~ ~
So this is the new School of Friendship, huh.
I slowly walked through the school’s doors, which were surrounded by big waterfalls on both sides. The day had finally arrived.
In the hall stood Twilight Sparkle, headmare of the school, saviour of Equestria and the Alicorn of Friendship; it made sense that she wanted to open her own School of Friendship: Celestia had her special school for those prissy unicorns, and Luna had recently opened a silly school for the dramatic arts; it was bound to happen, really.
She addressed her new students. “Welcome to the School of Friendship. I’m your headmare Twilight Sparkle. Please follow guidance counsellor Starlight to sign in and get your class assignments; Then we can show you your living quarters!”
I nodded my head; this was going just as I hoped it would. I had always thought friendship was a useless waste of time, but ever since Twilight Sparkle and her friends saved Equestria once again from the Storm King it finally clicked: Friendship is Power, and I wanted it.
I then looked around the room. Golly, there are so many ponies in here!
Somepony shouted, “Gallus!” Gee, why did they have to shout so loud? I heard an annoying cough, and when I turned my head around I saw something, or rather some-creature, that made me shiver: A grumpy-looking old griffon with a red hat.
My fear of griffons aside, that made me realize something —there were non-ponies in this school as well?
I scanned the room again to try and see what other creatures were here. I saw another griffon —this one younger and blue, probably this ‘Gallus’ the old griffon was looking for— as well as a pair of yaks talking to professor Pinkie Pie. The younger yak tripped on her hair and crashed into a wall. What a klutz.
I also saw a couple of dragons arguing, who then went and waved to Spike to come. They were then approached by whom I think was the king of the changelings: King Thorax and another smaller, younger changeling.
Finally the group was rushed by an over-enthusiastic pink hippogriff. The younger changeling ran away and hid under professor Fluttershy’s mane. Then a serious-looking hippogriff came and seemed to introduce the smaller one, who continued to waffle until she saw something else and rushed over to it. I got the impression that she was quite featherbrained.
Headmare Twilight spoke again. “Thank you so much for supporting the grand opening of our school. I hope you’ll all join us for friends and family day to see the amazing progress your students are making.”
Everypony shouted in jubilation, but I froze in place. They wanted to see my parents.
I tried to look calm, but I was panicking inside. For Celestia’s sake, how didn’t I expect this! It was so obvious in hindsight. OF COURSE they would want to see our parents! Golly! How could I even SIGN UP without them!
I felt so stupid. I was this close to discovering the secrets of friendship, but NO, I had to be an idiot and forget that to sign up to school I need my stupid parents, the same ones that NEVER EVEN CARED FOR ME! THE SAME BUCKING ONES THAT LEFT ME IN THAT BUCKING ORPHANAGE!
I was steaming inside; I felt like I was about to explode, but then an idea came to me.
~ ~
I said goodbye to Thorax after he helped me sign in and get my classes assigned.
I felt really nervous when he left, since I don’t know any other creature here aside from headmare Twilight. I guess the professor who let me hide in her mane, that dragon and that talkative hippogriff —Fluttershy, Smolder and Silverstream respectively, I think— are also now technically my acquaintances, but I bare spoke a word to them.
Since classes wouldn’t start until tomorrow, I wanted to go to my new dorm to settle in a bit and rest, but before I could I heard some distant crying.
I followed the source of the sound to try and see what was wrong.
I felt the bitter smell of sadness hit me as I got close by. It was, however, intertwined with a small pungence of anger.
This anger made me want to hide, but before I did I tasted something in it: Something blue and wet. The feelings then became clearer: It was an overflowing sense of sadness and frustration, sprinkled with a dash of betrayal. I wanted to help whoever was feeling this way.
Round the corner was a small filly with a curly light blue mane and tail and a cutie mark of a dark orange rook. Her big scarlet eyes were shiny and wet.
“Hey, are you okay?” I said.
“Oh, thank you for asking,” she whimpered,” but no. I wanted to sign up to the school, but I need my parents to do it.”
I smelled a tinge of anger at the mention of her parents, so I guessed it was a sour subject for her. Still, if asking her meant that I could find a way to help her, then it meant I had to go for it.
“Sorry to ask, but... what happened to your parents?” I said.
“They... Hit the hay,” she sobbed, a stream of tears coming down her face.
