Friendship gets Schooled?by Paradise OasisChaptersProlouge: The discovery.....Those empty hallways.....Into the files....Ponyville past, Ponyville PresentCompeting friendshipsProlouge: The discovery.....A day with such warm and sunny weather; a somewhat uncommon event this late in the summer, but that is what made it all the more special. Since the age of weather control by the Pegasus had long passed, a day free of rain or unpleasant heat was an unpredictable event in this sleepy little community. So the ponies of Ponyville took any opportunity they could to enjoy the rare gift of such a beautiful day. But it was up to Ponyvillers to make up their own amusement, for the most part. Once, in the heroic age of the harmony bearers long ago, excitement and this could be found around every corner in Ponyville. But now, Ponyville was simply a small boring little community at the edge of the old forest. The inhabitants of the town, nearly all of them earth ponies, were busy about the town at work and at play. While some mares watered their flowers or baked pies, two particular ponies were enjoying the beautiful day with an amusing pastime. "Hey, Loop De La! Toss the Frisbee over here!" Desert Rose called out, standing on her back hooves excitedly. "I'm wide open!" "Okay, Rose!" The light green mare with a purple mane replied, winding up the Frisbee with her hoof. "Look out, here it comes!" The two mares were in Ponyville park, in the shadow of the rainbow waterfall, playing a spirited game of Frisbee toss. It wasn't the most exciting thing one could be doing on such a lazy day, but it was certainly an activity that could keep the two ponies busy. The mares went about their play, totally unaware how their day was about to become a whole lot more interesting. "Wheeee!" Loop leaped into the air, tossing the Frisbee to her friend. the white mare with a pink mane barely missed the disk, which immediately fell into the pond at the base of the rainbow falls. "Awww, it went into the water!" Desert Rose smiled, diving into the pond. "Don't worry, I'll get it!" Rose dove in the water after the Frisbee, and swam out by the waterfall. Unbeknownst to the paddling mare, her hoof hit a hidden switch in the stone wall while she was kicking, and suddenly everything around them started to rumble. "Hey, what is that?!" Loop De La called out from the shore, pointing her hoof. "What's going on?!" As Desert Rose quickly leapt out of the water, the two mares could hear the sounds of giant clockwork gears turning, as a giant stone wall opened behind the rainbow waterfall. there, the pair of ponies saw a large pink building, with four towers and a large balcony on it's front, a small waterfall flowed over the front entrance, and several ramps and staircases ran to every floor of the building. "What... what in the heck is that?!" Desert Rose asked in shock. "It looks like some kind of castle or something." Seeing a sign that had mysteriously popped up on the shore, Loop De La trotted over and read the faded print on the petrified piece of wood. "I can barely make it out, Rose." She told her friend, squinting to see the writing. "But I think it says Princess Twilight Sparkle's school of Friendship" "Oh, wow! An old abandoned school, right here in Ponyville?" Desert Rose squealed in excitement, as she and her friend galloped back into town. "Wait until the others hear all about this!" ****** "Come on, you two! Hurry up!" Alphabittle called back to the other two mares, as she trotted up to the ancient structure. "I really want to see what will find in this place!" "Yes, I can see that you are quite eager my friend." Kimono told the overly eager yellow earth pony mare with the rainbow-colored mane. "But this is a very old building, and could have broken floorboards, or other structural hazards. We should proceed with caution as we enter." "Aww, don't worry so much, Kimono. It doesn't look that dangerous to me." Minty replied, laughing at her friend's obvious nervousness. "Frisco already looked the outside of this place over, and he said we could go in and explore without getting hurt!" "Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine!" Alphabittle laughed, waving a hoof dismissively. "I don't think there's anything inside of an old school that could hurt us." "So says the teacher, who is most eager to see how previous generations of Ponyville fillies and colts learned." Kimono sighed. "I just wish Spike weren't away in Canterlot, so he could help us explore this strange place." "I just cant' believe our ancestors hid a giant school in the side of a mountain." Minty giggled. "I mean, what were classes like? What did they study there? It's all so exciting!" "Yes, nothing excites me more, than exploring an old abandoned school with Minty." Kimono laughed softly. "Still, I have to wonder... this place was called a 'school of friendship'. Why did our forebears need to teach friendship in a school, like they would math, science, or magic? Was the concept so poorly understood, that they had to teach it to fillies and colts? What kind of a society would be that messed up, and... disturbing?" "I don't know, maybe the ponies taught courses on the finer points of friendship." Alphabittle speculated. "Or perhaps they simply called it the friendship school, and taught other subjects. We won't actually know, until we explore the school, firsthand." The three mares all trotted up towards the boarded-up door together, stepping across the small stone path that magically rose out of the water as they approached. Reaching up with her hooves, Minty began to fiddle with the chain lock, until her supernaturally bad luck finally broke the locking mechanism, and the chain simply slid off the door onto the ground. Now, with a clear path in front of them, the three Ponyville ponies all put their hooves on the ancient door, and slowly pushed it open on it's rusty hinges... Those empty hallways.....As the three ponies entered the ancient school of friendship, trotting into the grand entrance hall, with it's tall columns, and vaulted ceilings. Faded banners, with messages like 'welcome new students' hung from the walls, and a dusty, decaying carpet lie on the creaky floors. Gazing into the classrooms, the trio saw old wooden desks and chairs lined up in rows, with pencils and quills neatly placed on each desk. Smudged final messages, obviously written by the last class of students at the school, decorated the chalkboards in each classroom. Although it looked like it had been a pleasant little school before it's closing, Alphabittle was unimpressed. "Okay, this is nice and all, but it's nowhere near what I was expecting." Alphabittle sighed, looking around at the classrooms. "I mean, when someplace is called 'princess Twilight Sparkle's school of Friendship", you expect it to be something big and fancy. Something... a little more than the average school." "Awww, it looks like an okay school to me!" Minty giggled, galloping up and down the hallways, and giggling. "I wouldn't have minded going to classes here, like, at all! It was probably a whole lot of fun!" "Yeah," Alphabittle sighed, shaking her head sadly. "I guess so..." "Do I detect a hint of sadness in your voice, Alphabittle-sensei?" kimono chuckled, trotting up to her friend. "Look, I know you were hoping to learn about old equestrian educational techniques here. But you must be patient, we've only begun to look around." "Yeah, I guess you're right." The teacher muttered, as the trio continued to look around the school. After looking through a few empty classrooms, the three ponies decided to split up, and each explore a