Slice of Mango.
Like all nights it starts with a nudging, a prodding. Then her gentle voice “Come on Sugarplum, it’s time to go to school.” I whine and cover my head with the blankie.
“But Moooooooom I don’t waaaannaaaa. I wanna sleep and stuff!” She chuckles and pulls the blanket down softly, stroking my mane with a soothing wing, causing a happy squeak to eke it’s way out of me. I crack one eye open and smile at her, at my mama. She’s still the same dark green she’s always been, and it makes me happy because it reminds me of the forests we visit. Then she makes me clench my eyes shut when she pushes open my curtain, the last glimmers of sunlight shining in my slitted eyes. My muzzle scrunches and I rub gently with my hooves, finally all awake as I look around my room, Princess Luna plushy stationed faithfully next to my pillow to protect me from any bad dreams.
“Come on Plum, it’s really time to get up sweetie.” She nuzzles me, and I finally sit up, stretching my dusky purple wings with a happy sigh, smiling as I slip out of bed and take off my pajamas, shimmying right out and tossing them on the bed before running to the bathroom and doing all the bathroom stuff, making sure to wash my hooves and brush my teeth, smoothing my mane into place with a hoof instead of brushing it properly. Nopony will notice it! I giggle and bounce along to the breakfast table.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” She did it! She brought me some mango slices and made me oatmeal just like I love it! She’s the best mom ever!
I bury my face in the oatmeal, eagerly devouring it, fur getting all mussed up. In short, I look like a very happy batty. She watches and smiles, washcloth in wing ready to wipe my muzzle clean. “You’re such a messy eater Sugar, aren’t you ready to not need your momma to wipe your face?” I beam at her with a joyful grin as she cleans my face, tail swishing playfully as I wait for her to finish.
“Thanks mom!” I gallop back to my room, wings outstretched to pull me right around the corner as I get all my school stuff together. It’s my first day in the new school! I’m so excited! I ‘Eeee’ as I pack my saddlebags, wings dexterous and swift as they fill it. Then I bounce up to the calender on the wall and mark off the day, smiling all around my stone blue room, glancing at my Wonderbolts poster and the dark goggles I got that day to be able to see them in person. They fly super fast and it’s amazing! I was super tired all night after though. Which was a shame. I missed the fireworks display!
“Ready Sugarplum? I’ll walk you to school so you know the way alright?” She smiles again and straightens my bandanna for me. I pronk in place as she trots to the door, holding it open for me once she gets there. Once we’re outside she closes and locks the door, making sure my key is secure under the bandanna. A cool breeze caresses me, eliciting a giggle as it ruffles my mane. The street is bright tonight, not a cloud in the sky to cover the moon as we trot to the school, which thankfully is pretty close. It’s bustling with quiet activity as countless foals and their parents show up to drop them off, all the little batponies bright eyed and chattering excitedly. Tonight will be great! I put on my best smile as we canter inside. The teachers are all lined up in the main hall, providing warm smiles to all the foals entering the comfortably lit building, greeting many by name.
I giggle as I see a filly run up and give one of the teachers a big ol’ hug! This school looks great so far to me. I gasp, leathery wings ruffling as I notice they have a table with lots of goodies and sweets on it. “Mom! Can I have some cookies?” I tilt my head and give her the puppy eyes. She smiles and nods, leading us over to the table where a smiling stallion gently offers me a ready made plate of treats.
“Saw the cookies young foal? Heh. You’re a sharp one.” His wrinkled face crinkles back into a smile. “I’m Strudel, the schools lunch pony, what’s your name?”
I look up from the plate, having managed to stuff a cookie in my snout before he asked the question. I take my time to chew and swallow, I’m a good pony who doesn’t speak with their mouth full! “I’m Sugarplum! I’m new here! These cookies are realllly good!” I squeak and smile brightly, accidentally showing too much fang but that seems to be a common theme among the others. I wiggle my wings and hum thoughtfully, now walking with mom as she talks to the teachers. They’re all smiling and laughing and being grownups as she hugs me close, rubbing at my shoulder as I lean against her, smiling contentedly. She leads us to one teacher in particular, sipping at a mug of that awful bitter stuff called coffee, my snoot wrinkling at the scent.
