Reaching For The Stars

That night, I arrived at my dorm room. It was on the second floor in the dormitories and towards the back end of it. I opened up the door and saw a large room that was identical on both sides. There were two bunk bed-hybrids - the bed was on top and a desk was on the bottom - and a closet on either side as well. A lamp was in the middle of the room and, after turning it on, brightened up the room better than I had expected.

I placed my bags on the desk and started to unpack my things, placing a few things where I thought they would fit best - my beanies in the closet, a few books shelved on the desk, and the picture of Mom and myself next to the bed. I turned around and wondered why the room was mirrored in such a way, but didn’t decide to utilize it. Instead, I levitated myself onto the bed and rested a bit as well.

Opening my bag once more, I pulled out my schedule and brought it closer towards me. I looked at my schedule closely and noticed that my first class for tomorrow was Generosity with Professor Rarity. I glanced quickly towards the other classes in the schedule and put it back in my bags, turning towards the window and gazing out of it. I almost fell asleep from exhaustion but was kept awake when I heard a knock on the door.

I blinked a few times, wondering if I imagined the knocking. When the knock came again, I carefully pulled myself down from the bed and proceeded towards the door, opening it up slowly. When the door was opened completely, I noticed a peculiar looking pony in front of me. She had a manestyle that was wild, resembling like the cosmos and Princess Luna’s night sky. It was dark purple and tied up in two bouncy pigtails, also having stars strewn about throughout it. Her coat was a cerulean color and her hooves also had the same kind of stars on them like her mane did. She had very large wings that were a hint brighter than her mane, showing the same couple of stars in them as well. Bouncing up and down cheerfully in front of me, the pony began to squee happily.

“Umm,” I blurted uncontrollably, realizing this and adjusting myself a bit, “h-hi there. May I help you?”

“Oh my gosh, yes you may!” She beamed playfully. “I didn’t think I was getting a roommate with such a cool mane color and beanie!”

I was caught off guard slightly, “R-roommate?”

“Duh, silly!” She responded. She hugged me tightly. “I’m Eclipsa! What’s your name?”

I coughed slightly and rubbed my neck once she finally pulled herself away. “I-I’m Astral Flare,” I shook my head slightly again, “I’m sorry, did you say you were my roommate?”

“Yes I did, Astral!” Eclipsa chimed. I saw her look up at my horn and squee again. “You’re a unicorn! Can you do like super duper awesome magic stuff?”

I blinked a few more times, caught off guard by the sheer amount of energy this pony had. “Uhh, y-yes, I can.” I finally noticed her larger-than-normal wings again and brought that up with her. “You’re a Pegasus pony?”

Eclipsa looked at her wings, then giggled slightly, “Nope.”

Looking both ways in the hall, I invited Eclipsa inside and shut the door behind her. I turned towards her once more and watched as she bounced up and down once more. Since I didn’t receive a proper answer from my previous question, I asked Eclipsa what kind of pony she was.

“I’m a bat pony!” She exclaimed, pointing to a few spikes she had on the tips of her ears. “Are you a nocturnal pony?”

I nodded, pointing towards my cutie mark, “Yeah, I love Princess Luna’s night sky. What about you?”

Eclipsa lifted one of her wings up and revealed her cutie mark to me. It was a full moon with a bubble wand and from the wand were two bubbles as well. She smiled more at me, letting me know she was nocturnal as well.

I nodded once more and thought a little bit more about something. Typically, when it came to bats, they were nocturnal and preferred to roam about in dark places and the night when they were outside. If Eclipsa was a bat pony, wouldn’t that mean they would be better in a school where classes were given during the evening? That made the most logical sense to me.

“You’re thinking about something,” Eclipsa smirked, tapping the front of my right hoof playfully, “what is it? I can tell it’s about me. It is about me, right?”

“Well,” I began, “kind of.”

“How much kind of are we talking about?”

“Aren’t bat ponies usually ponies that mainly roam around during the night?” I asked. “Like, I’m pretty certain the classes at this school are only given during the day. How will you be able to go to these classes?” I waited for an answer, but then realized how insulting my question sounded. Before Eclipsa answered back, I blushed and added something more. “I didn’t mean to make that sound so condescending.”

Eclipsa shook her head, “Think nothing of it, I understand what you mean: what bat pony moves freely during the day, right?”

“Something like that,” I admitted.

“Well,” continued Eclipsa, “I’m not like the average bat pony you meet.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a bat pony other than yourself, honestly,” I responded.