different part of the school. Trotting up another hallway, the mare found a few teachers' offices. Trotting inside, she began to look through the lesson plans and records in the filing cabinets, and was surprised by shat she found. "Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie? FLUTTERSHY!?" The teacher sputtered in disbelief, as she saw the teacher's names on the files she found. "No way these are the ponies I know of by those names. I don't think Rarity is old enough to teach anybody anything." Gathering up a dozen or so of the files from each teacher's filing cabinet, she loaded them into her saddlebag to read later, and trotted back towards where the others were exploring the school. .... Meanwhile, Minty was exploring several of the passageways towards the back of the school, where the shadowy corridors were lit only by the tiniest amount of sunlight coming through the ancient draped windows. Needless to say, the slightly creepy atmosphere was starting to get to the clumsy little green mare. "Whoah, this place is sure all kinds of Spooky!" Minty giggled nervously, as she trotted through the darkened hallways. "Now I kinda wish I would've brought one of the Breezies with me, to light up these dark hallways." But as the mint-green mare with the pink mane passed several of the empty classrooms, Minty swore she could hear phantom-like voices coming out of several of the classrooms; "Okay, class, settle down! Now in today's lesson on the history of friendship, we will start with Starswirl the bearded...." "All right, everypony. I want you to make good friends with these cute squirrels! It's no different than making friends with other ponies." "Okay, Y'all! Today we're gonna cover how these apple slices cain teach ya about honesty!" "Um, hello? Who's talking?" Minty called out nervously, now starting to get really scared. "Is anybody here? Kimono, is that you?" The green mare decided to look into one of the classrooms, and what she saw made her mane stand on end. Inside, she was the phantom forms of a class- comprised of a griffin, a changeling, a yak, a hippogriff, and a dragon- all seated at the desks, paying attention. And teaching the class, was a very familiar pink mare, with a balloons cutie mark! "Okie dokie, class!" The phatom mare giggled and snorted. "Today we're going to learn about laughter through... PARTY CANONS!" "P-pinkie Pie? Is that you?" A now-shaking Minty asked. "Why does your mane look all crazy? And why do you look like a ghost?" The ghostly mare ignored Minty's words, and shot off a loud party canon in response. Now terrified out of her wits, Minty went galloping back down the hallway, screaming at the top of her lungs. "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The green mare cried out in terror, running for her life. "Somebody help me! This school is haunted!" Kimono was just trotting out of the gymnasium, when she saw the green fireball barreling towards her at top speed. "Minty? What in the world-?" The lilac mare with a purple mane barely got the words out of her mouth, before the terrified green mare tackled straight into her, knocking the 'wisest pony in the the land' clean off of her hooves. The two ponies ended up in a jumble of hooves and manes on the far side of the hallway. "ARGH! MINTY! GET OFF ME, THIS INSTANT!" "Oh, Kimono! It's so terrible!" The green mare exclaimed, as the two ponies untangled themselves, and stood up again. "I kept seeing and hearing all of these ghosts, and then I saw pinkie pie as a ghost, too!" "Well, I can believe you saw ghosts in an old abandoned school like this, Minty-chan. that makes sense." Kimono's face changed to a look of skepticism. "But Pinkie Pie as a ghost? I find that a little hard to believe, Minty. Are you sure you didn't just see a ghost that looked like Pinkie Pie?" "No, it was Pinkie all right, I'm sure of it!" Minty thoguht for a moment. "Hey, wait a sec... Kimono, how come you're reacting so calmly to something as weird as me seeing ghosts?" "Minty, this is Ponyville, weird is normal around here." Kimono sighed in reply. "Compared to some of the things I've seen around here, ghosts are perfectly normal." It was at that moment that Alphabittle came trotting up, carrying a saddlebag full of files and folders. "Well, I don't know why the two of oyu are talkign about ghosts, but this place is starting to give me the creeps now." The teacher shivered. "I got what I came for, so let's get outta here!" The other two ponies adenoid their heads in agreement, and the three mares trotted their way back out of the friendship school. But as they departed, Kimono got the eerie feeling that something was watching them from an upper window... Into the files....The day seemed to go on forever, at Ponyville's little schoolhouse. All of the little colts and fillies tried desperately to pay attention to Alphabittle's lessons, even as many of their eyes were glued to the clock on the nearby wall. Their teacher wrote on the chalkboard, lecturing the students about a grammar lesson, while occasionally turning to stop her student's mischievous antics. "Penny Candy, stop throwing paper airplanes!" "Sorry, Miss Alphabittle!" "Charm Bracelet, please stop throwing paper airplanes!" "Gomen nasai, Aplhabittle-sensei!" When it seemed to the frazzled mare that the day could not go on any longer, the clock finally stuck the hour that marked the end of classes; the end of the poor mare's suffering for the day. And it couldn't have come a moment sooner, as her nerves were frayed well beyond the breaking point. "Okay, that's it for today , class!" Alphabittle called to her students, as the bell rang. "Make sure to finish your assignments, and hand them in by Monday morning!" The students all filed out of her classroom, gossiping and giggling as they trotted out into the open sunlight. Racing out past they playground equipment, each of the students went happily galloping on their way home. they were all happy to be done with classes for the week, and eagerly looking forward to all of the fun that awaited them over the weekend As her students departed, Alpha collapsed back into her chair with an exhausted sigh. It had been an extremely rough week for the school mare, one in which she had dealt with spit wads, pathetic homework excuses, colt fights, filly gossiping, and the hundreds of little problems that plagued a school teacher in Ponyville. The weekend should be her ideal time to relax and unwind... except for the mountain of papers and exams she had to grade. "Ugh, what an exhausting day this was. I really need a vacation, maybe go somewhere else in Equestria for a week. or so." The mare sighed, picking up the stack of papers, and shuffling through them. "Well, there a lot of stuff to go over here. I guess I had better get started." But as the school teacher looked through the stacks, she found one of the folders she and the other two mares had uncovered in the old abandoned school in the middle of Ponyville. Looking at the side, she read the name off of the extremely faded label; "Princess Twilight Sparkle, Principle." A look of confusion crossed the teacher's face. "Why would a princess be the principle of a school?" Alphabittle did know who Twilight Sparkle was, however. The teacher had gone to Storybelle's library, and done some research in the archives. Twilight Sparkle had been the first princess of Ponyville ages ago, the ancestor of their current ruler, Princess Wysteria. It was she who had built celebration castle in the middle of Ponyville, and it was she who had built the school to educate ponies and other races about the concepts of friendship. Now