“Sugarplum, this is Miss Shield, she’ll be your teacher.” Mom smiles at me and introduces me to the unicorn, who smiles a bit groggily.
“Hi there Sugarplum, I can’t wait to start having you in class!” I smile back and wave, smiling at the pretty white unicorn. She downs the rest of her coffee and her mug winks out of existence. I blink in surprise as the sparkling construct just ceases to exist. She smiles and winks, magic opening her classroom door to show us around. “This is my classroom!” It’s a lovely soft green, like the leaves of a tree, in fact, the walls are painted in a leafy pattern! I gasp at the awesomeness. I spin around to take in the whole room, eyes wide in wonder.
“So Sugarplum, today is the first day and it’ll really start in 5 minutes. Pick a seat wherever you want and hang out okay sweetie?” Mom smooths my mane and kisses my forehead. “I gotta go work now Sugar.” With that she turns and trots out, tail swishing contentedly as she heads to work. I sit in the back, blinking curiously as other foals stream into the room in a muted rainbow of colour. It’s rather beautiful. They all sit down as the bell rings, Miss Shield clearing her throat and tossing her pretty, multi blue mane.
“Hello class! I’m Miss Shield! I’m your home teacher okay? Which means I get to teach you all kinds of fun stuff!” Her horn lights up and traces delicate symbols into the air, causing me to eee quietly as I feel the tingles in my wings. “Today I’ll be teaching you all some simple cantrips anypony can do! It’ll be great!” I perk my ears and lean forwards in interest, the night getting better all the time.
“Now I know there’s no unicorns in the room but it’s actually false that only unicorns can do magic! Pegasi, Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Batponies can all do magic. Like the sticky hooves cantrip!” She draws a quick diagram on the chalkboard, in bright pink chalk. It shows a hoof, with a cloud of sparkles around it. “This is a very short telekinesis field that all ponies can use! With practice you can use it just as finely as a unicorn can use their horn.” I stare at my hooves in wonder, moving them back and forth curiously. She keeps drawing on the board, drawing simple diagrams in that pink chalk. “And keep in mind you’re never too old to stop learning! My little sister Twi keeps teaching me all sorts of amazing stuff.” She smiles happily.
Hours pass as she teaches us about magic and cantrips, giving us a few simple exercises to grasp at our budding magic. Hide and seek, is apparently an excellent exercise for batponies. Something to do with hiding in dark places and wanting to be unseen. Then, it’s lunch time and I’m waiting in line, wings carefully counting out bits for lunch. Miss Gleaming watches from the teacher’s table, a delighted sparkle in her eyes as I hum eagerly, smiling at the lunch mare. She scoop a bowl of peach slices onto my tray with a twinkle of her horn and a daisy sandwich, ruffling my mane. I almost bounce to the check out and proudly give Strudel at the register my bits. He counts them out and sends me off with the food. I plunk my butt down at a table and neatly eat, fork firmly in wing as I nibble at the fruit and bite into the yummy sandwich. Lots of ponies run or giggle or laugh and it fills the hall with a gentle roar, albeit quieter than a daytime cafeteria’s gentle roar. We’re bats after all, ears are sensitive. I finish and chat with a few of the other ponies, smiling and having a great time until lunch ends and we go back to our classes. Next is apparently art class, where they give us all paint stained smocks to put on and a couple pencils, teaching us all about shading. The art teacher’s disheveled mane is stained every colour of the rainbow and his coat has splotches of ink splattered on it.
“Now normally I’m not such a mess class, but sometimes when you’re in the passion of the moment things happen.” He motions to a nearby banner, painted beautifully with the message; ‘Welcome to Starless Elementary!’. There’s a lovingly painted moon in the centre, each crater a multihued wonder. I gasp in wonder and smile.
“It’s so pretty!” I mumble. He chuckles and motions with a stretch of his feathery wings at a wall covered in banners, every one marked with a year.
