Piston

"Well," Twilight Sparkle began, "it all started on my first day of school…"

"Twilight, are you excited?" Twilight’s mother asked. The happy little filly only bounced up and down. "I'll take that as a 'yes,'" she said. "Now I want you to remember, Twilight: this may only be temporary. The advanced magic exams are coming up soon and if you pass them, you won't be going to this school any more. Try to have fun and learn, but don’t get too comfortable." She said, patting her daughter’s head. The happy little pony then jumped forward towards the door of her house.

"Good-bye, mother! I'll see you in the afternoon."

"Good-bye, sweetie!" She called out  after Twilight left.

Twilight was excited - this would be her first day of school, and she intended to make the most of it. Every book, every lesson was now hers to learn. Up ahead, she saw a large group of ponies gathered around a white pony with black hair.

The little white pony had collected quite the audience, and for good reason. He was sitting in the sand box, making not sand castles, but instead sand sculptures! He seemed to be scuplting all of the new faces he was seeing. The tiny, little sand sculptures stood only about knee high, but despite their small size, they were very clearly an exact replica of all the ponies standing in the crowd. For every pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony, there was now a small sculpture depicting them perfectly.

"Wow," Twilight said, as she gazed down at a small pegasus with its real life counterpart looming right overhead. "That’s amazing!" she finished. The white pony quickly locked on to the unfamiliar voice.

"I’m glad you think so," Piston said as he quickly bounced over to Twilight. He hurriedly bent down and molded her figure with quick timing. The end result was an exact sculpture of Twilight beneath her.

Twilight looked at it with astonishment. The replica buried her exact image; even down to the small details of her hair.

"Wow! What's your name?" Twilight asked. The white pony smiled.

"My name is Piston. And yours?"

"Twilight Sparkle," she replied.  "Um… You only told me your first name. What's your full name?"

The white pony blushed. "My full name is Piston Allen Shmooze."

Twilight’s eyes widened. "Does that have anything to do with... You know?"

"No," Piston quickly replied. "It has nothing to do with the Shmooze." Piston then shook the conversation topic from his head and added, "Would you like to come play with us?"

Twilight shook her head no. "I have a very interesting book I’d like to read. The princess herself wrote it; it’s about how the sun works. Goodbye, Piston! I'll see you in class!" Twilight then walked away.

School wouldn't start for little bit longer, she thought. And I could get really into the book before then.

As soon as she found a nice secluded location, she open up the book for the first time. Normally, most ponies never read the useless information at the beginning of the book. You know what I’m talking about: those first pages with author's notes and stuff.

But Twilight was not a normal pony. She liked to read a book cover to cover - that means everything. As she began reading the princess’s thoughts on the first two pages, she felt a strange sensation; like something was watching her.

Upon looking up, she saw Piston staring her intently.

"Did you say that book was about the sun?"

"Yes," Twilight Sparkle replied. "If you like, I'll let you borrow it later when I'm finished reading it."

A frown then appeared on Piston's face. "I can’t read. Would… Would you read it to me?"

Twilight could see that Piston was uncomfortable discussing the topic, so she simply said, "Have a seat here next to me." Piston quickly walked over and sat down as Twilight Sparkle began reading.  Twilight never glanced up from the book. Keeping her eyes focused entirely on the pages, she continued to read aloud until the end. She thought she would only get halfway through the book by the time school started, but much to her surprise, the book was not that long, and quickly finished due to fast reading. Page by page, she read until she was eventually forced to close the book and look up again. Smiling, Piston sat next to her. Then, he spoke.

"Hey, Twilight? You know, you're kind of pretty."

Twilight blushed, thanked him, then added, "You actually listened to me the entire time?"

"Yes," Piston replied. "Say, I bet if a pony can make a very small sun it, would be great for making power!  Maybe I should think about that some more." The two ponies then heard the bell ring.  "Well, it's time for class. Say, Twilight, if you find any more books about stuff like that would you mind, um…"

"Okay!" Twilight replied. The two ponies then made their separate ways to class. Once in class, they were met with the basic things anypony would see in a school house. The books placed neatly on the shelves, the numbers and letters in colorful posters up pn the walls; the usual thing any student would expect.

"Okay, class," the teacher shouted. "Find your seats; your name should be printed on them." Everypony looked around and soon found the seat with his or her name printed on them. Soon, there were only five desks left and one pony, white with black hair, still standing. The teacher looked down at him. "Having trouble, are we? Your desk is over there." She said, pointing to one in the middle of the class. Piston quickly took a seat as class began.

There was a long discussion about rules and times. Basically, just when stuff would be happening, and what was expected of each student. It felt like the conversation lasted forever. But eventually, the board gave way to a small bit of interaction.

"Class, building social skills is just as important to our brains as billing is to the adult ponies. So, you’re all going to stand up one at a time, come up here, and write your name on the board. Afterward, you can tell us a little bit about yourself, and then sit back down."

Everypony stood up one at a time, said his or her name, and sat back down. Twilight, having the most impressive writing, did not seem very interested in talking, so she merely repeated her name before sitting back down. Then, pony after pony went by, until finally, Piston was up next. He nervously walked up to the board and picked up the piece of chalk.