the teacher at least understood what the school was for. But that sill begged the question; why would anybody need to be taught about friendship, a natural concept everyone should understand? School was usually for learning how to read and write, to do math problems and understand basic concepts. Were ponies and other creatures from that era really that ignorant, that they had to learn these concepts in a school? Looking down at the folder, the teaching mare was determined to find out. Cracking it open, and blowing the ancient dust from the pages, and carefully began to read from the file.... Well, it looks like everything is finally falling into place. After our adventure rescuing Equestria from the storm king, I came to realize my friends and I cannot run all over the world, solving everybody's friendship problems. Therefore, I have decided to found a school here in Ponyville, where we can bring the ponies and creatures who don't understand friendship to us, and we can teach them all in one place. I have gone to Chancellor Neighsay and the EEC to gain approval for this new school, and they appear to supportive of my goals. So I have received approval for my plans to open the school. Construction has begun in Ponyville, and all of my friends are lending a hoof with building the new school. Many businesses here in town are hopeful the school will drive up Ponyville's commerce, while I am hopeful this will help bring the message of friendship to the Equestria nad the lands beyond. It is my hope, that we can reach a point where there will be no more Tireks or Chrysalises, and everpony across the world will embrace friendship instead of anger and hatred... "Ummm, excuse me, Miss Alphabittle?" A timid voice whispered, coming from in front of the teacher's desk. "I'm really sorry to bother you, but I heard you're the teacher here, and I thought you could help me." Alphabittle stood up, and looking over the edge of her desk, saw an adorable pink Pegasus filly, with a striped blue mane filled with curls. The timid little filly looked so adorable, Alphabittle had to resist the urge to pick her up, and hug her. "Well hello, little one! You must be new in town!" The friendly mare smiled. "Are you from butterfly island? What can I do for you?" "Well, m-my name is Cozy Glow, and I am a n-new student." The little filly pouted. "I just moved here from Fillydelphia, and I don't have any friends, or anybody I know here..." "You're from Fillydelphia? that's amazing!" Alphabittle asked in shock. The teacher had never had a student from somewhere else in Equestria, except from Unicornia or Butterfly Island. "Don't worry, Cozy! I'm sure you'll make some very good friends here in Ponyville. Welcome to my class, and to our little town!" And as Alphabittle saw the little Pegasus filly out of the schoolhouse, she failed to notice a sinister gleam in the little filly's eye. Author's Note to learn more about Alphabittle and her ponyville class outside of this story, check out this short story from a collection here; https://www.fimfiction.net/story/298009/17/tales-of-another-ponyville/classroom-craziness Ponyville past, Ponyville PresentIt was finally the weekend, and that made Alphabittle a very happy pony. As morning broke over Ponyville, many of the ponies were going about their daily business. Sweetberry already had her bakery open, and was selling sweet treats to the other equines. Rainbow dash and Sew and Sew had already opened up their dress shop, and customers were already lining up. Round and Round already had the Rainbow Wishes amusement park up and running, with the early morning roller coaster riders, like Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks, were eager to catch a ride. The town was already going about it's daily hustle and bustle, even thoguh the Sun had only been up a few hours. "Alphabittle, Darling! there you are!" Rainbow Dash called out, waving her hoof from the door of her dress shop. "We been looking all over for you!" Rainbow Dash, the dazzling blue earth pony with the Rainbow Mane. She was the salespony and dress modeling diva for Sew-and-Sew's dress shop, and she was considered the most 'dashing' mare in all of Ponyville. Alphabittle had encountered a Pegasus named Rainbow dash in the school files she had been reading, but the school teacher simply assumed that mare was an ancestor of the Dashie she knew. "Rainbow, hello!" The teacher waved back, trotting over to the entrance of the dress shop. "I've been meaning to stop in this week end. Do you girls have my dress ready?" "We certainly do, Alpha darling!" Rainbow Replied, as the two went inside the Sweet Reflections Dress Shop. "Sew and Sew has made all of the changes to your dress that you requested for The Spring Promenade, and we want to take you in for a fitting. Come on!" The teacher trotted past several clothing racks, filled with dresses and accessories. But as she trotted back towards the fitting rooms, Alphabittle noticed a bunch of the town's mares surrounding a cute little Pegasus filly, one whom she had already met. "Thank you so very much for being so kind to me, everypony." Cozy Glow smiled, staring at the mares around her with big, adorable eyes. "An orphan like me can't really afford new clothes, so it's really nice of all of you to help me out like this." "Awww, you're so adorable!" Sew and Sew replied, patting the little filly on the head. "Don't worry about it, little one. We're more than happy to make you feel at home here in Ponyville!" "Oh, that little filly simply adorable!" Rainbow dash spoke up, as she stopped to see what the teacher was looking at. "I hear she's going to be one of your newest students, darling!" "Yeah, but I think I'm going to have to teach her proper grammar." The teacher mused. "She keeps saying 'anypony' and 'everypony' instead of 'anybody' or 'everybody'. that child needs to learn proper grammar!" "Oh, I don't know, darling. I've heard ponies outside of Ponyville use that term." Rainbow Dash just shrugged. "Anyway, I have your finished party gown over here. Why don't you sit down and wait here, while I go back and search the racks in the back for your dress, darling!" Alphabittle nodded, sitting down in a chair to wait for her friend's return. When Rainbow Dash didn't come back after several minutes, the teacher decided to pull out the file from the Friendship school, and started to read again; Our first few weeks at classes have been going well, and my friends are turning out to be excellent teachers. The students love Pinkie's Pie's party canon's and silly games; she is teaching them laughter through making her students laugh. Fluttershy is teaching kindness by having her students interact with her animals. This has gone along way towards making making her the most popular teacher with many of our students. Everypony is gettign along well at the school ,though we have had a few...difficulties. I mean, all of the pony students are taking to their lessons well. But the non-pony students have been having some problems adjusting to the school, and living among ponies. Smolder the dragon cringes in disgust at anything girly, while Ocellus the changeling is so shy, she won't make friends with anypony. And to make matters worse, each of the non-ponies are making friends with the students most like themselves; the tomboyish Smolder has made friends with Gallus the griffin, While our energetic hippogriff Silversteam has befriended Yona the yack. I am trying to teach them to make friends with EVERPONY, not just isolating themselves to just those with similar personalities. Still, they are starting to make friends, so I suppose