I was a bit confused. Why do I smell anger towards them? She looks quite sad about them. Was that feeling of betrayal coming from them as well? These were all questions that raced through my head, but I put them aside. I had to think of a way to help this sad little filly.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that... Why don’t you ask headmare Twilight if you can join in anyway; I’m sure she would allow you to sign up regardless,” I said.
Her face went from sad to panicking in an instant. “You can’t! Please don't tell her, or anypony else,” she pleaded, “If the professors find out they’ll send me back to the orphanage, and if anypony else does they’ll make fun of me!”
“Okay, I promise I will not tell anypony else,” I said. It felt wrong to promise this; the professors were kind and would absolutely help her, but she was clearly distressed. Maybe I could convince her to tell them afterwards, but for now I had to help her calm down.
I took a long, deep inhale and brought my right forehoof closer to my chest. Luckily she understood immediately and started doing the same. I held my breath for a few seconds, and when I exhaled I moved my forehoof away from me.
We repeated these motions a few more times; it was a trick that king Thorax had taught me for when I was anxious.
“Better?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she replied with a small smile. It felt good to have helped her relax, but she still couldn’t sign up to the school without her parents; how could I help her?
Then it hit me: I could disguise myself as her mother.
~ ~
My idea had worked.
I had followed the little changeling and when nopony else was around I started crying. She came to see what was wrong and told her a sob story about how my parents died. I wasn’t certain if they were actually dead or they were alive, but it didn’t matter to me; they could rot in Tartarus for all I cared.
She bought my sob story and decided to help me sign up with the guidance counsellor. We chatted while heading to Starlight’s office.
“So, what’s your name?” the changeling asked.
“Oh golly, I forgot to tell you! I'm Cozy Glow, what’s your name?”
“I’m Ocellus, and I’m a changeling, but I guess that you already knew that...” She whispered the last part making it almost inaudible.
I chose to ignore her whispering and replied, “thank you so much for your help, Ocellus.”
“Oh, it’s nothing, really. I couldn’t in good conscience let you get sent back to the orphanage,” she said with a bashful smile.
I felt a strange sensation in my chest after hearing that, but I didn’t think much of it. We reached Starlight’s office.
“Here’s the plan,” I said.
~ ~
Okay Starlight, keep it together now: You’ve just got to register students until late afternoon; it shouldn't be as hard as saving the world... right?
Hay was I wrong.
Dealing with parents is very, very, frustrating. So far I've dealt with a few —thankfully— normal parents, many clueless parents, and worts of all: Entitled parents. It was honestly so exhausting dealing with them that I was tempted to bottle-up my emotions again.
I asked Twilight for help back then if she knew a way to deal with my emotions in a more productive way, and she taught me a breathing technique Cadance taught her, and so far it’s worked well. Luckily the few students old enough to register by themselves have been pleasant enough.
I was ecstatic when it was nearing 4 pm: I would be free by then, but before I could tidy up my office and go check on Twilight, I heard a knock.
Two ponies walked inside my office.
The older one was a pink mare with green eyes and a curly scarlet mane. She had a cutie mark of a chess piece —a queen— that looked like it was made of white quartz, going by what Maud has told me about different types of rocks. She looked a bit nervous, though.
The younger one —I’m guessing her daughter— walked with a bit more resolve in her gait, but her scarlet eyes looked a bit wet, had she been crying recently? Her coat was a light salmon pink, and had a very curly ice-blue mane, tied up with some cream coloured ribbons. She looked about the same age as the Crusaders when I first met them around 30 moons ago, so I’m guessing she’s around eleven.
Shouldn’t she be at an elementary school if that’s the case though? I mean, Twilight told me this school is supposed to be post-elementary— I shook my head and noticed they were staring at me in confusion, so I quickly righted myself up. Ok, I think I’m rambling, maybe I’ll ask her later.
I cleared my throat and said, “hello and welcome to the School of Friendship. I’m Starlight Glimmer. What brings you here?” I resisted the urge to facehoof at such an obvious question.
“Oh, um... we’re here to... um, register my daughter to the School of Friendship! I’m O—” She stopped herself before continuing “—Rosie Quartz, miss Glimmer, and this is my daughter Cozy Glow.” I raised my eyebrow at the mare.
The little filly, Cozy Glow, was trying to appear nonchalant, but by the way her eyes were twitching it was obvious she would rather be glaring daggers at her. Honestly the sight of this tiny pink pegasus looking about ready to lash out at her mum was rather amusing, so I played along with it. Still, something funny was definitely going on here, so I’d have to talk to Twilight about this later.