P… I…

"Let me think," he said to himself.  "What was next?" T… S…  A…N. Piston then turned towards the class, and told them again, "My name is Piston."

"Is that supposed to be funny?" The teacher asked.

"What do you mean?" Piston replied.

"That your name is spelled wrong; can’t you spell your own name?"

She spoke with anger in her voice.

"Um, no," Piston said, looking down at his hooves. The teacher gave a sigh of frustration.

"You see class, Piston is a perfect example of a laziness. He is too lazy to even try to learn to read!" She scoffed, then continued. "Ponies like Piston won’t make it far in school, I guarantee it." The teacher then picked up an eraser and erased Piston's name off the board. "No, Piston. Just go sit down; I have no time to deal with ponies like you."

Piston quietly went back to his seat. After more discussion on how the school would work, the class was told to get up and line up. They then were told to go with a different teacher for a walk around the school so they wouldn’t get lost when it was time for them to move around. After the short walk around the school, everypony came back to class. The names on each desk had been changed. "Class," the teacher announced. "The desks have been rearranged for the most efficient learning pattern. Please find your desk."

Piston looked all around, but he could not find his name. "Piston!" The teacher snapped. "Your desk is back there." She said, pointing to back the room. When Piston finally found his desk, he saw it was very far back, and there was an entire row of empty desks separating him from all other ponies. He could barely hear anything, and he did not understand why his desk was so far away.

The majority of the year went very much the same. Piston would excel at some things - such as math, art, or other things like that - but in reading, there was still the same problem. When one of the other students would answer question wrong, the teacher would smile and ask them to answer again. No student ever failed on the second try. However, whenever Piston answered a question incorrectly, the teacher would be sure to stand right behind him and use her long ruler to pry Piston's tail out from his seat. Once the long appendage was on the ground, she would wait for his answer to the question.

"Wrong." She flatly stated, and then made short to stand firmly upon his tail. She would often wait until another student had answered his question before finally walking away. Piston fought back tears in his eyes every time she did it, and eventually it was as if he didn’t feel it at all.

Whenever Piston's work was not fully completed or was not answered to the degree in which the teacher felt was appropriate, Piston was forced to stay inside while the other children went out and played. "Do it again!" The teacher ordered, stomping her hoof. The teacher was quite larger than most ponies; making her physically frightening, and eventually, foreboding.

It was not long before the teacher began wearing beads in her tail.  The tiny, plastic beads were colorful, and while they filled other children with hope and delight, they filled Piston with fear. The beads were many shapes and sizes. Not a single one was round with a smooth surface, but instead, they were jagged and hard. Piston feared that those beads appointed every passageway through the door of the class. Each time he walked out the door, the teacher would quickly with her tail, being sure to land it on Piston's flank.

One day, Piston had managed to get outside. He promptly cheated, hiding the answers within his desk and looking upon them when he needed them. He finally could relax outside. Just then, Twilight Sparkle remembered Piston's request to be read books. So, she walked up next to him. "Piston, you’re outside!" She said, with excitement. "Would you like me read my book to you?" She asked with a smile.

"No." Piston snapped. "I hate reading. I hate school. I hate you, and I hate me. Leave me alone!!!" He yelled at Twilight, before running away.

"Twilight, is all of this true?" Applejack asked. "I can’t… I can’t believe it."

"Well," Twilight explained, "We were all foals at that time. I couldn’t see what was happening to Piston then, even though it’s so clear now. There’s a lot not written in these books. Either somepony forgot to mention quite a bit, or this book was tampered with; but anyway, yes: this is one of the things that turned Piston into what he is today."

Fluttershy wiped tears from her eyes. "No wonder that pony's so sad! But how can we reach out to a pony that’s so convinced the world's a bad place?"

"I don’t know." Twilight confessed. Applejack looked at a picture of a recovering Piston in the hospital. "What happened here? Was this the teacher's doing?"

"No," Twilight replied. "That one, Piston did to himself." Everypony gasped. "It was the day Piston got his cutie mark. He was the first in the class to get his, so as you can guess, it caused a bit of an uproar. He claimed he had invented a clock that never needed to be wound and would run forever. The class, having been turned against him, told him he was stupid. Even the teacher accused him of stealing the idea for the clock and thought maybe that was his cutie mark theft; even though that's impossible. In the end, Piston ran away crying. Later on, he was found in the boiler room next to smashed a clock and with a giant burn mark on his cutie mark. They think he tried to burn off his own cutie mark to try to change it to something else. I never saw him after that, as we all got our cutie marks right afterwards, and I became the princess’s pupil."

"Rainbow Dash, what are you looking at?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking up at Rainbow. Hearing that, she her head pulled out from the window. "I’m looking at Piston; he’s coming right over here carrying something big. I thought you said that the clock wasn’t supposed to be delivered until tomorrow."

"I thought that, too," Twilight replied. "Quickly, Rarity! Send the book back to the princess before Piston sees us looking at his records, or he'll freak out!!!"

Spike quickly complied, forcing Rarity to burp and sending the book back to where it came from. Soon after, they heard a knock on the door.

End of chapter three