“Nonetheless,” Eclipsa smiled, “I’ve grown up around normal ponies that do their tasks and everything during the day, unlike all the other bat ponies, so I’ve just gotten used to being up and about during the day.”

That sounded a bit odd to me. I tilted my head very slightly, confused a bit. “So does that mean you’re an adopted pony?”

Eclipsa tried hard to maintain her smile, but I watched as it slowly began to vanish from her face. She started to fold her ears slightly and looked down slightly as well. I felt bad, unsure of what I might have said or what may have happened to cause this sudden change of emotion. Deciding that this may have been too touchy of a subject for Eclipsa, I decided to change the topic, for her sake.

“What’s your first class for tomorrow?” I wondered, showing her my schedule.

The next day, I went to the classroom. At my old academy, I would usually sit in the back of the room while I attended to my studies. Today, however, I decided to sit in a desk closer to the front of the room, a la Mom’s advice and Starlight Glimmer’s story yesterday.

As I sat at the desk, waiting for the class to begin, I noticed a lot of different creatures and ponies coming into the room and taking seats elsewhere. As the bell rang loudly, I turned my attention towards the front of the room and prepared myself to learn. One final pony came through the door and shut it behind her. She was a white unicorn with a moderately indigo colored mane, which was kept beautifully. She turned and faced the class and began talking to us all.

“Good morning, class,” she began. Her voice made it sound like she came from a rich family. “My name is Professor Rarity and welcome to the Generosity class in the School of Friendship.” She briefly looked around the class and smiled. “I can see a bunch of brand new faces in the class, and that is fabulous to see. Allow us to begin by going around the room and introducing one another. Many of you are new to the class, so let’s proceed with introductions.” She pointed to somepony on the opposite end of the room. “Would you like to begin?”

I turned around and saw a blue colored Earth pony against the wall. They looked shy, but spoke up nonetheless.

“I, uhh,” he paused for a moment, eyeing Rarity for the time being.

Noticing that the pony was having a hard time, Rarity spoke up and encouraged him.

“It’s okay,” she smiled, “we’re not going to judge somepony we haven’t met yet, darling. This is why we’re all here - to help build our friendships and make them better as well.”

The pony gulped and nodded slowly, “My name is Doppel. I was raised in a faraway place and have never really experienced living on my own yet.”

“Well, Doppel,” Rarity continued, “what’s one thing that you love to do, no matter what?”

“I, uhh,” he paused briefly again before continuing, “I usually like to create art in…unconventional ways.”

“Oh?” Rarity responded. “Is that so?”

Doppel nodded, “Y-yes ma’am.”

“Would you like to show us some, darling?”

Doppel looked down slightly, blushing in the process, “Oh, I-I don’t like showing it off…I’m afraid of the negative backlash that it may get…”

“No problem, Doppel,” insisted Rarity, “I think you will gain a lot of confidence when you take Professor Dash’s Loyalty class.”

“M-maybe,” he meekly replied.

Rarity smiled some more, then moved on to the next pony. I turned back around in my seat and began to get a little anxious, and not for the right reasons. I was afraid of being the only pony to speak in the class, even if it were to just introduce myself.

I tried to remain calm and pay attention as the others were introducing themselves, but I found that as introductions got to the next pony, the more anxious I began to get. I began to feel lost inside my own thoughts, only to be snapped out of it when Rarity tapped on my desk.

“Well?” She whispered.

I blinked a couple of times, “Well what?”

Rarity giggled briefly, “It’s your turn to introduce yourself, darling.”

I was befuddled, looking at the other classmates again. That was certainly fast, I thought, how long was I distracted for? I started to speak up, but it was blatantly clear that I was nervous right now. “Good m-morning, everypony,” I spoke, “I, uhh, my name is Astral Flare, a-and I come from Whiney, uhh, Whineysota.”

“What’s something you like to do in your free time, Astral Flare?” Rarity asked me.

I felt slightly better as I chuckled quietly to myself, “Please, Professor Rarity, you can call me Astral. In my free time, I, uhh, I like to study Princess Luna’s night sky.”

“That’s fascinating, Astral,” Rarity admitted, looking back towards everypony else. “Well, everycreature, the first thing that we know is that all of us are clearly different from one another. However, that does not necessarily mean that a friendship cannot be formed. A friendship can be formed from any little action and, with enough TLC, can blossom and materialize into something fabulous!”