“Each year I paint a new banner to greet the foals. And each year even I learn something new! And hopefully, it will have sparked your creative fires.” I sit up straighter in my chair and ruffle my leathery wings. “My name is Kaleidoscope.” he finally introduces himself with a grin and a yawn. I listen and scribble aimlessly on the paper, barely focusing on either. In the end it comes out looking like a lumpy cookie which makes me smile and wiggle at the thought of some of Mom’s cookies. They’re super yummy! I focus more on drawing the cookies, getting the details better, almost drooling. Mr Kaleidoscope peeks over my shoulder and nods approvingly.
“Good work Sugarplum! That’s definitely a plate of cookies.” He pats me on the shoulder and walks off. I beam at my classmates and keep drawing cookies. The class speeds by quickly enough, and we move on to math class. The teacher is an old grey batpony, with a light green mane. He looks like he’s about ready for a nap.
“Hello young ponies! I’m Script!” He smiles and gestures to the board, with a simple equation of 2+2 on it. “Most of you probably know some of this but it is good to start at the beginning!”
He quickly launches into a lesson, sprinkling in a few jokes and basking in the laughter. “Let’s start with odd numbers. Like 3. And 5. any number that you can’t cut neatly in half. 2 is an even number. So is 4. And remember, you can make an odd number with an even and an odd, but not two odds, or two evens. Two odd and two even create even numbers.” He keeps talking about the addition and subtraction and hoofs out a single paper sheet marked with simple problems. 1+1, 3+5, 4-1. We spend the rest of the short class period working through the theory of this. The class ends and we trot into the gym.
Miss Gleaming is there, polishing a hoof on her chest, now dressed in gym clothes. “I’m also the gym teacher! Now, you won’t have all these classes every day, that would overwhelm you right? This is just our first day introductory stuff.” She gestures behind her at all the toys and jumpropes and balls. “We call this a free day. Have fun and be nice.” A herd of young colts and fillies scatter across the room, me among them. They all play games with one another, unicorns bouncing balls to hovering pegasi, their slitted eyes wide in excitement, more than a few happy changelittles romp around enjoying the ambient joy. We happy bats just bound around, gliding to and fro and playing tag or catch. I personally pounce and boop a giggling changelittle with my nose, eyes sparkling happily as I nuzzle prodigiously and gallop away, wings scooping at the air as I try to fly.
With a jubilant scree I manage takeoff, soaring through the vaulted room with giggles and glee, tail streaming behind me as I go into a glide, mane flapping in the wind. Soon though, as all things end, my wings get tired and one folds in, leaving me headed straight to the floor. I kee in panic and shut my eyes, only for a little tingle of magic all about me, lowering me slowly to the floor. Miss Gleaming is looking at me with razor focus, her horn glowing until she deposits me safely on the ground.
“You ok Sugarplum?” She nuzzles me and sits next to me as I nod happily. “Great, you did good at the flight too, we all crash sometimes. Just a matter of how bad right?” I spend the rest of gym galloping around chattering excitedly at anypony who’d listen. Eventually the bell rings and I yawn. Miss Gleaming leads us to the entrance of the school, the eventful day over as our parents are here to pick us up.
Mom is right at the front, scooping me up in her wings and nuzzling at my belly until I’m a giggly, squirmy bundle of skree. “How’d it go Sugarplum? Didja have fun?” I nod and snuggle close. “Tired sweetie? Let’s get you home then, down for a nap.” I nod again and squirm onto her back, nestling close as she smiles at my teachers and thanks them before trotting home, stopping by a bakery for a couple donuts to share with me. They’re super yummy and put a wider smile on my face. She licks a paper towel and dabs at a smudge of the cinnamon sugar they were dusted with that’s all over my face, I squirm and whine a little ‘mooom’ but revel in the loving attention.
We get home and she sits on the couch, scooping me up next to her as she brings out my favourite story and gently starts reading it aloud to me. I shut my eyes and let her soft voice and the vivid imagery guide me off to slumber. Today was the best day ever I think, smiling blissfully. And I bet the next day will be even better.