any kind of progress is good progress. But it's still difficult for them, though I am not entirely certain why. Pinkie Pie believes it's the 'boring' curriculum the EEA has imposed upon the school, but what am I supposed to do? Everypony who runs a school in Equestria must meet the requirements of Chancellor Neighsay, and I only want to keep this school open, so I can teach everypony in the world about friendship.I wish the students could understand we are all doing our best, and at least try to make friends with each other. Well, at least the school's friends and family day is coming up, maybe things will get better by then. I certainly hope they do, as Chancellor Neighsay will be visiting to check on our progress... "Here we are, darling!" Rainbow Dash's voice called out. "The blue bouffant dress ensemble with low-cut neckline and matching knee-length socks! You'll look ravishing at the spring promenade in this, darling!" Alphabittle was pulled out of her reading when her friend approached again, carrying her modified gown. The teaching mare took the gown, and trotted back into the dressing room to try it on. But as she put on the dress, questions began to go through Alpha's mind; Ponyville schools once answered to the EEC? And what were some of those non-pony creatures the file described? She knew what dragons and griffins were, but hippogriffs were extinct, and changelings were only a myth! Just what kind of school did this 'Princess Twilight' even run? And it still didn't answer her original questions about needing to teach friendship in the first place! And as she looked out of the dressing room door towards where cozy glow and the mares were standing, she began to wonder if the little filly, who appeared at the same time as the school had been discovered, might have something to do with all of this. But then she quickly dismissed the idea, and went back to trying on her dress. Competing friendshipsIt was the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday, and Alphabittle had decided to spend the last day of the weekend enjoying herself a bit. And there was no better place for that in Ponyville, than the Rainbow Wishes Amusement Park. "Come on, Magic!" The teacher pleaded, pulling the pink stallion with a blond mane and magic hat cutie mark along. "I want to go on the butterfly coaster!" "All right, all right already!" Magic replied with a laugh as the couple trotted through the entrance. "Sheesh, I'm only used to coming here to perform magic tricks on stage!" Alphabittle just rolled her eyes, knowing the park wasn't that special to her magician boyfriend. But Rainbow Wishes was a special place to the teacher, a play land that was a magical escape from her everyday life of grading papers, and stopping her students from acting like uncivilized animals. She pulled him over to the ticket booth, and after Magic had shelled out a few jangles, the two were in line for the butterfly roller coaster. "Ohh, I think it's so cute how each of the coaster cars look like butterflies!" The teacher squealed in delight. "and I've heard Round and Round and Sparklesnap tinkered with the coaster recently, to make it go even faster!" "Great, just what I need." Magic groaned, sticking his lounge out in disgust. "Something to make me even more nauseous while riding that thing!" But as the teacher was listening to her boyfriend's complaints, she noticed two ponies she knew standing in line ahead of her, both about to get on the roller coaster. "Awww, man! this is going to be soooo cool!" Sparkleworks exclaimed, almost prancingaround in line from excitement. "Those changes changes my sister made to the coaster are gonna make this one really wild ride!" "Yeah, this is gonna be almost as much fun as riding a big wave on a surf board!" Sunny Daze giggled. "Hey, why don't we each sit in one of the two different coaster trains, and we can pretend we're racing each other!" "Oh, that would totally rock! And the first one who's coaster train comes back into the station is the winner!" Sparkleworks grinned. "Loser buys the winner and her boyfriend supper at the Cotton Candy cafe' tomorrow!" "Oh, you are so on!" Sunny replied. "My coaster train will so totally leave yours in the dust!" Alphabittle smiled at the exchange, happy to see to of her friends in such playful competition. But as she was standing in the very long line, the teacher seemed to recall something about not-so-friendly competition from the notes she had been reading the other day. With nothing else to do while waiting and standing in line, and her boyfriend had already started talking to another stallion ahead of them in line, the teacher reached into her saddle bag, and pulled out the princess of frienship's class folder once more to read; Sometimes I wonder if the ponies I have teaching about friendship, truly understand some of the core principles of friendship. While Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie seem to grasp all of the concepts, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are having some... issues. The two have a competitive nature that gets in the way of not only their friendship, but their ability to help other ponies, as well. Just as they had ramped up their competition during the running of the leaves two years ago, so their competition has affected things here at the friendship school. Take, for example, when the two were competing over the teacher of the month award recently. I put the two of them in charge of a teamwork field trip, and the two spent more time bickering and trying to one-up each other, than actually teaching their students anything. Applejack tried to show the students the importance of working slow and carefully in building ashed, and Rainbow Dash messed it up so she could get to her activity more quickly. Then, Rainbow Dash and Applejack tried showing the class teamwork through river canoeing, only to nearly end up smashing the raft into the rocks because they were too busy arguing to give directions! I can't believe it! How could two grown adult ponies- two of the of the elements of harmony, no less!- be less mature than the students they were supposed to be teaching! Thew class actually stood up for their teachers, though, and lied to me make A.J. and Dash look good. I do believe the students are learning about friendship and teamwork, thoguh... by watching their two teachers, the students are actually learning what NOT to act like! Sigh, I wonder if opening this friendship school was such a good idea, after all... Alphabittle was pulled out of her reading, when the line started moving again. Looking up at Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks boarding the train, the teacher realized the friendship lessons certainly must have taken root in the princess of friendship's time, seeing as how a lot of pony's competition was so friendly now. But reading these entries, Alphabittle was beginning to understand why the school of friendship was necessary in those troubled times. But just as the teacher and her boyfriend were about to go on the roller coaster, Alphabittle noticed a very familiar little figures talking to the stallion who was running the park's rides. "Gee, thank you so much for letting me ride all the rides in the park for free, Mister Round n' Round." Cozy Glow smiled, a cute look of innocence in her eyes. "You are far to kind to a sweet little filly like me." "Awww, don't worry about it, little one." The purple stallion with an orange mane and cutie mark patted her on the head. "Now, why don't you go, and take a ride on the Ferris wheel?" And as the teacher watched the cute little smiling filly board the Ferris wheel, Alphabittle once again began to wonder how this mysterious pony was really about....
