The New Problem

Moonlight found herself in one of the dorms of the School of Friendship. She wasn't too pleased to be here, nor was she pleased to have been tricked into coming here. A bigger pony walked into the dorm room and this caused the shrunken pony to turn around and glare at him. She noticed the orange hair on him and the beige coat. The cutie mark on the flank told her who this was. "So I'm surprised to see you here and not in a cryogenic freezing tube," the smaller mare said with a smirk.

Gallop J. Fry looked at her confused, he had no idea what she was talking about. But she walked closer to him, that same smirk on her face. "You know, find yourself in the year three thousand. End up with a nice cycloptic pony with purple hair. Delivering packages throughout the universe on a ship that moves the universe around it," she continued teasing.

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just here to pick up my books. You're going to be late for your next class if you don't come with," the stallion replied.

The mare's face turned stoic and her teasing nature dropped instantly, "I'm not going," she said.

"Why not, Professor Sweetie Belle has the best classes. She makes learning fun," Gallop asked as a frown crossed his features.

"I don't want to be here in the first place, and you're no fun anyhow, not getting any of my references while I was trying to tease you about your name," Moonlight stated coldly.

"Headmare Starlight says that it's not nice to tease anyone," the stallion said to her sternly.

The investigator didn't care, she shoved past him despite her smaller stature and walked into the halls of the school. She was going to skip classes, she had already dealt with high school and had graduated. She walked through the halls, avoiding students and teachers alike. She wanted nothing to do with this school and she was determined to find a way out. By chance she found the front door of the school and she started to wave one of her front hooves in an attempt to cast a spell, but nothing happened.

Much to her annoyance, the sound of hooves hitting the ground sounded behind her. It was faint, but the fact it was getting louder meant that whoever it was, was heading her way. Moonlight looked around quickly for some place to hide. She found some potted plants, but quickly surmised that she wasn't small enough to hide behind those. The shrunken mare cursed her luck and turned to face whoever was walking toward her with a grimace on her face.

Her expression became one of confusion when she saw who it was. They had a coat of orange, a mane and beard of a deeper orange and were wearing glasses. This distracted her long enough for an unfamiliar sound to go off behind her and suddenly she was lifted off the ground in a blue magical field. "Hey! Let go of me!" she yelled as she started to struggle and kick against it.

"Your first day here and you're already trying to skip school. That's not a worthwhile use of your or anyone else's time," said the headmare from behind her.

"I said, LET GO!" Moonlight screamed.

"No, you're going to your scheduled class, young lady!" Starlight sternly replied as she started dragging the shrunken unicorn to her class.

"I'm twenty-two!" the investigator growled.

"I'm forty-six!" the purple unicorn replied in turn.

This shut Moonlight up, she knew that she had nothing that she could say that wouldn't get her smacked across the face so she kept her comments to herself. She continued to silently struggle all the way across the school, not caring anymore that ponies were watching her. The door to a classroom opened and she was placed in the class.

"Professor Sweetie Belle, this is your tardy student. If she's found to be tardy again, she'll be given detention," the headmare stated to the teacher.

An alabaster unicorn with a purple striped mane looked at the investigator with green eyes. "If you would take a seat, we could get this lesson underway," she said with a smile on her face.

The magical aura gently placed moonlight on the ground and she walked to a chair. She placed her front hooves on it and tried to pull herself up, but she hadn't quite figured it out yet. She backed up and bent her knees to jump, but a pale green aura encompassed her, "I heard rumors from the Princess, but I guess it's true that you aren't used to being a pony," the teacher said gently.

Moonlight didn't enjoy this, but she also could feel a familiar stare, "The shaman did this to me, Luster, in case you are wondering why I'm smaller than the last time you saw me. Your precious Princess and her decided that this would be the best course of action to teach me a lesson of seeing things from a different perspective or something. I don't really care," she stated harshly.

Luster Dawn recoiled at this, she was expecting some rudeness from the now smaller unicorn, but she wasn't expecting that. Sweetie Belle on the other hand didn't tolerate the rude outburst. She walked over to the new student with a frown on her face and looked down at her. This was the first time another pony had done this to the investigator and she was a little bit intimidated. "If you continue to be rude, you will be sent to in school suspension. As much as I would hate to do that to a new student, rules are rules," she said in a stern voice.

No one would've expected the reaction that came from the shrunken unicorn. She recoiled a little, realizing that she was small in a big world. "Yes m-ma'am," the investigator spoke timidly.

The teacher walked back to their desk and went back to her lesson, "Alright students, what are the six elements of Harmony?", she asked the class.

A voice spoke up behind the investigator, "Why don't we let the new girl answer?"

Sweetie Belle looked at the dark blue unicorn, "Moonlight, do you know the six elements of harmony?"

