Unlikely Endeavors

Ivory stepped out of the shower as she turned off the water with a wing, grabbing a towel off the hanging rack and started to dry herself off. She sighs softly as her coat and feathers are fluffed up by the ruffling of the towel against her body. I only takes a couple of minutes before she is dry enough to not work around the house dripping water everywhere.

Getting out of the bathroom she could smell her dad making dinner in the kitchen from down the hall, her parents must have gotten home while she was in there. She always liked long showers, even if they were a little too long sometimes, being evident when her parents started to complain about the water bill being too high.

Even so she made her way back to her room. She grabbed a brush from her dresser and took a seat in front of her mirror. She had a somewhat short mane compared to other mares. Most stallions like long and nicely styled manes, but Ivory didn't have time for all that shit.

Her mane was naturally black, like her moms, but she never wanted to be a spinning image of her mother so she kept it dyed. Dyeing your mane wasn't really a normal thing to do, considering most ponies have varying colors that match or blend well with their own coat already. she had red and white stripes running along her mane to clash with the black. but once the white faded it blended well with her coat. It has been a while since she had done it, judging my the roots of her mane being black. She would have to redo it pretty soon, but she could wait a couple more days.

Brushing her mane to to one side how she liked it, it was just long enough to cover her eyes if she didn't part it out of the way. Taking a few minutes to get it right, she get's it to a point where she is happy with it. Getting up and throwing the brush back onto her dresser, she lays back down on her bed and lets the cool air from her fan blow over her lightly wet body. It was towards the end of summer, but it was still rather hot outside.

"Ivory! Dinner is ready!" She heard her dad yell from the kitchen.

She climbs off the bed and heads down the hall. She was very hungry from this long day, meeting with a alien can do that to you. Turning the corner into the kitchen she can see the hayburgers and fries that her dad had prepared. It wasn't her favorite thing to eat, but it was quick and easy.

"Hey Ivory, how was school today?" Her father asks like he always does, with a little bit of sarcasm under his regular voice.

"just fine." She answers plainly, knowing exactly where this was going already.

"Oh, Really? Because from what I seen in your report card would say otherwise."

With a roll of her eyes she grabs herself a plate and waits for what was about to unfold, again, for the 4 millionth time this month.

"Like really Ivory? It's not that hard to pay attention in class. All you have to do is take some notes, ᵈᵒ ʸᵒᵘʳ ʰᵒᵐᵉʷᵒʳᵏ ᵃⁿᵈ..."

Ivory had already started to tune him out as she finished making her self a plate. She sat down at the dinner table and mindlessly listened to him, nodding every once and a while to pretend she was actually listening.

"ᶜᵃⁿ ʸᵒᵘ just do that for me please?" He finishes giving her a lecture.

"yes, fine..."

"Good, otherwise we'll have to have this conversation again."

Oh yes, they were going to have this conversation again, and again, and again...

Ivory very much disliked school, she saw it as pointless. Like why would she ever need to know the capital of Griffonstone when she never even plans to go there? Or stupid math, oh she HATED math. All the stupid equations and pointless letters and gibberish. All you need is basic math in the real world, and she very much had that down, just like anyone.

After a few minutes her mother came into the kitchen, and she looked tired like she always did. She worked as a property tax accountant for Ponyville, so she was in charge of when somepony want's to expand their property or add a second story and all of that jazz. Many ponies very much like adding to their small homes as their family grows, which many families were doing at this time from the end of the recent estrus cycle. She silently made herself a plate and sat across the table from her husband. Dad on the other hand was a construction worker, which parted well with his wife's job, which was how they met.

"Did you all here about the alien?" She asked us both to start some small talk.

the father nods, "Yeah, I heard that it was taken to the castle by the Elements. Some said it wasn't in chains or anything, which is pretty strange."

"why would that be strange?" Ivory asked her father

"Well what if it was dangerous? They should at least take precautions."

That DID make sense... but she didn't want to admit that.

"I wonder what it looks like, must be hideous." Her mother added in.

"It doesn't look that weird, well, it does look weird, but not a gross weird." Ivory stated

"You seen it?" Her dad asked, a little curious on how his daughter had seen the creature already.

"Yeah, I was the one who found it."

That made both her parents choke a little on their food.

"W-what?" They both said almost at the same time.

She nods "Yeah, it was on the outskirts of town, it kind of just appeared out of nowhere in a weird looking house thing, when I got close to it, it came outside and looked straight at me. That's when I ran back to town to tell the princess."

"Why in the hell did you get close it!?" Her father raised his voice slightly, "What if it attacked you? You could have been vaporized! Killed!"

"Well it didn't, by the fact I'm sitting here now, and seeing that they took it to the castle unrestrained it can't be that dangerous."

"That doesn't make a difference! I don't need my daughter being the one that is abducted by an alien."

She rolls her eyes again, knowing their was no winning this argument. they all ate their food, with a few other small conversations about work and what was happening between friends and neighbors. Ivory finished her plate and took it to the sink and washed it off.

"I'll be in my room if you need me." She says as she heads back to her room. Both her parents nod as she walks down the hall. Once back inside she closes the door and grabs her bag from off her bed and takes it over to her desk.

"Might as well, maybe it won't be that hard this time." Taking her math book and homework out, she grabs a pencil from the bottom of the bag and takes a seat at her desk. Staring down at the paper with the math questions staring right back at her. the first question, she doesn't even know the first question.

"Yeah, fuck this." She closes her book and reaches back into her bag to find a comic book and opens that instead.