Author's Note
My Equestria can be regarded as an Alternate Universe, a little advanced in time from the universe of the show. Every society has a bottom rung and in my AU, that place (in spite of the EDICT OF EQUALITY) is filled by goats and donkeys.
BLUE BELL
Blue Bell was prancing across the meadow under a lovely blue sky and bright sun. Her gait was frequently broken by hopping up and landing all four hooves at once on top of hapless daisies. As she bounced clear of them, her horn would flash briefly and a smashed daisy would be ripped out by the roots.
Under her breath, she was growling, “I wish that was your face, Daisy Mane! It was YOU that made that mess on the chalk board! You told the teachers that it was ME! I didn’t do it! When are you ever going to stop blaming me for all of your mischief!”
By the time that she had stomped the tenth (or was it the twelfth?) daisy, Blue Bell was feeling somewhat better. It was a fine way to let out her quiet anger at Daisy Mane.
She had done one other thing to get even, this, the third time. Daisy Mane made no secret of finding the History of Equestria to be a really dull subject. During recess but after the history lesson, Blue Bell sneaked into the classroom and took Daisy Mane’s History Book with the day’s lesson and homework questions folded into it.
Done with her daisy stamping, Blue Bell left the meadow, following Daisy Mane’s path home. Soon she could see “Butter Behind's” detested rear ahead of her on the path.
‘Butter Behind’ paused by the pool below the Falmire Creek bridge. She used her magic to play skipping stones. With flashy bits of magic, she tossed in bits of wood to see them float away. Several ponies, including two colts from their class trotted across the bridge and paused to watch Daisy Mane throwing things into the creek. While they watched, she made a little folded paper boat and sent it down the stream.
Blue Bell chuckled to herself as she saw it. Carefully removing Daisy Mane’s homework assignment, she quickly folded it into a boat like Daisy’s.
When Daisy Mane tired of her game and went on home, Blue Bell watched to be sure that nopony was watching while she sent the assignment boat down the rapids at the end of the pool.
She made sure that it was Daisy Mane’s book that she dumped into the weeds by the pool’s edge. The bright yellow cover stood out nicely, easily seen from the bridge.
Blue Bell back tracked to the fork of the path that led to her Mom’s house. As she was crossing Falmire Creek on stepping stones, further down from the bridge, she spied the soggy remains of both paper boats caught in an eddy of the stream!
Blue Bell used her magic to rescue the drenched paper boat with Daisy Mane’s writing on it. The other one, she sent on downstream.
She showed her mom, Shooting Star, the paper. “I found it in the eddy there by the stepping stones. Some pony lost their homework assignment.”
Shooting Star took one look at the soggy paper boat and said, “Leave it just as it is, dear. We will stop by the school together and give it to the office. I am sure that either Miss Cherrilee or the secretary Miss Trake will want to see it.”
Blue Bell actually did like history and finished up her homework quickly. She struggled a little over her arithmetic. Multiplication was hard but she was pretty sure that she had done it as well as she could.
She was able to go out and play in her flourishing garden. Blue Bell’s garden was all good food plants. She had everything from strawberries, tall corn, squash in several varieties, carrots, beans and even amaranth.
Blue Bell was especially proud of her amaranth. The dried pods would keep for years, if necessary. Opened, the many seeds inside could be ground to a flour that made lovely breads and other baked goods.
In the house, Blue Bell took some of her flour and made dough of it. When it rose enough, she formed it into small buns stuffed with dried apples and dried strawberries from last year’s garden.
Blue Bell watched Shooting Star carefully rake out the coals of the fire that had heated the stone oven built into their fire place. She caught the coals in a bucket and added them to the cooking fire in the main part of the fireplace. She had a yummy pot of squash cooking over the flames. Blue Bell’s buns went into the hot oven to bake. Besides dinner, some would be tomorrow’s lunch for her at school and for her mom at work.
Dinner was one of quiet companionship.
By the light of a candle, Shooting Star took out a largish book that had no visible title and laid it on a stand. She drew three circles about it with a wand before she opened the book. The cover opened to reveal the book’s title.
THE BOOK OF SHADES
She indicated a place in front of her with the wand. Blue Bell, with the comfort of long familiarity, took her place. Her mother said kindly, “Blue Bell, my daughter, I know that you have been afflicted at school. Tell me of it.”
“Shooting Star, Mother Witch, I have been the victim of Daisy Mane. She has been writing bad things about goats and school on the chalk boards. She gets me blamed for what she does.
“Thrice she has done these things. As advised by our ways, I let the first one pass. I spoke out about the second but was not believed. The third time, as allowed, I began a vengeance.”
Shooting Star nodded solemnly. “And the nature of the vengeance?”
“Daisy Mane has made no secret of her detestation of history. I saw that as a weakness to strike her. According to the rule of Whatso you do shall return to you, after the lesson, at recess, I took her book of History. She did not even notice it gone after school. She stopped, as she often does, to play at the pool below the Falmire Creek bridge.