Prolouge: The discovery.....A day with such warm and sunny weather; a somewhat uncommon event this late in the summer, but that is what made it all the more special. Since the age of weather control by the Pegasus had long passed, a day free of rain or unpleasant heat was an unpredictable event in this sleepy little community. So the ponies of Ponyville took any opportunity they could to enjoy the rare gift of such a beautiful day. But it was up to Ponyvillers to make up their own amusement, for the most part. Once, in the heroic age of the harmony bearers long ago, excitement and this could be found around every corner in Ponyville. But now, Ponyville was simply a small boring little community at the edge of the old forest. The inhabitants of the town, nearly all of them earth ponies, were busy about the town at work and at play. While some mares watered their flowers or baked pies, two particular ponies were enjoying the beautiful day with an amusing pastime. "Hey, Loop De La! Toss the Frisbee over here!" Desert Rose called out, standing on her back hooves excitedly. "I'm wide open!" "Okay, Rose!" The light green mare with a purple mane replied, winding up the Frisbee with her hoof. "Look out, here it comes!" The two mares were in Ponyville park, in the shadow of the rainbow waterfall, playing a spirited game of Frisbee toss. It wasn't the most exciting thing one could be doing on such a lazy day, but it was certainly an activity that could keep the two ponies busy. The mares went about their play, totally unaware how their day was about to become a whole lot more interesting. "Wheeee!" Loop leaped into the air, tossing the Frisbee to her friend. the white mare with a pink mane barely missed the disk, which immediately fell into the pond at the base of the rainbow falls. "Awww, it went into the water!" Desert Rose smiled, diving into the pond. "Don't worry, I'll get it!" Rose dove in the water after the Frisbee, and swam out by the waterfall. Unbeknownst to the paddling mare, her hoof hit a hidden switch in the stone wall while she was kicking, and suddenly everything around them started to rumble. "Hey, what is that?!" Loop De La called out from the shore, pointing her hoof. "What's going on?!" As Desert Rose quickly leapt out of the water, the two mares could hear the sounds of giant clockwork gears turning, as a giant stone wall opened behind the rainbow waterfall. there, the pair of ponies saw a large pink building, with four towers and a large balcony on it's front, a small waterfall flowed over the front entrance, and several ramps and staircases ran to every floor of the building. "What... what in the heck is that?!" Desert Rose asked in shock. "It looks like some kind of castle or something." Seeing a sign that had mysteriously popped up on the shore, Loop De La trotted over and read the faded print on the petrified piece of wood. "I can barely make it out, Rose." She told her friend, squinting to see the writing. "But I think it says Princess Twilight Sparkle's school of Friendship" "Oh, wow! An old abandoned school, right here in Ponyville?" Desert Rose squealed in excitement, as she and her friend galloped back into town. "Wait until the others hear all about this!" ****** "Come on, you two! Hurry up!" Alphabittle called back to the other two mares, as she trotted up to the ancient structure. "I really want to see what will find in this place!" "Yes, I can see that you are quite eager my friend." Kimono told the overly eager yellow earth pony mare with the rainbow-colored mane. "But this is a very old building, and could have broken floorboards, or other structural hazards. We should proceed with caution as we enter." "Aww, don't worry so much, Kimono. It doesn't look that dangerous to me." Minty replied, laughing at her friend's obvious nervousness. "Frisco already looked the outside of this place over, and he said we could go in and explore without getting hurt!" "Oh, I'm sure it'll be fine!" Alphabittle laughed, waving a hoof dismissively. "I don't think there's anything inside of an old school that could hurt us." "So says the teacher, who is most eager to see how previous generations of Ponyville fillies and colts learned." Kimono sighed. "I just wish Spike weren't away in Canterlot, so he could help us explore this strange place." "I just cant' believe our ancestors hid a giant school in the side of a mountain." Minty giggled. "I mean, what were classes like? What did they study there? It's all so exciting!" "Yes, nothing excites me more, than exploring an old abandoned school with Minty." Kimono laughed softly. "Still, I have to wonder... this place was called a 'school of friendship'. Why did our forebears need to teach friendship in a school, like they would math, science, or magic? Was the concept so poorly understood, that they had to teach it to fillies and colts? What kind of a society would be that messed up, and... disturbing?" "I don't know, maybe the ponies taught courses on the finer points of friendship." Alphabittle speculated. "Or perhaps they simply called it the friendship school, and taught other subjects. We won't actually know, until we explore the school, firsthand." The three mares all trotted up towards the boarded-up door together, stepping across the small stone path that magically rose out of the water as they approached. Reaching up with her hooves, Minty began to fiddle with the chain lock, until her supernaturally bad luck finally broke the locking mechanism, and the chain simply slid off the door onto the ground. Now, with a clear path in front of them, the three Ponyville ponies all put their hooves on the ancient door, and slowly pushed it open on it's rusty hinges...
Those empty hallways.....As the three ponies entered the ancient school of friendship, trotting into the grand entrance hall, with it's tall columns, and vaulted ceilings. Faded banners, with messages like 'welcome new students' hung from the walls, and a dusty, decaying carpet lie on the creaky floors. Gazing into the classrooms, the trio saw old wooden desks and chairs lined up in rows, with pencils and quills neatly placed on each desk. Smudged final messages, obviously written by the last class of students at the school, decorated the chalkboards in each classroom. Although it looked like it had been a pleasant little school before it's closing, Alphabittle was unimpressed. "Okay, this is nice and all, but it's nowhere near what I was expecting." Alphabittle sighed, looking around at the classrooms. "I mean, when someplace is called 'princess Twilight Sparkle's school of Friendship", you expect it to be something big and fancy. Something... a little more than the average school." "Awww, it looks like an okay school to me!" Minty giggled, galloping up and down the hallways, and giggling. "I wouldn't have minded going to classes here, like, at all! It was probably a whole lot of fun!" "Yeah," Alphabittle sighed, shaking her head sadly. "I guess so..." "Do I detect a hint of sadness in your voice, Alphabittle-sensei?" kimono chuckled, trotting up to her friend. "Look, I know you were hoping to learn about old equestrian educational techniques here. But you must be patient, we've only begun to look around." "Yeah, I guess you're right." The teacher muttered, as the trio continued to look around the school. After looking through a few empty classrooms, the three ponies decided to split up, and each explore a different part of the school. Trotting up another hallway, the mare found a few