Canterlot Academy Trials

Once he was finished with lunch--quite a delicious one at that--Nebula gave his thanks to Prezzemola’s cooking skills.

“Mm. That was amazing!” he complimented her on his way out as he passed the front counter, leaving behind a few bits for her as a tip. “Thanks a ton. I’m gonna need to eat like that more often.”

“Thanks, kiddo,” she replied as she accepted the bits, “And don’t be a strangah. Come back whenevah ya like. There’s a whole buncha stuff you ain’t tried yet. Here, take somethin’ for the road, eh?” She pushed a small brown bag of cannolis towards him.

“Ooh! Thanks!” Nebula gleefully accepted the bag via his magic. “I’ll do just that,” he smiled as he left the building, “But for now I gotta get back to class. Have a good day, Miss Prez!”

“Ey, you too, kiddo!”

Nebula began trotting back toward the Academy, marvelling at the flavors he had experienced back there not too long ago.

‘That calzone was amazing! It was like a folded pizza roll that was baked to perfection. And that salad was really great too. The olives and fontina cheese were fresh and popped like flavor bombs. Not to mention the cider was really good too. I’ll have to draft a report on that place sooner or later. And what’s in this bag, I wonder…”

Before he could reach the Academy, he was stopped by a familiar face.

“Look who it is,” an older earth pony stallion with a notably silver-gray color scheme called out to him. “How’s your first day in class, Nebula?”

“Tungsten?” he looked up and saw his role model standing in front of him. “It’s great for the most part. Aside from witnessing some immature high-school-age bullying from a griffon woman.”

“Is that so, eh?” Tungsten raised an eyebrow at such a thing. “Well. You know what to do. If someone is actin’ up, defend yourself if need be. At this stage of life, you gotta stand tall for yourself and others around you. Understand?”

“Of course,” Nebula replied with a nod. “I won’t allow her to harm any of my friends. But otherwise, I think I’m alright. Mostly everyone else I’ve come across has been rather helpful towards me, so I have nothing to worry about. We’re supposed to be getting our physical today, so I’m looking forward to that.”

“Good. Cuz once they get a feel for how strong you are, they gon’ send you on missions,” Tungsten added, “It’s how it was for me when I was yo age. Lucky for you, I might just be helpin’ ya’ll out…” Tungsten explained then shot him a smug smile.

“Wait, for real??” Nebula gasped, his eyes widening. “I might get to go on a mission with you, sir?”

Tungsten playfully ruffled the young stallion’s blonde mane with a hoof. “You never know. I’m takin’ time off from my Guard duties, but I might just volunteer to help ya’ll a few times. Just make sure you ready by the time I get down there.”

“Oh I will!” Nebula snapped back with a competitive smile on his face. “And then I’m gonna make something so epic, even you’ll be impressed!”

“Countin’ on it,” the guardstallion replied as he started walking onwards. “Now get on, kiddo. I’m headin’ off for lunch.”

“Oh hey, check out the Bitalian place down the road! Their food is great!”

“Already headin’ there!”

Meanwhile, in the Academy itself…

Several students were running laps around an outdoor field. The training exercise was overseen by a large minotaur woman whose eyes were narrowed, steeled as she watched everyone move. As soon as everyone crossed the finish line, she pressed the stopwatch, and took a glance at it.

“Not bad,” her gruff voice boomed to everyone on the field, “Dismissed. Hit the showers.”

Every student let out sighs of relief and groans of pain. After being made to run 50 laps, they all felt as if their limbs were going to fall off.

A certain kirin mare in particular was having trouble breathing.

“Agh…eegh…” Mei huffed as she stood upright. “So…painful…”

Though, one student in particular seemed to not suffer from this as badly.

“You alright, Mei?” a zebra mare with a stocky figure trotted alongside her. “C’mon. Let’s get you some water.”

Mei pushed up her foggy glasses and smiled. “You’re too kind, Spearklip.”

The zebra mare--Spearklip--would put a hoof under Mei’s body to help her walk along. “It’s fine. You know I always got your back, right?”

Inside the locker rooms…

Mei had downed an entire bottle of water and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Whew…much better. Running like that is kinda fun…until we have to do too much of it.”

“I’ll say,” Spearklip replied as she stretched her hooves out. “But it’ll get us ready for any missions we’ll have to do a lot of running in. So! On a more important note…who’s that cute guy you’ve been looking at?”

“W-what?” Mei’s glasses nearly fell off her face as a result of being startled by the question, but she used her levitation to keep them up. “There’s…way too many to count! There’s this dragon guy…he looks cool. As does that unicorn guy…”

“Greedy aren’t we?” the zebra teased her friend, “We’ll you’ll have plenty of time to review your options as we get to know ‘em better here.”

“Y-yeah…” Mei stuttered as her ear flicked….

Outside the locker room…

“I’m tellin’ ya, she’s one wrong step from becomin’ fried pussy-chicken,” Blue snorted smoke through his nostrils as he walked down the hallway with the dalmatian-spotted Diamond Dog.

Said Diamond Dog’s ‘spiked’ tail was wagging with intrigue as he let out a small, wheezing laugh. “Hmhm…she’s headed straight for the pound at this rate,” he muttered in a tone that indicated a rather eerie sense of excitement towards seeing the griffon get what was coming to her. “Bullying is such an immature thing. Something that I can’t believe she hasn’t dropped off from her younger years yet.”

“Blech.” Blue scoffed. “Clearly she hasn’t been taught how to act right. Part of me wonders how much it has to do with the way griffons are raised. But I don’t wanna sound like I’m stereotyping or anything, Fang.”

“Stereotypes exist for a reason, friend,” the dalmatian diamond dog--whose full name was Jun Fang--replied with an unsympathetic tone, “They wouldn’t exist if the behavior hadn’t been documented over a period of time. Griffons’ natural hostility has led to stagnation for Griffonstone. Only recently have things begun to improve ever since they started to accept help from the outside world. I imagine that's why she's hostile towards everyone else here--she's simply envious of the fact that everyone else gets along so well. Your friend Atomic Nebula especially.”

“Seems to be the case,” Blue couldn’t help but agree. “Us dragons were the same way. Constantly stepping all over each other until we realized that that wasn’t quite the best way to go about treating each other. Though, not all of them have come to understand it. But if she hurts my dude Neb, we're gonna have problems.”

“Misery loves company,” Fang wheezed once more. “But that’s neither here nor there. Professor Bonehardt’s instruction was quite vigorous wasn’t it?”

Blue placed his right claw on his left shoulder and rolled his arm a few times. The minotaur lady--Ms. Bonehardt--pulled no punches when it came to her teachings. “Meh. Nothing I’m unfamiliar with. Just hope Nebula and Rose can make it through the cow lady’s trials. They don’t exactly have a lot of stamina.”

“We’ll see if they make it back alive,” Fang put his paws together and faux-prayed for them. It was his attempt at humor, though his sinister tone caused it to come off as more of a threat than a jest. "I'll prepare a eulogy."

“Pfft. I think Rose would rather stay dead, honestly,” Blue snickered.