“Are you two sure you wouldn’t like a shield?” I asked my escorts as we walked through the city streets towards school in an early morning drizzle. The weather team had scheduled a short morning shower to kick off Spring.

“We’re fine sir. Ahr’ armor has one enchanted into it.” The guardsmare on my right replied with an accent.

“Oh, that’s smart.” I nodded and gave a friendly wave to a passing pony who had given me a panicked bow. I still hadn’t been officially crowned but ponies still respected my status as an alicorn and had begun greeting me on sight. My escort also made my status more legitimate in everyponies eyes, hence the bowing. I don’t think I’ll ever like being famous. Why not, everypony knowing us and getting to wave at them is so fun.

After having a few more strangers bow and I waved back with a wing, the rest of the walk was uneventful since the streets were fairly empty due to the rain. That did change when my escorts and I reached the school. It was fairly crowded past the gates and among the crowd, sitting and talking near the school’s entrance, was Sunburst and Starlight.

Once past the gate my guards thankfully broke off so I could talk to them in relative privacy. Despite Starlight and I insisting on remaining friends, conversations were few and far between us so things had slowly gotten more awkward. Dont need my escorts around making it more awkward.

“Oh, um~. Hi Dawn.” Sunburst slowly spoke first when he noticed me, causing Starlight to flinch when he said my name.

“Hey you two, have a good winter break?” I gave Sunburst an awkward hoof bump and caught myself before leaning forward to give Starlight a nuzzle.

“Yeah. We spent the whole break together and got our parents working on a new project to improve the town.” Sunburst shook his head. “They both needed something to work on with us gone all the time. The town’s ponies seem excited about it too.”

“That sounds interesting.” I vaguely remembered them doing something similar in the show. Aside from the major events, those memories had become harder to recall these past months. I’m glad I wrote the big stories down.

“What about you Starlight?” I gave her a friendly shoulder bump.

“Oh, you know… nothing special.” She waved it off awkwardly and Sunburst looked between us curiously.

Sighing, “Look, Starlight I’m not still mad at you...” Sunburst took this as his queue to leave and gave me a quick goodbye after nuzzeling Starlight. “Yeah, what you said hurt, but you and Sunburst make a good couple plus I have some Great fillies in my herd.”

“Really?” She looked my way and gave me a hug after I nodded. “I’m still sorry that one of them wasn’t me.”

“I know. The two of us just make better friends.” I gave her a pat on the back before we made our way inside without speaking.

“So~, what’s it like to have wings now?” Starlight broke the silence first while trying to switch to more casual conversation.

I just laughed at how we had been acting and gladly explained how great flying was but that it came with the side effect of alicorn level puberty.

“Good morning everypony. For those of you who don’t remember my name, it is Mr. Clear Mark and I will be your magic teacher this year.” There were plenty of disappointed looks from the class as he wrote his name on the board.

“I know many of you were expecting the Princess again this year however her duty to the country and new family does come first. Aside from her personal students,” He gave Twilight a frown but an approving nod my way. “She will be unable to directly teach anypony for a while. Now then, before we get started I must remind you all that this will be your third year here at CSGU and so it’s about time to start thinking about your specific path in life.” He continued writing on the board with his magic while looking over the class.

Impressive control. I mentally noted.

“Each of you will have to decide if you will continue your education or go out into the world to follow your cutie marks before your fourth and final mandatory year here. Well to be considered a graduate of our prestigious school at least, you are of course free to quit at any time.” He flicked his ear and cleared his throat while finishing his writing on the board.

“In any case, If you do continue with your studies on campus you also have to decide what path you will take. The school offers many options for further study. From cooking, history, magic, along with many other specialized paths that continue well past the mandatory years to match almost everyponies cutie mark.” He motioned towards the list of available options he had written down.

“Now then, I will be passing around an information packet but don’t worry, you have until the end of next year to make a decision. Granted, the sooner the better as some of the more coveted spots do fill up quickly, especially for you fillies. Colts, you won’t need to worry as much as the school will always make room for you.” He said with a smile while passing a packet to another colt in the room.

Ok, he is definitely a diehard Stallionist. Uh, huh.

There was much excited and worried mumbling as the packets were passed around. Reading through everything in mine really reminded me how different the Equestrian education system was compared to earth. Ponies relied so heavily on Cutie marks to guide them that college or any further studying was more of a luxury than necessary expense, even for future educators like Cheerilee.

For the rest of class Clear Mark answered questions about the packet until it was finally time to leave.

“So what do you think?” Twilight asked as we walked the halls. She still had her nose burried in the reading material while scanning all the options.

I gave her a once over. “You look very cute today.” I nodded and straightened a loose strand of her mane with my magic. She almost tripped while blushing from the sudden contact.

“Dawn~, I meant about the packet.” She waved it in her magic while giving me a playful swat with her tail.

“Oh that, honestly I hadn’t given the future much thought.” I looked towards the ceiling. Considering I know most of the major events coming up.

