The entire class shrieked.
“Oh, there’s no need to be scared, everycreature. Fiona here won’t harm you. Isn’t that right, Fiona?” Professor Fluttershy asked the tarantula that was on her raised hoof, who responded with the tiniest shake of her head.
“Yeah, I think I’m out for this lesson,” Gallus whispered to the pony sitting next to him, Sandbar. He raised a claw and asked his professor, “Excuse me, Professor Fluttershy? Can I go to the bathroom?”
She looked over to who asked the question, and gave him a smile. “If you need to go, then you should go, but I would prefer everycreature stays for this lesson.”
Gallus considered it for a moment. A very brief moment. “Yeah, no. I’m out.” And with that, he flew out of his seat and left, disturbing a few papers sitting on desks on his way out.
Ocellus could sense the sadness radiating from her professor, and was actually impressed that she could so flawlessly keep up her outwardly friendly demeanor.
Ocellus herself was as terrified of creepy crawlies as everycreature else in the class, despite being a bug herself. If she hadn’t known that her favorite professor would react so poorly to her leaving, she would have left along with Gallus. But, she figured that a controlled environment with somepony who could talk to animals wouldn’t be the worst thing to sit through for an hour.
Yona didn’t agree.
“Yona try, but Yona can’t!” With it so elegantly put, she launched herself through the nearest wall, which led outside and was, thankfully, on the ground floor.
Professor Fluttershy gasped and flew over to the destroyed wall, expecting to see a disoriented and very-hurt yak lying there. Instead, she saw the tail end of Yona escape through the door to the dorms. She sighed and went back to her desk.
She wrote something down on a sheet of paper, then addressed the class, “Before we begin, I would like for somecreature to deliver a note to Headmare Twilight about the hole in the wall.” Several hooves flew into the air, and she picked one at random. The stallion she chose quickly took the note in his teeth, keeping his eyes on the spider at all times, and scurried out of the class.
Ocellus checked the clock on the wall. Two minutes had passed. She surveyed the room and saw papers littering the floor, and a quarter of the wall missing to her left.
Professor Fluttershy, ignoring the immense mess that had already been made, cleared her throat, raised her head high, and spoke confidently, “Class, today your assignment is to hold little Fiona here. You do not need to hold her for long, but I am expecting at least ten seconds per creature, though you are welcome to hold her for longer if you’d like.”
She put Fiona on the rightmost table, and told the mare sitting there, “Once you’re done, gently pass Fiona to the pony behind you.”
The mare nodded, but remained pushed up against the back of her seat, trying to get as far away as possible while still remaining seated. But, after a few seconds, she tentatively reached out a hoof towards the tarantula patiently waiting on her desk. Once the hoof was close enough, Fiona hopped on, though the jitters from the pony did not make it easy.
The pony brought her hoof back towards her, and let out a quiet little “Eep!” as she closed her eyes and pushed her hoof away from her a bit more, as if she expected that to get rid of the spider.
But, she soon realized that nothing bad was going to happen, and went about examining Fiona, as if this was the first time she had ever really seen a tarantula before. Once she was through, she passed Fiona behind her to a stallion who was as scared as she had been.
And around the class it went, with similar reactions coming from each student. Some were more scared than others, never quite getting used to holding the tiny spider, while others talked to her for a little while, though they didn’t have the gift of understanding that their professor had, which made them short conversations.
Smolder tried to act like she wasn’t scared, but once again, it is impossible to hide feelings from an attentive changeling. Behind the bravado, Smolder was just as scared as every other student.
Silverstream, on the other claw, wasn’t scared at all. Being underwater for most of her life had left her without the innate feelings of dread that land-creatures had for the creepy crawlies, which meant that she was very confused as to why everyone was making such a big deal out of something so little, a feeling that she had all too often since the Storm King’s defeat. But she was also very curious, turning little Fiona around in her claws, holding her upside down and marveling at the insane abilities that this new thing possessed. She was the only one who had to be told to give the spider away.
Sandbar was chill, like with most things. He held Fiona on his hoof for eleven seconds, shrugged, and passed her on to the next creature: Ocellus.
Ocellus wasn’t sure what to make of the little spider on her hoof. She certainly didn’t detect any negative emotions from her. If anything, the little bug was just as curious as the big one. As she held her there, she realized that there really wasn’t much separating the two of them (besides millions of years of evolution, she noted to herself, but those were little details). She nodded to Fiona, who gave a teeny tiny nod back, and then gave her to the next pony.
After the class was all finished with the assignment that was given to them, Professor Fluttershy picked Fiona up, and glanced at the bell. They had finished a bit earlier than she thought they would, but that was fine.
“Now class, for homework, I want you to write me at least one paragraph of what you learned here today. If you did not learn anything, tell me what has been reinforced. That is all for today, so if you would like, you can go to lunch a little bit earlier. Thank you.” As soon as she finished talking, there was a rush of students as they all filed out of class.
When the bell rang, there was a loud pop and a flash of purple light as Headmare Twilight teleported into the classroom. She looked around at the mess, and asked, “So… how did it go?”
Fluttershy sighed, and glanced over to Fiona, who was now in her carrier. “It went fine. About as well as I expected, but not as well as I’d hoped. Three students left and didn’t come back to class.”
Twilight winced. She wouldn’t dream of ever skipping a class herself. “So what are you planning on doing about those who left? Give them zeroes?”
Fluttershy gasped, almost offended. “Goodness, no! They just need a little more time, is all. I’m sure they’ll come around eventually.”
Twilight shrugged. She trusted Fluttershy to run her own class, but she wasn’t exactly convinced of the efficiency of her methods. “Well, as long as you’re sure.” She got ready to teleport out, but was interrupted by the clearing of a throat.
“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy looked around at the destroyed class. “A little help, please?”
She blushed. “Oh, yeah. Of course.”