“Of course, miss Quartz. I’ll need to interview you and your daughter first, and then you’ll have to fill this form and sign your name here,” I said.
The interview went for about half an hour and Rosie Quartz reminded me of Fluttershy a bit on her more anxious days. Cozy Glow was doing more of the talking when asked about their past with a chipper attitude.
She told me about how she came from Fillydelphia and that she was turning eleven next moon —Called It!—, and so on. A detail Cozy mentioned that struck me as odd was how she said her mum wouldn’t be able to attend friends and family day, but I shrugged it off for now. Just another odd detail I’ll have to discuss with Twilight later.
After the interview was over they filled the form together and Rosie Quartz signed the paper allowing Cozy to stay at the school. At that Cozy hugged her mum and they went off after saying goodbye. When they left my office I put my ear to the door to eavesdrop on their conversation to see if my suspicions were correct.
I was right.
~ ~
Oh golly yes! After Ocellus’ slip-up I was afraid miss Starlight would notice something was wrong and not allow me to sign up. he he, I’m lucky Starlight is dumber than she looks. I felt so giddy I started prancing around Ocellus as she transformed back to her form.
“Phew, that was harder than I thought,” she said.
“Thank you so much, Ocellus! I never could have done it without your help!”
“Oh don’t worry, Cozy. That’s what friends are for!” she replied, “I’m a bit tired now. Want to go check the dormitories to settle in?”
“Golly! That sounds just peachy, Ocellus.”
~ ~
“Hey Twilight!” I said as I entered the Castle of Friendship. My mind was a bit numb from the hectic first day, so I was looking forward to relax a bit and chat with Twilight.
“Hi Starlight! Thanks for all your help at the school today with the students. I hope you’re not to tired from all the work,” chirped Twilight, her enthusiasm contagious.
“Only a little,” I replied with a smile that quickly vanished, “I wasn’t really expecting all those entitled parents, though.”
Her ears flattened at that. “Sorry Starlight, I hope they didn’t give you much trouble.”
“Not really,” I said nonchalantly, “but I did end up using your trick to manage my temper.”
“I’m happy to hear that!” Twilight said, and then she noticed my furrowed brows and asked, “bit for your thoughts, Starlight?”
“Oh! I was just thinking, how does our education system really work? I only have a foggy idea about it,” I admitted sheepishly.
“Well, you see, Starlight”— Here goes Twilight into lecture mode —”all young ponies are required to get a general education in reading and writing, equestrian history and culture, basic maths, as well as other topics so that they can find their cutie marks.
“Most foals go to an elementary school such as the Ponyville Schoolhouse, but there are also schools catering to more specific needs, such as Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Some ponies may also get private tutoring instead of attending school.
“There are also institutions dedicated to teaching foals other things after the school hours like the flight camp that Rainbow went to or the Cutie Mark Day Camp Cheerilee organized with the Crusaders a couple moons back. You can probably guess that those aren’t necessarily regulated by the EEA unless they want to hand out degrees.
“Anyway”, she continued, “elementary school usually last 8 years which makes sense since most ponies have already gotten their cutie marks by the time they are 14. After that most ponies go into apprenticeships relating to their talents with another pony already in that profession, or they can go into some sort of higher education like a university, an institute or an academy.”
That made me think about something. “Wait, so the School of Friendship isn’t a school? I mean, you had me check that all students had completed their primary education.”
Twilight paused for a moment and blinked twice. “Huh, I guess you’re right Starlight, it’s more like an academy really,” she said as she rubbed her neck. “Why do you ask?”
At that, I remembered what I wanted to tell Twilight earlier. “Oh yeah! The last student I registered before coming here is very nice, but there’s something funny going on with her.”
“Something funny?” Twilight asked, “like what?”
“Well, for starters she is surprisingly young, just ten years old.”
Twilight tilted her head and asked me, probably a bit louder than she intended, “WHAT!? And you let her in?” she paused. She probably realized that that came out wrong and gave me a sheepish smile, “I mean, I trust your judgement Starlight, but why?”
“Well,” I started, “for one, she did complete her primary education. She told me that they let her skip a few grades, and when I asked her some questions to test her knowledge she was able to answer all of them correctly.
“She also seemed to be extremely eager to join the school; just after she left my office I heard her prancing about in happiness just because I let her in.”
