Canterlot Academy Trials

Once Nebula got back to the Academy, he took a look at the recorder the magical civet gave him before placing it inside his locker. He then retrieved a sweatband from his locker along with some black gym shorts.

‘Apparently these are supposed to reduce sweat and protect the body from taking damage from the sun. Neat.’

With a flash of his magic, the shorts disappeared and reappeared on his lower half. “Sleek. Very sleek indeed.”

Once dressed for gym, Nebula left the locker room right at the exact same time that Grimrose did. She was wearing similar gym attire--a headband and a pair of violet gym shorts that covered her lower half.

“Hey, Rose,” he called out as he trotted up next to her. “Cool shorts, huh? Think they’ll be useful as the ads say?”

“I would hope,” she replied as calmly as ever, “Do they look good on me? Give me your honest opinion.”

Nebula took a glance at her backside and nodded. “You look fine, don’t worry.”

“Are you sure? I was worried my butt was too big to fit them.”

“...” Nebula took another look, and noted just how much her shapely rear swayed along with her tail as she walked, causing him to bite his lip before he shook his head. “Uh…you’re fine, really. Your…hindquarters fit into your shorts rather nicely.”

“Good,” she replied with a nod, “I feel like I’ve been putting on extra weight recently and I’ve been a bit nervous over whether or not it makes me look worse.”

“Of course n--” Nebula paused. ‘Worse’ implied that she didn’t think very highly of herself to begin with. He tilted his head and asked, “...are you alright, Rose?”

With a sigh, Grimrose continued walking--expression unchanging as they made it out to the training field. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Even though her tone didn’t change much, Nebula could still sense that something was off with the way she responded.

‘Yeah that’s…that’s not normal. Even for her. Hope she’s okay.’

Sadly, there was no time to dwell upon it. They had to head out to the field in order to start their training session with Ms. Bonehardt. Perhaps made worse by the fact that Gaea the Griffon had also been assigned to this particular class alongside them.

The grifoness scoffed as soon as she laid eyes on them. “Oh great. Look who showed up. Mr. Soft Serve and his babyface.”

Nebula whinnied in her direction, scowling, but quickly shook it off and turned his head forward to ignore her.

Grimrose, along with the other students in the session which included an earth pony mare, and a changeling stallion, would do the same. Nobody payed Gaea any real attention as they were all too focused on the upcoming assignment to care about her blabberings as they stretched their bodies.

Something the griffoness was spiteful towards. The lack of a reaction would serve to dampen her desire to continue by the time Bonehardt arrived.

“Alright, kids. Get ready and gimme fifty,” the minotaur woman commanded as she pulled out a stopwatch. “Ready? Go!”

And without hesitation, all of the students began to run around the track. Galloping, sprinting, and moving at a steady pace so as to not tire themselves out so early on.

Yet still, even during class, Gaea saw fit to try and make some trouble with her words.

As she ran next to Nebula, the griffoness would snark, “You’re not gonna get that far just by skating on your looks. Pretty boys like you don’t know what it’s like to suffer social rejection.”

Whether or not her words had any meaning, Nebula didn’t listen. He simply kept a fierce gaze forward as he made the first turn on the oval track and started to run down the other side.

“Think that makes you tough?” Gaea continued, “Ignoring me? Guess you’re just gonna stay quiet if I mention how sad it is that your dad left you, huh?”

And as soon as those words left her beak, Nebula slowed to a stop--freezing in place.

Noting how that got a reaction out of him, Gaea would further increase her sneering, “I’m impressed that you’re not crying your eyes out every day about it. Bet you and your mommy are just so heartbroken! Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you just wanna unload on somebody?”

Nebula tilted his head downwards, hiding his eyes from view.

“Oh! Looks like I was right. You do feel something, don’t you?” Gaea continued to verbally harass the stallion. “Turns out you squishy little ponies can get angry. I knew it. You’re no different than us griffons.” She folded her claw-arms, and smirked in his direction. From her perspective, she felt as if she had the advantage in two ways:

If Nebula retaliated, it’d confirm her suspicions in regards to the fact that ponies were just as prone to hostility as griffons.

However, if he didn’t retaliate, then it would only add fuel to her ego and claim he was crippled by cowardice.

“Well? Gonna just let me insult your family and cry like a little filly?” she sneered, “Or are you gonna grow a pair and stand up to me?”

“Enough,” Grimrose stepped in, staring into Gaea’s soul with her neutral expression. “His family is none of your business.”

“Classic! The squishy little pony’s girlfriend has to step in and defend him!” Gaea cackled with her claw on her forehead. “What a joke!”

“You’re the only joke here,” Grimrose snapped back with her voice raised ever so slightly, “It’d behoove you to quit being a waste of talking flesh at this age. Did nobody teach you any manners?”

Gaea scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I had to change myself to fit your little warped friendship cult. Want me to make a sacrifice to your pony goddess or something?”

“No one’s forcing you to follow anyone’s guidelines directly,” the pegasus’ wings unfurled as she grit her teeth. “Don’t make up falsehoods to support your flimsy arguments. Nebula hasn’t done a thing to you and yet you insist on harassing him. Why?”

“Because ponies like him have made griffons soft,” she hissed back, “With their stupidly cute faces and overly-positive demeanors. Disgusting. I’m just levelling the playing field a little.”

Grimrose stomped up to her. “And you’re going to do that by mocking him with sensitive information? How do you even know about his family situation?”

“That’s for me to know and for somebody less intelligent to find out,” Gaea said with a smirk on her beak.

While they had been talking, Nebula had resumed running the course. Their teacher had noticed the two of them stopped and called out to them.

“Get moving, ladies!”

Once she heard this, Grimrose would leave Gaea with a warning. “Leave him alone. If you dare to try and hurt him, you’re going to miss having your tongue.” With that, she turned and started to run the rest of the course.

Naturally, Gaea was unfazed by this. “Tch. Little pony thinks she can threaten me. We’ll see who has the last laugh.”

Eventually, once everyone had finished running the course…

After finishing freshening up in the male’s shower’s, Nebula closed himself off in his dorm room, sitting on his bed with a blank, thousand-yard stare into nowhere.

‘How did she know?’ he wondered, ‘My dad died years ago…how does she just know that? Does the gossip train really have no end?’

Outside the stallion’s room, Grimrose had trotted up to it, and looked around to make sure no one had followed her.

“...Atomic? Are you okay?” she asked from outside.

No answer.

“...can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” he replied off-handedly.

Grimrose opened the door, stepped in and shut it behind herself. She then approached the stallion and wrapped a wing around him to bring him in close for a hug. In return, Nebula clung to her, resting his head on her shoulder in a grateful manner. No words were exchanged between the two. Just a sense of mutual understanding…

Gaea was going to have to be dealt with.