teachers' offices. Trotting inside, she began to look through the lesson plans and records in the filing cabinets, and was surprised by shat she found. "Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie? FLUTTERSHY!?" The teacher sputtered in disbelief, as she saw the teacher's names on the files she found. "No way these are the ponies I know of by those names. I don't think Rarity is old enough to teach anybody anything." Gathering up a dozen or so of the files from each teacher's filing cabinet, she loaded them into her saddlebag to read later, and trotted back towards where the others were exploring the school. .... Meanwhile, Minty was exploring several of the passageways towards the back of the school, where the shadowy corridors were lit only by the tiniest amount of sunlight coming through the ancient draped windows. Needless to say, the slightly creepy atmosphere was starting to get to the clumsy little green mare. "Whoah, this place is sure all kinds of Spooky!" Minty giggled nervously, as she trotted through the darkened hallways. "Now I kinda wish I would've brought one of the Breezies with me, to light up these dark hallways." But as the mint-green mare with the pink mane passed several of the empty classrooms, Minty swore she could hear phantom-like voices coming out of several of the classrooms; "Okay, class, settle down! Now in today's lesson on the history of friendship, we will start with Starswirl the bearded...." "All right, everypony. I want you to make good friends with these cute squirrels! It's no different than making friends with other ponies." "Okay, Y'all! Today we're gonna cover how these apple slices cain teach ya about honesty!" "Um, hello? Who's talking?" Minty called out nervously, now starting to get really scared. "Is anybody here? Kimono, is that you?" The green mare decided to look into one of the classrooms, and what she saw made her mane stand on end. Inside, she was the phantom forms of a class- comprised of a griffin, a changeling, a yak, a hippogriff, and a dragon- all seated at the desks, paying attention. And teaching the class, was a very familiar pink mare, with a balloons cutie mark! "Okie dokie, class!" The phatom mare giggled and snorted. "Today we're going to learn about laughter through... PARTY CANONS!" "P-pinkie Pie? Is that you?" A now-shaking Minty asked. "Why does your mane look all crazy? And why do you look like a ghost?" The ghostly mare ignored Minty's words, and shot off a loud party canon in response. Now terrified out of her wits, Minty went galloping back down the hallway, screaming at the top of her lungs. "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The green mare cried out in terror, running for her life. "Somebody help me! This school is haunted!" Kimono was just trotting out of the gymnasium, when she saw the green fireball barreling towards her at top speed. "Minty? What in the world-?" The lilac mare with a purple mane barely got the words out of her mouth, before the terrified green mare tackled straight into her, knocking the 'wisest pony in the the land' clean off of her hooves. The two ponies ended up in a jumble of hooves and manes on the far side of the hallway. "ARGH! MINTY! GET OFF ME, THIS INSTANT!" "Oh, Kimono! It's so terrible!" The green mare exclaimed, as the two ponies untangled themselves, and stood up again. "I kept seeing and hearing all of these ghosts, and then I saw pinkie pie as a ghost, too!" "Well, I can believe you saw ghosts in an old abandoned school like this, Minty-chan. that makes sense." Kimono's face changed to a look of skepticism. "But Pinkie Pie as a ghost? I find that a little hard to believe, Minty. Are you sure you didn't just see a ghost that looked like Pinkie Pie?" "No, it was Pinkie all right, I'm sure of it!" Minty thoguht for a moment. "Hey, wait a sec... Kimono, how come you're reacting so calmly to something as weird as me seeing ghosts?" "Minty, this is Ponyville, weird is normal around here." Kimono sighed in reply. "Compared to some of the things I've seen around here, ghosts are perfectly normal." It was at that moment that Alphabittle came trotting up, carrying a saddlebag full of files and folders. "Well, I don't know why the two of oyu are talkign about ghosts, but this place is starting to give me the creeps now." The teacher shivered. "I got what I came for, so let's get outta here!" The other two ponies adenoid their heads in agreement, and the three mares trotted their way back out of the friendship school. But as they departed, Kimono got the eerie feeling that something was watching them from an upper window...
Into the files....The day seemed to go on forever, at Ponyville's little schoolhouse. All of the little colts and fillies tried desperately to pay attention to Alphabittle's lessons, even as many of their eyes were glued to the clock on the nearby wall. Their teacher wrote on the chalkboard, lecturing the students about a grammar lesson, while occasionally turning to stop her student's mischievous antics. "Penny Candy, stop throwing paper airplanes!" "Sorry, Miss Alphabittle!" "Charm Bracelet, please stop throwing paper airplanes!" "Gomen nasai, Aplhabittle-sensei!" When it seemed to the frazzled mare that the day could not go on any longer, the clock finally stuck the hour that marked the end of classes; the end of the poor mare's suffering for the day. And it couldn't have come a moment sooner, as her nerves were frayed well beyond the breaking point. "Okay, that's it for today , class!" Alphabittle called to her students, as the bell rang. "Make sure to finish your assignments, and hand them in by Monday morning!" The students all filed out of her classroom, gossiping and giggling as they trotted out into the open sunlight. Racing out past they playground equipment, each of the students went happily galloping on their way home. they were all happy to be done with classes for the week, and eagerly looking forward to all of the fun that awaited them over the weekend As her students departed, Alpha collapsed back into her chair with an exhausted sigh. It had been an extremely rough week for the school mare, one in which she had dealt with spit wads, pathetic homework excuses, colt fights, filly gossiping, and the hundreds of little problems that plagued a school teacher in Ponyville. The weekend should be her ideal time to relax and unwind... except for the mountain of papers and exams she had to grade. "Ugh, what an exhausting day this was. I really need a vacation, maybe go somewhere else in Equestria for a week. or so." The mare sighed, picking up the stack of papers, and shuffling through them. "Well, there a lot of stuff to go over here. I guess I had better get started." But as the school teacher looked through the stacks, she found one of the folders she and the other two mares had uncovered in the old abandoned school in the middle of Ponyville. Looking at the side, she read the name off of the extremely faded label; "Princess Twilight Sparkle, Principle." A look of confusion crossed the teacher's face. "Why would a princess be the principle of a school?" Alphabittle did know who Twilight Sparkle was, however. The teacher had gone to Storybelle's library, and done some research in the archives. Twilight Sparkle had been the first princess of Ponyville ages ago, the ancestor of their current ruler, Princess Wysteria. It was she who had built celebration castle in the middle of Ponyville, and it was she who had built the school to educate ponies and other races about the concepts of friendship. Now the teacher at least understood what the school was for. But that sill begged the question; why