“While the colts Juniper and Fir Branch watched, she made a paper boat and sent it down the stream. After all were gone, I made the paper boat of her homework assignment and sent it down the stream too. I left her book close to where she played, in the reeds but easy to see from the bridge.
“Coming home, I found both her boat and mine in the eddy. I sent her plain paper one on downstream. The rest you know.”
Shooting Star nodded gentle approval. “Now let us consult the Book to see how this shall be carried out.”
Her magic, relayed and changed by her wand, caused the pages to flip open in a flutter of pages. Part way through the Book, the pages settled neatly open.
She invited, “Come, my daughter, and see what the Book of Shades says.”
Blue Bell read quietly. She smiled and asked, “Shooting Star, my mother, will you come with me to the school tomorrow?”
Her mother nuzzled her gently and replied, “The Supplicant shall receive support, says the Book, so I must. Besides, I want to. There are questions that I wish to ask them at the school.”
The next morning, as they were walking the path to school, they met the colts Juniper and Fir Branch. Juniper was snorting, “I bet you that it is a book! Wish that we had time to go look in the weeds there by the pool. Got to get to school, though. Don’t want another tardy slip!”
Shooting Star asked politely, “A book in the weeds by the pool? Are you sure?”
Fir Branch replied, “Not really sure, no. What we saw was yellow, like our History books. Couldn’t be sure without going to see it up close. Didn’t have time just now.”
In the office, Shooting Star explained to Miss Trake, “Blue Bell found this homework assignment floating in the eddy of Falmire Creek, just by the stepping stones that we use.”
Miss Trake frowned. “We had a report from Daisy Mane this morning that her history book was stolen yesterday.”
Dryly, Shooting Star pointed out, “Our stepping stones are about a half kilometer downstream from the Falmire Creek bridge. It looks like the 'thief’ made a paper boat from her assignment paper and sent it down the stream.
“This morning, we met the colts Juniper and Fir Branch on the way here. They said that they saw something in the weeds by the pool below Falmire Creek bridge. They said that it looked like the same yellow as a History book.”
Before she could say more, the gray furred, blue maned teacher, Mister Carton, charged into the room and pointed to Blue Bell! “There you are, young filly! I am giving you full demerit for today! This business of writing anti goat slogans on the chalk board has to stop! You don’t need to deny that you did it! There are THREE witnesses who saw you from the playground window!”
Blue Bell actually smiled as she asked, “Really? When did it happen?”
“Just a few minutes ago!”
Batting her eyelashes and grinning in triumph, Blue Bell inquired, “Miss Trake, will you tell this so called teacher where I have been and with whom?”
The secretary looked Carton in the eye and stated, “SOME PONY IS LYING. Blue Bell has been with Shooting Star all morning and they came here directly when they entered the school. I saw them come in. They have been here in the office since.”
Blue Bell, with her mother’s encouraging presence, asked, “The witnesses? I will bet you that they are Daisy Mane, Thistle, and Teasel. Am I right?”
“So! You admit that you saw them in the window!”
“No. You are supposed to be teaching us critical thinking. The first time, the THREE of them claimed that they were looking in the playground window and saw me writing on the board. The second time, the THREE of them looked in the SAME window and saw me, they say. The third time, they said that they looked in the same window and saw me yet again. Now, the FOURTH time, they looked in the same window and saw me, they claim.
“Now, Miss Trake has pointed out correctly that I could not have done it this time. Using the critical thinking that you are supposed to be teaching us, it becomes apparent that the other times are almost certainly lies too.”
Sourly, unhappy at being shown up by a filly in the presence of not only other adult ponies, but Miss Cherrilee herself, who had her head out the door of her office, listening to the altercation, he snapped, “I will erase today’s infraction. The rest …”
Miss Cherrilee said softly, but with steel under it, “Mister Carton, you will bring your grade book HERE, NOW. While you are at it, bring Daisy Mane, too.”
As Carton was leaving, Miss Cherrilee asked, “What was that about Juniper and Fir Branch? How are they mixed up in this?”
Miss Trake replied, “Perhaps not at all. If they are, they may be witnesses to the lost History book that Daisy Mane reported as stolen.”
“I see. Miss Trake, would you get them and Truant Officer Grabbem for me?”
Miss Trake took up her Magic Net mirror. Her voice reverberated from Magic Net mirrors all over the school as she said, “Juniper and Fir Branch, please report to the office.”
She then made a second call that was not heard all over the school.
Truant Officer Grabbem got to the office at almost the same time as Juniper and Fir Branch! They shied back, “Not fair! We are here! We were on time!”
He grinned, faking a magical grab at them, “Must be a precautionary nab!”