She talks about it as if it were a flower, I thought. That’s when I began to think about Summer from our time on the train and her fascination with flowers. I wonder if she is somewhere in town…

The second class was Magic of Friendship with Headmare Twilight. I got into the class and sat down close to the front of the room once more, thinking about what Twilight’s method of introductions would go like.

As soon as the bell rang, Twilight used her magic to close the door, beginning to teach and lead the class. She smiled happily at us all, then proceeded promptly.

“Welcome, everycreature, to the Magic of Friendship!” Twilight beamed. She smiled and showed her teeth to us in the process, excited to start teaching. She briefly eyed me and winked before continuing with introductions, “I usually don’t do this kind of thing, but today, I’ve decided to pair each of you off with another creature and get to know them that way. My philosophy is that a group project would be the best way to get to know your partner, so instead of the normal introduction methods, let’s experiment a bit.”

Twilight then began pairing us off in pairs, going around the room and selecting two creatures seemingly at random each time. I watched as creatures were paired off over and over again. I saw Twilight approach me and smile once more in the process.

“Good morning, Headmare Twilight,” I said, “I see I’m next in line to be paired off, right?”

“You would be correct, Astral,” Twilight nodded, “now, I think your partner will be…” Twilight paused as she looked at the remaining creatures. She picked one for me to get to know and turned back to me, “Your partner is going to be this unicorn right here.”

I looked behind Twilight and saw a unicorn stand up and make their way towards me. He looked like a very smart pony with his mocha colored coat and chocolate colored mane. He had on a pair of glasses and a green scarf around his neck. What threw me off was that his facial expressions made it seem like he didn’t really feel like being here. I noticed that and tried my best to look beyond it.

“Enjoy, you two,” Twilight smiled, leaving to form one of the last remaining pairs in the class.

The pony sat down in front of me and cocked an eyebrow at me, seeming displeased again. He sighed, then spoke up first, “I’m Cobalt Shine. I like books and anything regarding books.”

I smiled softly, “That’s pretty neat. I’m Astral Flare and spend a lot of time studying about Princess Luna’s night sky. Naturally, that means I spend a lot of time reading books.” I showed Cobalt a couple of my astronomy books that I was carrying around.

“They’re a decent selection,” Cobalt admitted, “but the night sky is such a dull topic. There’s nothing more fascinating than history because, if we don’t record it, we will just end up repeating it.”

“Is that so?” I asked. “Well, the night sky is something that does have its own importance. The moon, for example, helps moderate the oceans of the world. Did you know that?”

Cobalt scoffed, “Of course I did. I’m not slow or anything. I bet you wouldn’t know the difference between a nova and a supernova, kid.”

I cocked an eyebrow, slightly annoyed by Cobalt’s comments, “Don’t call me ‘kid,’ Cobalt. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to the galaxy.” I pointed towards my cutie mark.

“And I know what I’m talking about when it comes to knowledge and retaining it.” He pointed towards his cutie mark in the process, a stocked-up bookshelf.

I felt insulted by that remark. I folded my ears and looked down, blushing slightly. Normally, I would get up and leave, but I couldn’t do that this time around, especially since this semester just started and I’m brand new to the school. I rolled my eyes and closed them tightly.

Cobalt is a shade of blue, I thought, and that doesn’t make any sense. I sighed slightly, You can’t even get colors right, so what makes you think you’re smarter than me? You just met me, after all.

When I finally opened my eyes back up, I looked up and saw that Cobalt was frozen. I widened my eyes and folded my ears a bit more in the process, feeling just a little bit bad. I looked back towards Cobalt and began to feel awful.

“I, uhh, I’m sorry about that,” I admitted.

Cobalt then glanced up towards me, “It’s fine. I don’t know you, so it isn’t fair to judge you yet. Somepony once said that when we generalize and judge somepony quickly without taking time to get to know them, we have chosen a shortcut, and that only results in a lack of wisdom.”

I smiled, thinking back to a different quote said by somepony else in one of the few nonfiction books I’ve read. I nodded at Cobalt, then shared the quote.

“When I read Destruction of the Opposition,” I began, “one page in particular stood out to me the most, and I think you know which one when I say it.” I started reciting the quote. “When they judge you, yawn. When they misunderstand you, smile. When they underestimate you, laugh. When they condemn you, ignore. When they envy you, rejoice. When they oppose you, prevail.”

Cobalt smiled and nodded once more, recognizing the quote. He apologized again as we continued our rocky introductions.