would anybody need to be taught about friendship, a natural concept everyone should understand? School was usually for learning how to read and write, to do math problems and understand basic concepts. Were ponies and other creatures from that era really that ignorant, that they had to learn these concepts in a school? Looking down at the folder, the teaching mare was determined to find out. Cracking it open, and blowing the ancient dust from the pages, and carefully began to read from the file.... Well, it looks like everything is finally falling into place. After our adventure rescuing Equestria from the storm king, I came to realize my friends and I cannot run all over the world, solving everybody's friendship problems. Therefore, I have decided to found a school here in Ponyville, where we can bring the ponies and creatures who don't understand friendship to us, and we can teach them all in one place. I have gone to Chancellor Neighsay and the EEC to gain approval for this new school, and they appear to supportive of my goals. So I have received approval for my plans to open the school. Construction has begun in Ponyville, and all of my friends are lending a hoof with building the new school. Many businesses here in town are hopeful the school will drive up Ponyville's commerce, while I am hopeful this will help bring the message of friendship to the Equestria nad the lands beyond. It is my hope, that we can reach a point where there will be no more Tireks or Chrysalises, and everpony across the world will embrace friendship instead of anger and hatred... "Ummm, excuse me, Miss Alphabittle?" A timid voice whispered, coming from in front of the teacher's desk. "I'm really sorry to bother you, but I heard you're the teacher here, and I thought you could help me." Alphabittle stood up, and looking over the edge of her desk, saw an adorable pink Pegasus filly, with a striped blue mane filled with curls. The timid little filly looked so adorable, Alphabittle had to resist the urge to pick her up, and hug her. "Well hello, little one! You must be new in town!" The friendly mare smiled. "Are you from butterfly island? What can I do for you?" "Well, m-my name is Cozy Glow, and I am a n-new student." The little filly pouted. "I just moved here from Fillydelphia, and I don't have any friends, or anybody I know here..." "You're from Fillydelphia? that's amazing!" Alphabittle asked in shock. The teacher had never had a student from somewhere else in Equestria, except from Unicornia or Butterfly Island. "Don't worry, Cozy! I'm sure you'll make some very good friends here in Ponyville. Welcome to my class, and to our little town!" And as Alphabittle saw the little Pegasus filly out of the schoolhouse, she failed to notice a sinister gleam in the little filly's eye. Author's Note to learn more about Alphabittle and her ponyville class outside of this story, check out this short story from a collection here; https://www.fimfiction.net/story/298009/17/tales-of-another-ponyville/classroom-craziness
Ponyville past, Ponyville PresentIt was finally the weekend, and that made Alphabittle a very happy pony. As morning broke over Ponyville, many of the ponies were going about their daily business. Sweetberry already had her bakery open, and was selling sweet treats to the other equines. Rainbow dash and Sew and Sew had already opened up their dress shop, and customers were already lining up. Round and Round already had the Rainbow Wishes amusement park up and running, with the early morning roller coaster riders, like Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks, were eager to catch a ride. The town was already going about it's daily hustle and bustle, even thoguh the Sun had only been up a few hours. "Alphabittle, Darling! there you are!" Rainbow Dash called out, waving her hoof from the door of her dress shop. "We been looking all over for you!" Rainbow Dash, the dazzling blue earth pony with the Rainbow Mane. She was the salespony and dress modeling diva for Sew-and-Sew's dress shop, and she was considered the most 'dashing' mare in all of Ponyville. Alphabittle had encountered a Pegasus named Rainbow dash in the school files she had been reading, but the school teacher simply assumed that mare was an ancestor of the Dashie she knew. "Rainbow, hello!" The teacher waved back, trotting over to the entrance of the dress shop. "I've been meaning to stop in this week end. Do you girls have my dress ready?" "We certainly do, Alpha darling!" Rainbow Replied, as the two went inside the Sweet Reflections Dress Shop. "Sew and Sew has made all of the changes to your dress that you requested for The Spring Promenade, and we want to take you in for a fitting. Come on!" The teacher trotted past several clothing racks, filled with dresses and accessories. But as she trotted back towards the fitting rooms, Alphabittle noticed a bunch of the town's mares surrounding a cute little Pegasus filly, one whom she had already met. "Thank you so very much for being so kind to me, everypony." Cozy Glow smiled, staring at the mares around her with big, adorable eyes. "An orphan like me can't really afford new clothes, so it's really nice of all of you to help me out like this." "Awww, you're so adorable!" Sew and Sew replied, patting the little filly on the head. "Don't worry about it, little one. We're more than happy to make you feel at home here in Ponyville!" "Oh, that little filly simply adorable!" Rainbow dash spoke up, as she stopped to see what the teacher was looking at. "I hear she's going to be one of your newest students, darling!" "Yeah, but I think I'm going to have to teach her proper grammar." The teacher mused. "She keeps saying 'anypony' and 'everypony' instead of 'anybody' or 'everybody'. that child needs to learn proper grammar!" "Oh, I don't know, darling. I've heard ponies outside of Ponyville use that term." Rainbow Dash just shrugged. "Anyway, I have your finished party gown over here. Why don't you sit down and wait here, while I go back and search the racks in the back for your dress, darling!" Alphabittle nodded, sitting down in a chair to wait for her friend's return. When Rainbow Dash didn't come back after several minutes, the teacher decided to pull out the file from the Friendship school, and started to read again; Our first few weeks at classes have been going well, and my friends are turning out to be excellent teachers. The students love Pinkie's Pie's party canon's and silly games; she is teaching them laughter through making her students laugh. Fluttershy is teaching kindness by having her students interact with her animals. This has gone along way towards making making her the most popular teacher with many of our students. Everypony is gettign along well at the school ,though we have had a few...difficulties. I mean, all of the pony students are taking to their lessons well. But the non-pony students have been having some problems adjusting to the school, and living among ponies. Smolder the dragon cringes in disgust at anything girly, while Ocellus the changeling is so shy, she won't make friends with anypony. And to make matters worse, each of the non-ponies are making friends with the students most like themselves; the tomboyish Smolder has made friends with Gallus the griffin, While our energetic hippogriff Silversteam has befriended Yona the yack. I am trying to teach them to make friends with EVERPONY, not just isolating themselves to just those with similar personalities. Still, they are starting to make friends, so I suppose any kind of progress is good progress. But it's still difficult for them, though I am