Miss Cherrilee smiled as she said, “For a wonder, you two are not in any trouble at all! I want you to take constable Grabbem to the Falmire Creek bridge and show him what you saw. Do not go off the bridge yourselves. Let the constable go and get it. It may be important.”
They were leaving as Carton and Daisy Mane entered the office. Daisy Mane crowed, “You are OUT, Blue Bell! Besides FOUR infractions for writing anti goat shit on the blackboards, you stole my History book! That is FIVE. You have a two week suspension!”
Miss Cherrilee pointed out, “That is not for you to say, Daisy Mane. I was reviewing the file and there are some glaring problems with this case. Why were you, Teasel and Thistle always at the classroom window when Blue Bell was supposed to be writing these things on the chalk board? Why were you spying into the classroom instead of playing on the playground with the other foals?”
Blue Bell interposed, “And then, MYSTERIOUSLY, your History book turns up missing! A subject that you make no bones about hating? Wow. What a loss to you!”
Daisy Mane snapped back, “Teasel and Thistle saw you steal it!”
Suddenly she noticed the soggy paper boat covered in her horn’s writing. “That’s my homework assignment! How did it get here? Why did you fold it into a boat?”
Shooting Star answered, “Blue Bell found it in Falmire Creek. It was in the eddy by the stepping stones leading to our house. That is just over a half kilometer downstream from the bridge that you use to go to your place.”
Miss Cherrilee stated grimly, “Daisy Mane, we may soon have clear evidence about your history book.”
Turning to Mister Carton she laid down the file of incident reports. “These playground reports and witness statements in connection with the chalk board graffiti are revealing. In each incident of graffiti, there was a witness in support of Blue Bell. Why did you ignore her? Was it because she was a GOAT?”
He was looking down and starting to mutter when Daisy Mane chortled, “Dimmla the dim goat? She only has three legs! Who would listen to a goat anyway? What a farce!”
A bleat from the doorway answered her, “Princess Luna listened to me! She helped me to do Nightmare Night that first year after I lost my foreleg!”
Dimmla hobbled in with a surprisingly able three legged gait. She came straight to Blue Bell and leaned against her. “I sort of sneaked out of class when I heard that my friend was in trouble.”
She looked an entreaty to Miss Cherrilee. “Please don’t send my friend away. She keeps me safe on the playground. That Daisy Mane and her friends all try to trip me up or dump me off the swing set. Blue Bell uses her magic to keep me safe from their mean tricks.
“She teaches me stuff too. If I don’t understand the lesson, she will take the time to go over it with me until I do get it.”
Miss Cherrilee was nodding as she made notes in the incident file. “Thank you, Dimmla. I will write you a classroom excuse. You have just shown us all exactly why the others were attacking Blue Bell with falsehoods. She was defending you from them.”
Constable Grabbem returned along with both Juniper and Fir Branch. He was carrying a soggy yellow book. He laid it on the counter next to Daisy Mane’s assignment 'boat.’ The book was titled History of Equestria.
He stated, “The book was there by the pool, just like the colts said. There was lots of other signs that Daisy Mane was there. More interesting was what they told me on the way back.
“Tell Miss Cherrilee what you saw yesterday afternoon.”
Juniper sort of scraped the floor with a forehoof as he said, “Fir Branch and me was watching Daisy Mane playing skip stones and tossing stuff into the creek. We saw her make a paper boat and send it down the little rapids at the end of the pool. She was still playing when we left.”
Constable Grabbem carefully opened the soggy book. There on the flyleaf was written the name of Daisy Mane.
Miss Cherrilee looked at Mister Carton’s grade book and leafed through all of the incident reports. She stared compassionately at little Dimmla and nodded slowly.
Almost sadly, she pronounced, “Daisy Mane, between the anti goat graffiti, your lies about it, the anti goat statements that you have made here and the false accusation about your History book, I have no choice. You are suspended for two weeks and on probation for the balance of the school year.
“Your friends Thistle and Teasel each have four infractions for lying to support your false accusations.
“Mister Carton, you will make the corrections to your grade book immediately.”
Blue Bell smiled, just a bit grimly as she told Daisy Mane, “Whatso you do, returns to you. You attacked an innocent goat and tried to frame her defender. All of your own evil has come back to you.”
Looking hurt, Daisy Mane blubbered, “I didn’t throw away my history book.”
Dimmla bleated, “Perhaps you just lost it, there by the pool. You should not have lied about it being stolen by Blue Bell.”
Nudging the little goat toward the door, Blue Bell told her, “Let’s get back to class! I brought sticky buns with apple and strawberries in them. Want to share at lunch?”
A happy bleat answered her, “Sure! I brought oat bread and sprout sandwiches! You can have one of mine!”
Shooting Star watched proudly as her filly and the little goat left for class. She smiled, “Thank you, Miss Cherrilee. You are most just. All here has gone as well as it possibly could.”
