to glue the tuft back on Opal's head. When she was done, Opal more or less resembled an angry, slightly pink fuzz ball, though it was the best Sweetie could do. Rarity was sure to find out eventually, having an excellent eye for detail, but it would be a while.
Stupid, stupid fluffle. Sleep was important, but did Opal even care? No.
"¡Muy bien, Diamond Tiara! Very good!" Cheerilee peeled a gold star from her sticker workbook and hoofed it to a beaming filly. "I hope you squash marshmallows bean together mhhhhhmmmm?"
What? Sweetie Belle flicked her ears up, yawning stifling her ears. Had she had heard correctly? Marshmallow bean what?
"Oh, yes I tree flutter wooden chain bear meat!" Diamond Tiara opened up to something in her Spanish Folder, smiling and pointing to...something.
Sweetie hesitantly fluttered her eyes open and closed, darkness over taking the room like a spreading wildfire. She dipped her pristine white ears down, folding them against her furry face. What flutter tree? Why?
Snips suddenly raised his stubby green hoof from across the aisle, screeching inaudibly. He turned to Snails, and then both grinned. "Oh, butter snails can open letter leaf cotton coffe trailer moon?"
Cheerilie rolled an emerald eye, dismissing whatever the two colts said. "Shred, pardon elf shelf eagle root dirt a book?"
Sweetie Belle gently lowered her head on to her desk, cutely nestling her head into her small forelegs. The table was cool and smooth, unlike the classroom, and smelled faintly like glitter and pencil peelings. Why was Snips so weird?
"Green paper don't mean school rock potato!" Snips responded, laughing hysterically. He high-hoofed Snails, who seemed to be dying inside with laughter.
Sweetie didn't hear what Cheerliee said back, but instead tightly shut her eyes against the light. Mmh, it felt so good to finally relax. Even an hour of sleeping might make up for the lack of it last night. Gently snoring, the small filly quietly dozed off...
"Sweetie Belle!" The voice came in abruptly, now crisp and clear. Said filly jerked upwards, her sight bleary.
"What?" she murmured confusedly, licking her lips. The whole class was staring at her. Sweetie Belle felt heat rise to her cheeks, and smiled nervously.
"Were you sleeping in class?"
Uh oh.
Sweetie Belle tried to respond, her mind hazy. "I-er, um.."
"No, actually, she wasn't!" An accented voice piped up behind her, bow bobbing furiously.
Wait, I wasn't? Sweetie Belle thought, furrowing her brow.
But then Apple Bloom looked at her in a look that said 'you don't want to get in trouble, so just go with this', and Sweetie understood.
Cheerliee laughed, though it didn't sound very convincing. "Are you sure, Apple Bloom? Because it looked to me like she was lying on top of her desk during school hours."
Apple Bloom nodded, pushing her strawberry-red mane out of her bright eyes. "Yeah! Ah'm sure! Ah just—er—dropped my pencil! And Sweetie was getting it fer me, like the good friend she is! Right, Belle?"
Sweetie Belle stared blankly at the earth mare for a moment, before quickly nodding.
Cheerilie pursed her lips, seeming to go along with the story. "Well, where is the pencil now?" She gestured to Sweetie Belle, who sat with nothing in front of her.
Apple Bloom was at lost for words. "Oh, its, um.."
"I ate it!" Scootaloo blurted out before she could stop herself, sheepishly grinning at the Crusaders in apology.
Apple Bloom face hoofed, a loud slapping sound echoing in the silence.
"You...ate it?" Cheerilee dead panned, half the class laughing.
"Yes." Scootaloo swallowed nervously, not giving up. "I ate it, because I'm...hungry."
"You just ate lunch, Scootaloo. An hour ago."
"Well," Scootaloo managed, "I forgot that I ate that. So now I'm full." She sat back heavily in her chair, rubbing her stomach.
"That's besides the point. You can't eat pencils. That's not how ponies work."
"That's how I work, I guess. I'm special."
"You sure are something, Scootaloo."
"Thanks!" Scootaloo beamed, sitting upright.
"I swear, this job..." Cheerilee muttered, shaking her head.
"Cheese nuggets, kill you ugly striped socks!"
Sweetie Belle fell back asleep.
Author's Note
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazyZ.
Yes.