She gave me a concerned look while fidgeting. “None at all?”

“What? Oh, well no. I think about the future with you and the girls and stuff just not school.” I hastily placated. “I mean I bet Celestia will have some plans for us as her personal students after all.”

Twilight gasped. “I hadn’t even considered that.” She hastily made a few notes on a checklist I hadn’t noticed before. “The princess probably does have a plan for our continued study.”

I just playfully shook my head while leading her down the hall towards our next class.

“Good morning all my lovely students.” Gale looked particularly chipper today. Is she a bit more… plump? Maybe she ate to much over the holidays?

“Good morning.” We all replied.

“Now then I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that I’m with foal!” She lovingly rubbed her stomach while most of the fillies got excited. Its a baby?!?

“Turns out I’m one of the lucky mares who gets out of season cycles in fall, yay me.” She smiled while doing mock jazz hooves.

“That’s really rare, only about 10 percent of mares have a second ’minor heat’ in fall, most don’t even notice.” Moon Dancer quietly answered the unasked question from my side. She then heavily blushed when she realized the topic she commented on aloud.

“The bad news is that I probably won’t be teaching your final year as I’ll be on maternity leave.” She gave a sad smile when the entire class, myself included, groaned. “I know, but the school will provide another PE teacher so you won’t be broken up amongst the other classes. Also, for those who planned to go into the guard this won’t dampen your chances of getting in early.”

This was great news since certain classes like PE and Magic stuck together, even with the teachers, to ease learning with a stable environment while others like math and history changed teachers and students around to keep things interesting. Without a sub to replace Gale as our teacher, our class would have been separated. It would suck not having Moon Dancer and the others around as training buddies.

“Now then enough about me. You all need to get running.” The class groaned but got moving as she waved us all off.

“Dawn a moment please?” Gale hurriedly motioned for me to hang back before I got to far.

“Everything alright mam?” I tilted my head and she nodded.

“The princess informed me that you have already been doing Pegasus style training for your wings but I wanted to make sure. Would you be interested in doing some different exercises as a quick physical?”

“Sure. What did you have in mind?”

I quickly found out Gale could be just as harsh as mom when it came to training. For the rest of the class I did wingups and other exercises all while the fillies ran and practiced telekinesis. At least they did when not staring at my wings. It was probably the first time most were getting a good look since I kept them closed throughout the day and my saddle bags partially covered them.

“Looking good Dawn.” A filly and her friends stopped to giggle and comment on my stretching about halfway through class.

“His wings look so fluffy.” Her friend said dreamily.

“Can I preen them?” Another was entirely focused just on my wings with a hungry look. Both her friends gave her the side eye knowing she had gone a bit to far.

“Ladies, do I need to add on more training and tell your other teachers why you will be late?” Gale gave all the catcalling fillies a stern look then added on her own joke. “Besides if you all make it through guard training you may be assigned to the future prince.”

This got the fillies moving again but I glared at Gale as they trotted off. “Really ma’am?” I huffed, currently in the middle of an intense wing positioning exercise that had caught all the attention in the first place.

She just shrugged and rubbed her stomach. “Hopefully my own colt will get as much attention for his wings Besides fillies will be fillies so best to just distract them with something else.” She shrugged her wings.

I rolled my eyes at the turn of phrase and spent the rest of class blushing from all the extra attention when the fillies passed me on the track. I typically got a decent amount of playful platonic attention as the only colt in our class but today was something else.

“They’re so~ cute?” Celestia tentatively poked the muzzle of the grub that was sniffing her hoof causing it to gurgle happily. They look like worms.Don’t you dare talk badly about our partners children!Calm thyself. It was a simple statement of fact.

“I know right?” Imago happily laid amongst the grubs in the hive nursery. Most were hers but a few had hatched from the recent additions to the hive. The Den mothers watched both princesses happily while cleaning up the uneaten eggshells around the room.

“Will you be having more?” Celestia awkwardly stroked the one grub showing more interest in her than Imago.

“Not any time soon. The first clutch always grows the fastest so we have some changelings to support us then they grow more in line with ponies if fed the proper amounts of love. Honestly our daughter and her sisters are growing much faster than even I expected.” Imago giggled at Celestia’s interaction with the lone grub as more climbed up and over her own back feeding off the ambient love she was giving off. Aside from her children’s happiness she could feel Celestia’s mixed emotions about the grubs but wasn’t mad about it. “You know, they get much cuter after the first molt.”

Celestia idly nodded while picking up the grub with her hooves. It gave her a playful hiss and stuck out its tongue which actually made her giggle. She then stuck out her own tongue for a moment before touching her nose to its nose. “They’re not so bad when you really look at them.” They are at least tougher than our ponies.

Her change in emotions summed a few more and she carefully gave each a small boop. Imago just watched with a growing smile while radiating love for her partner and children.

Author's Note