Moonlight shook her head, "I haven't learned any of them," she said truthfully.

The teacher smiled, "You demonstrated one of the six, honesty," she said.

This surprised the shrunken pony, she wasn't exactly expecting that outcome. She then felt a hoof on her shoulder and then Luster's voice spoke out, "Professor, the other five are Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic. A good example of Generosity and Kindness are my friend Floral Blossom agreeing to give Moonlight a place to live when she first arrived in Equestria."

Sweetie Belle nodded with a smile and turned to her chalk board, "That was very good, Luster Dawn," she said.

The teacher started to draw six different symbols on the chalk board and everyone else started to take notes, but Moonlight wasn't able to grip her pencil properly or the paper. She felt terrible, but the stallion from earlier's voice spoke up, "Professor, is it okay if Moonlight Gleam uses my notes to study for the test this week?" he asked.

The alabaster pony turned her head, "Moonlight hasn't been in our class long enough to take the test at the end of the week. She will be exempt from it, Gallop. But, that was very kind of you to offer," she said.

Moonlight started to feel bad, despite everything she had done, these ponies still wanted to be around her. They cared for her, they were kind to her. She cracked a smile, but quickly hid her face to keep everyone from seeing it. "Professor, can I come up to the front of the class?" she tried to ask, muffled by her muzzle being in her chest.

"What was that?"

She moved her face away from her chest and looked up, "I wanted to know if I could come up to the front of the class. I... haven't introduced myself yet and I'm a new student after all," she said.

Sweetie Belle smiled widely, this was a spectacular idea. She nodded enthusiastically and the dark blue unicorn hopped off her chair and walked to the front of the class. She poked the teacher on the leg, "Um... I'd have a little more confidence if you'd let me stand on a chair," she said timidly.

The teacher smiled and used her magic to lift the filly-sized mare onto a chair. She gently placed her on the seat and the investigator looked down at the floor, "I've been rude to some of you for a while and I think you should know the truth about me. As the professor said, I'm still getting used to being a pony. I'm not from this world. Where I come from, Ponies are from toys and cartoons that I grew up watching as a little girl. My name is Moonlight Gleam, and I guess you could call me an exchange student," she said without looking up.

Her head moved up and her eyes became sharp, she looked around the entire room to see the reactions of everyone. "Despite my stature, I'm a full grown adult. This was done to me by the shaman of the forest, the one you all know as Zecora. She was the one who brought me to this school against my will as well. She said that the Princess believes I have something to learn from all of this," she started to explain her position.

Laughter erupted from some of the ponies in the back, but a glare from the small unicorn shut them up. "Professor, I would like to be excused from the rest of the class if you will. You already said that I am exempt from the test this week," Moonlight requested.

Sweetie Belle put a hoof on her chin and sighed, "I guess you do have a point, but if the Princess of Friendship says that you need to learn about Friendship, then it wouldn't do for you to miss any of your lessons," she said.

The pink unicorn was quick to respond to that, "Professor, you know how studious I am and how much of a good student I am. Not only that, but the Princess tasked me with trying to share the magic of friendship with her. I can be her personal tutor," she offered.

The teacher clapped her front hooves together, "That's a wonderful idea, Luster. You and Moonlight may have the rest of the class off," she stated.

The two unicorns got out of their seats and left the class. "Why did you help me like that?" the dark blue one asked.

"Simple, you didn't feel comfortable in that class. Not only that, the two bullies there were going to try to give you a hard time for being a blank flank and I didn't want to see you get hurt," replied Twilight's student.

Moonlight walked in the direction of her dorm, followed closely by the larger unicorn. "There's more to you than you're letting on, Moonlight, why don't you be honest with us?" Luster asked.

"The less you know about the truth, the safer you and everyone you care about will be," came the cold reply from the filly-sized unicorn.

"How will you know we won't be safe unless you put your trust in us?" the pink mare replied.

Moonlight suddenly regretted showing herself as vulnerable and trying to be part of the class. Anger bubbled up inside of her and she stopped suddenly, causing the larger unicorn to run into her. She grit her teeth as she tried to work through everything and she turned around to look Luster Dawn in the eye. "Because the less you know about the truth, the less chances that he will try to come after you. All you need to know is that trying to get too close to me is dangerous and I don't care what your blasted Princess of Friendship told you to do. I have to keep my distance from all of you or I will be putting you all in danger. If you cannot accept that, then you are a fool!" she snapped

The student of Twilight Sparkle was left stunned as the smaller unicorn stormed off. It was a strange experience, neither of them had expected that experience. A frown crossed Luster's face. Despite all of the tenderness that Moonlight seemed to show, she wouldn't let friendship take root in her heart. Doubts formed in her mind and she came to realize that she would need to speak to one of the council of friendship about this, but she started to wonder just which one would the right one to go to.