“Aww, that sounds adorable, Starlight,” Twilight said with a small smile.
“It really was,” I replied, “but something was bothering me about her mum’s attitude.”
“How come?” she asked.
“You see, she was acting pretty nervous when they got into my office, which by itself isn’t that suspicious, but then I noticed that she didn’t really know about her daughter or her own life, Cozy had to fill in a lot of the blanks.”
“Cozy?”
“Oh yeah, sorry Twilight,” I said with a sheepish smile, “the student’s name is Cozy Glow. Anyway, I found this pretty weird, considering how alike they looked, so when they left my office I decided to eavesdrop on them.” At this, Twilight looked at me dissaprovingly, so I quickly defended myself. “Hey! I only did it to see if I could solve the mystery,” I pouted.
“And how did that go?” asked Twilight in a flat tone and a raised eyebrow.
“Actually, I did solve the mystery,” I said as I regained my posture, “turns out Cozy’s ‘mum’ was actually our changeling student, Ocellus.”
Twilight froze for a moment and then did a double take before asking, “wait, Ocellus? I’ve met her before with Thorax a few times; I didn’t think she would do something like that.” Twilight scratched her chin.
“I’m guessing Cozy asked her to pose as her mum,” I said, “but I’m not really sure why she would ask for that.”
“I’ll talk to Ocellus, then,” said Twilight, “but I still don’t understand why you let a filly sign in without her parents permission.”
“That way we can keep an eye on her while we track her parents,” I said. Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded. I then added, “also, I think the School of Friendship might really help her in the meantime; she reminded me of myself a bit.”
Twilight was taken aback by this and asked, “what do you mean, Starlight?”
“You remember when we first met about three years ago?”
“When you ran that village without Cutie Marks?”
“Yeah,” I said as I took a deep, long breath, “back then I hid my anger and sadness behind a mask of happiness, and I have a feeling that Cozy is doing the same. I think she really needs some friends.”
“Then you have my support, Starlight,” Twilight said as she put her right hoof on my shoulder and smiled.
I smiled back.
~ ~
“Bye Ocellus, and thanks again for everything!” I said as I entered my new dorm.
I slowly closed the door and when I looked inside I was surprised.
Despite the small size, it had everything I ever wanted: My own desk painted in a deep lavender on its sides with a varnished maple countertop, a small bookcase in the same colours, and a twin-sized bed with a thick mattress the fluffiest-looking quilt I’ve ever seen.
I quickly jumped into the bed, its softness making me melt into it. I felt very cosy.
I was glad this would be my new home.
Author's Note
Hi, thanks for reading this first chapter! This is my first pony fic, so any criticism is appreciated, especially about characterization: I honestly tried really hard to get the characters right (to the point that I rewatched many episodes just to get a gist of the characters).
Another thing is that I tried to go for the British spelling of most things; if you see any inconsistencies with spelling please let me know, since my English knowledge is a hodgepodge of different sources from the internet, as well as what I’ve learnt in school.
Also I wanted to say that for the effects of this story, a moon is the same length as a month irl. I also made a little timeline with all the episodes to give me an idea of the time elapsed since the first episode, so the Cutie Mark Crusaders in this story are around 12 years old in this story, or 6 years old at the start of the show, giving us a time-frame for canon of about 6 years from Friendship is Magic to School Daze.
Another world-building thing is that I imagine that the school system in Equestria is about 8 years of elementary education to allow fillies and colts to find their Cutie Marks and learn the basics of culture, and then most ponies go into sort of apprenticeships related to their own talents, similar to how it was done in the late middle ages. Obviously there are some exceptions like Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, which has a longer curriculum that combines basic and secondary education and takes about 14 years if you don’t skip grades like Twilight did, making her about 17 years old at the start of the show, or 23 by this story’s point.
Anyway, the Cutie Marks to indicate the narrator of each part is inspired by Never Alone by SoloBrony, and the Cutie Marks Themselves are from these sources:
Cozy Glow by cgh-walker
Ocellus by Lahirien
Starlight Glimmer by Illumnious
Edit 16/09/2022:
Hello Again! As I was re-reading the chapter while working on the next one I noticed a few quick things I felt could help the flow of the story, so I changed them. Nothing major, though.
If anyone’s wondering, work on the second chapter has been slow, but steady. I think I’m about halfway done with the first pass of it.
~~I’m not sure when It’ll be ready, but I’m aiming for a release before the end of the month~~ 