not entirely certain why. Pinkie Pie believes it's the 'boring' curriculum the EEA has imposed upon the school, but what am I supposed to do? Everypony who runs a school in Equestria must meet the requirements of Chancellor Neighsay, and I only want to keep this school open, so I can teach everypony in the world about friendship.I wish the students could understand we are all doing our best, and at least try to make friends with each other. Well, at least the school's friends and family day is coming up, maybe things will get better by then. I certainly hope they do, as Chancellor Neighsay will be visiting to check on our progress... "Here we are, darling!" Rainbow Dash's voice called out. "The blue bouffant dress ensemble with low-cut neckline and matching knee-length socks! You'll look ravishing at the spring promenade in this, darling!" Alphabittle was pulled out of her reading when her friend approached again, carrying her modified gown. The teaching mare took the gown, and trotted back into the dressing room to try it on. But as she put on the dress, questions began to go through Alpha's mind; Ponyville schools once answered to the EEC? And what were some of those non-pony creatures the file described? She knew what dragons and griffins were, but hippogriffs were extinct, and changelings were only a myth! Just what kind of school did this 'Princess Twilight' even run? And it still didn't answer her original questions about needing to teach friendship in the first place! And as she looked out of the dressing room door towards where cozy glow and the mares were standing, she began to wonder if the little filly, who appeared at the same time as the school had been discovered, might have something to do with all of this. But then she quickly dismissed the idea, and went back to trying on her dress.
Competing friendshipsIt was the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday, and Alphabittle had decided to spend the last day of the weekend enjoying herself a bit. And there was no better place for that in Ponyville, than the Rainbow Wishes Amusement Park. "Come on, Magic!" The teacher pleaded, pulling the pink stallion with a blond mane and magic hat cutie mark along. "I want to go on the butterfly coaster!" "All right, all right already!" Magic replied with a laugh as the couple trotted through the entrance. "Sheesh, I'm only used to coming here to perform magic tricks on stage!" Alphabittle just rolled her eyes, knowing the park wasn't that special to her magician boyfriend. But Rainbow Wishes was a special place to the teacher, a play land that was a magical escape from her everyday life of grading papers, and stopping her students from acting like uncivilized animals. She pulled him over to the ticket booth, and after Magic had shelled out a few jangles, the two were in line for the butterfly roller coaster. "Ohh, I think it's so cute how each of the coaster cars look like butterflies!" The teacher squealed in delight. "and I've heard Round and Round and Sparklesnap tinkered with the coaster recently, to make it go even faster!" "Great, just what I need." Magic groaned, sticking his lounge out in disgust. "Something to make me even more nauseous while riding that thing!" But as the teacher was listening to her boyfriend's complaints, she noticed two ponies she knew standing in line ahead of her, both about to get on the roller coaster. "Awww, man! this is going to be soooo cool!" Sparkleworks exclaimed, almost prancingaround in line from excitement. "Those changes changes my sister made to the coaster are gonna make this one really wild ride!" "Yeah, this is gonna be almost as much fun as riding a big wave on a surf board!" Sunny Daze giggled. "Hey, why don't we each sit in one of the two different coaster trains, and we can pretend we're racing each other!" "Oh, that would totally rock! And the first one who's coaster train comes back into the station is the winner!" Sparkleworks grinned. "Loser buys the winner and her boyfriend supper at the Cotton Candy cafe' tomorrow!" "Oh, you are so on!" Sunny replied. "My coaster train will so totally leave yours in the dust!" Alphabittle smiled at the exchange, happy to see to of her friends in such playful competition. But as she was standing in the very long line, the teacher seemed to recall something about not-so-friendly competition from the notes she had been reading the other day. With nothing else to do while waiting and standing in line, and her boyfriend had already started talking to another stallion ahead of them in line, the teacher reached into her saddle bag, and pulled out the princess of frienship's class folder once more to read; Sometimes I wonder if the ponies I have teaching about friendship, truly understand some of the core principles of friendship. While Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie seem to grasp all of the concepts, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are having some... issues. The two have a competitive nature that gets in the way of not only their friendship, but their ability to help other ponies, as well. Just as they had ramped up their competition during the running of the leaves two years ago, so their competition has affected things here at the friendship school. Take, for example, when the two were competing over the teacher of the month award recently. I put the two of them in charge of a teamwork field trip, and the two spent more time bickering and trying to one-up each other, than actually teaching their students anything. Applejack tried to show the students the importance of working slow and carefully in building ashed, and Rainbow Dash messed it up so she could get to her activity more quickly. Then, Rainbow Dash and Applejack tried showing the class teamwork through river canoeing, only to nearly end up smashing the raft into the rocks because they were too busy arguing to give directions! I can't believe it! How could two grown adult ponies- two of the of the elements of harmony, no less!- be less mature than the students they were supposed to be teaching! Thew class actually stood up for their teachers, though, and lied to me make A.J. and Dash look good. I do believe the students are learning about friendship and teamwork, thoguh... by watching their two teachers, the students are actually learning what NOT to act like! Sigh, I wonder if opening this friendship school was such a good idea, after all... Alphabittle was pulled out of her reading, when the line started moving again. Looking up at Sunny Daze and Sparkleworks boarding the train, the teacher realized the friendship lessons certainly must have taken root in the princess of friendship's time, seeing as how a lot of pony's competition was so friendly now. But reading these entries, Alphabittle was beginning to understand why the school of friendship was necessary in those troubled times. But just as the teacher and her boyfriend were about to go on the roller coaster, Alphabittle noticed a very familiar little figures talking to the stallion who was running the park's rides. "Gee, thank you so much for letting me ride all the rides in the park for free, Mister Round n' Round." Cozy Glow smiled, a cute look of innocence in her eyes. "You are far to kind to a sweet little filly like me." "Awww, don't worry about it, little one." The purple stallion with an orange mane and cutie mark patted her on the head. "Now, why don't you go, and take a ride on the Ferris wheel?" And as the teacher watched the cute little smiling filly board the Ferris wheel, Alphabittle once again began to wonder how this mysterious pony was really about....
