Dawn's new day.

“Well it’s good to see Everypony returned.” Guiding Heart had just finished checking her list while I and the other colts ate breakfast in the dorms. “Now I know we will only be back a few weeks before winter break starts up but don’t start slacking now.” She said playfully before leaving the room.

“Hey Dawn how was your break?” Sunburst had just gotten his breakfast and sat down next to me.

I sighed. “Well… I got foalnapped, forced into an arranged marriage then the marriage was annulled and here I am.”

Sunburst stopped chewing then gave me a deadpan look, “Very funny.”

I just shrugged. No point pushing if he doesn’t believe me.

We then spent the rest of breakfast talking about our break. I told him about all the fun I had at Pinkie’s parties and with my new family. Yay!

In response Sunburst told me about him and Starlight hanging out and about the earth pony family that had moved into our old house.

“Well dang I wish I could’ve been there with you both. Maybe you can visit us sometime? The farm has plenty of room.” I felt a bit bad for inviting them to a house I didn’t feel was exactly mine.

“Oh seeing a working farm would be an exciting experience.” He pushed up his glasses with his hoof and I just laughed a bit.

“Good morning class.” A familiar looking unicorn walked into our magic class instead of Celestia. “For those of you who don’t remember me I am Mr. Clear Mark and I will be your teacher for the next few weeks. Now then welcome back from break and lets begin.”

“But where’s Celestia?” A random filly spoke up.

“Princess Celestia has matters of state to attend to for the foreseeable future so I will be taking over her class.” He pointed to the filly with a piece of chalk held in his magic, “As for you. I expect no further outbursts without a raised hoof.” Great, what a charming teacher.

Surprisingly he wasn’t that bad. By the end of class I had actually gotten called on more than Twilight who I felt he was avoiding and I actually got a “well done” out of the guy.

“I miss the Princess.” I overheard Twilight sulking as we were moving onto our next classes.

“Of course you do, teachers pet.” One of the other fillies bumped her roughly in passing.

“You alright?” I asked while walking up to her.

“Yeah. I’m…” she noticed it was me asking then her tone got a bit lighter. “I’m fine Dawn. Thanks.”

I gave her a friendly nuzzle. “Alright then let’s get to class.” The both of us chatted in the halls before we had to split and head towards our classes.

Why are we outside? I shivered along with a few of my other classmates who echoed my thoughts aloud as Gale finished attendance.

“Well everypony today we are doing something a bit different. Each of you will be training in some practical magic.” She paused and smiled. “Shield spells with a warming modification to keep you all safe and warm if you get caught in the snow.” She looked around at the class and lingered on me for a moment. Could have used the shields before break.

“Go ahead and pair up as one of you will cast the spell and the other will try and break it by throwing small balls at it from inside.” She passed out the equipment and had us move around the field. Wish my winter coat had grown in. Canterlot’s elevation makes it colder earlier than Ponyville.

I decided to pair up with Moon Dancer so went over to ask her. “Hey Moon, want to pair up.”

“Hi Dawn, sure, I’ll go first.” She lit her horn and the cool wind around us stopped as she formed a pinkish shield. I began throwing balls at the shield resulting in a strange ‘pang’ sound and a grunt of concentration from Moon Dancer.

“So how was your break Moon?” ‘Pang’ I asked after getting bored with just sitting and tossing things at her shield.

“It was ni~ce.” She grit her teeth and reinforced her spell. “Went out with Twilight for Nightmare Night and met Spike.” She blushed.

“Sounds like a fun date.” I said playfully ‘crash’. Her shield broke on the next throw and she gave me a dumbfounded look.

I shot back a sly grin. “My turn.” I lit my horn and formed a sky blue shield with flecks of gold and black. Thats new.

“So what did you do on break Dawn?” ‘Ting’ my shield rang out more like a bell.

“My family moved to Ponyville.” She adjusted her glasses and looked disappointed I wasn’t struggling to talk and cast. “It’s closer to Canterlot and our family also grew so I have some new Earth pony siblings and a new mom.”

‘Ting’ “That must be different. They don’t get jealous about you having magic?” She was academically curious not accusing anything.

“Why would they? I’m nowhere near as strong as my new brother or sister.” ‘Ting’

“That’s good.” She continued to throw until I got tired and we switched back. Continuing to converse about our respective families.

“Dawn!” Trixie jumped on my back when lunch rolled around. She then gave me a friendly nuzzle. “Trixie missed you and her friends.”

“Down, Trixie.” Starlight lifted her off my back with magic and Trixie happily switched to nuzzling Starlight. Starlight then gave me one as well. “Missed you this year for the scary stories.”

“Me too. Trust me I would have much rather been at Sires Hollow.” My ears splayed back. I thought it best not to tell them yet as it was a long story for lunch.

“That bad?” We all sat down for lunch as she asked. Trixie was still being clingy.

“Not all of it. Just Nightmare Night and leading up to it.” I joked and told them all about the good things that happened.

“Oh, Trixie also had a wonderful vacation. She helped her parents put on a few shows and did one for the other foals in town.” Trixie finished with a flourish of magical non burning fireworks from her horn that made us all clap our hooves. A few of the other tables gave us strange looks but we didn’t care.

We spent the rest of lunch catching up and laughing. Now this is how life should be.

Imago was panting heavily while squatting upon the mats she had laid out along the crystalline floor. She had just finished laying her last egg. She had spent all night fertilizing her eggs, got a bit of sleep, then began laying her first small clutch this afternoon. “That, was way more intense than I expected and it was only four.” She shakily walked to her nightstand and grabbed a pitcher of water she kept and chugged the entire thing down.

Looking at her eggs she couldn’t help but smile. They would be the first drones of her very own hive. Hugging the eggs close she fed each of them her stored love. “Eat up babies, mommy is sticking close by until you all hatch.” She curled around them and hummed a Pony lullaby verbally and through her infant hive mind.