Pinstripe trembled on the steps leading to Everedge’s schoolhouse. The building towered over the white and brown zebra, and he felt even tinier than usual. Its stone walls, painted red, were built around a large tree whose leaves had long since withered away. He took a tentative step closer, and heard rumbles of chatter coming from within.
“You’ll be fine, sweetheart,” his mother whispered into his ear.
Pinstripe took a deep breath and galloped towards the door. Just before impact, he pushed it open with his front hoof.
As soon as he skidded inside, the rumbling chatter turned into cold silence. The dozen-or-so children stopped whatever they’d been doing to stare at him. Pinstripe gulped and nearly considered running back outside, but no. He had to do this.
And then, someone broke the silence.
“Hey, you must be the new kid!” a colt exclaimed. He had a lilac coat, and his two-toned green mane stood upright. Pinstripe thought he was one of those flying ponies — pegasuses, were they called? — until he noticed he had a beak. “My name’s Pike. I’m — or I was — the newest kid here.” He held out a talon-tipped foreleg, but Pinstripe declined to shake it and stepped to the side.
Pinstripe glanced around. There were all sorts of creatures in the classroom; a few ponies, a couple of dragons, someone who looked like a pony with a tree branch stuck to her forehead, and… a kelpie! Another Farasian! She had a light pink coat, purple stripes, and her white-streaked mane and tail flowed like rivers. He hesitantly trotted towards her.
“Hi…” he mumbled. He gulped and looked her in the eye. “I’m new here, and I thought, since you’re also a Farasian, you could show me around?”
The kelpie leaned forwards and looked down upon Pinstripe. “Pah!” she spat. Her body was solid ice, and her coldness made Pinstripe shiver. The dark-grey dragon by her side folded her arms. “Like I’d be caught dead hanging out with a blank-flank.” She turned sideways, revealing the cutie mark on her hip: a silver tiara, tipped with a snowflake. “Besides, for your information, I’ve lived in Stochastia my whole life!” She stomped on the stone floor.
“Hey!” a couple of fillies exclaimed as they raced to Pinstripe’s side. One was orange with no extra bits, like a stripeless zebra, and the other was white with a horn.
“This is how you welcome the new kid?” the white one scolded. The kelpie scrunched up her face.
“And if you think you’re so above blank-flanks, why do you hang out with Silver?” asked the orange one. “She can’t even get a cutie mark!”
“Of course I know dragons can’t get cutie marks, silly!” the kelpie snapped. In the same instant, Silver breathed out a small, light-blue flame that stuck a nearby wooden desk, setting it on fire. The kelpie panicked and covered the flames with her forelegs, extinguishing them, but she melted into a puddle in the process.
The door creaked as it swung open. Pinstripe turned to see that a grown-up had entered the room — she must’ve been the teacher. He could only describe her as an upright jackal, with dark pink fur and floppy ears. She wore a collar studded with flower shapes.
“Sorry for being late!” exclaimed the teacher. “I was just— oh.” Her jaw dropped when she noticed the charred desk and liquefied kelpie at the front of the classroom. The kelpie solidified herself enough to stand up, and grinned sheepishly. “Everyone, get to your seats!”
Pinstripe sat behind the only empty desk he could find, between Pike and the orange pony at the back of the classroom.
“Don’t listen to Diamond Dust,” she whispered to him. “She thinks she’s better than everyone else ‘cause her dad’s in charge of the water supply.”
A few minutes later, after the teacher had forced Diamond Dust and Silver to apologise to the whole class, it was time to start the first lesson.
“Good morning, my students!” she exclaimed with a warm smile. “My name is Cherry Cheerfulsmile, but you can call me Miss Cheerful. I’m sure most of you already know who I am, but we have a new student today — all the way from Farasi! Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?”
Pinstripe’s ears pricked up when he heard that, and his hair stood on end. He gulped and slowly trotted towards Miss Cheerful. He swore Diamond Dust was glaring at him from the front row.
He turned to face the rest of the class, and saw the white filly from earlier wave at him. He smiled, cleared his breath, and said: “Hi! My name’s, uh, Pinstripe, and I’m from Casabronco! It’s on the coast, near the desert, and, um… um… it has a lot of palm trees!” Miss Cheerful motioned for him to keep going. “There are a lot of zebras there, like me, and a few kelpies, like, um, Dusty Diamond here?”
“Diamond Dust,” Silver corrected.
“Yes, like Diamond Dust,” Pinstripe continued. “And… abada! You all know what an abada is, right? They’re really tall and have two horns…”
A yellow-coated filly with a branch-like horn raised her forearm.
“Yes, Apple Blaze?” asked Miss Cheerful.
“Course I know what an abada is!” Apple Blaze exclaimed. “One of them’s a nurse down at the hospital.”
Miss Cheerful nodded. “Any more questions?” When none of the children responded, she knelt down to Pinstripe’s level and asked, “Do you have any questions for us?”
“Yes,” said Pinstripe. “I’ve heard of dragons and ponies, but there are a lot of creatures here I’ve never seen before. What are you?”
“I’m a diamond dog,” she replied.
“I was raised by diamond dogs!” Pike shouted from the back of the room, earning him a glare from Miss Cheerful.
She sighed before continuing. “Pike over there is a hippogriff, and Apple Blaze is a kirin. Now, do you have any more questions?”
Pinstripe shook his head and trotted back to his seat.
“Now, it’s time for a history lesson!” Miss Cheerful exclaimed a few hours later. “Do any of you know how Stochastia was founded?”
Apple Blaze raised her foreleg again. She answered: “Ooh! I know! By my grandparents!”
Miss Cheerful shook her head. “Well… not quite. While it is true that the town of Everedge was founded by the Apple family, the kingdom of Stochastia was established much earlier.” She drew a picture of a forest on the chalkboard. “You see, this town is right on the edge of the Everfree Forest, a place filled with chaos magic that cannot be tamed. Thousands of years ago, the deer and ponies who lived in this area feared it. They tried to cut down its trees, imprison its monsters, and control its environment, but it attacked their towns with its vines in revenge.”
Pinstripe, who’d been slouching on his desk, sat upright in interest. It reminded him of the stories of the Grootslang back in Farasi, an unfinished monster who destroyed everything in its path for fun.
Then, she drew two figures on the chalkboard. They each had pointed ears, smooth heads, four slender legs, and short tails. “That was, until two deer sisters appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They were the first to realise that if they accepted the chaos of the Everfree instead of trying to destroy it, they could live in peace and harmony. Over time, as more followed their teachings, the Everfree Forest’s attacks became rarer until they completely stopped. Grateful for their help, the people crowned the deer as the rulers of this land: Princesses Heliana and Diane.”
As soon as she finished talking, a bell rang. “Oh, look at the time! School’s over for today. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon, and see you tomorrow!”
While the other children rushed out of the schoolhouse, Pinstripe trotted slowly down the steps. As soon as his hoof touched grass, he bumped into the white filly.
“Ouch!” she squeaked.
“Sorry,” he said. “Wait, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be going home?”
“We were waiting for you!” exclaimed the orange filly, who stood next to the white one. “My name’s Scootaloo, and she’s Sweetie Belle. Before you came along, we were the only blank-flanks in our class!”
“Blank-flanks who can get cutie marks, that is,” Sweetie Belle added. “Wait, can zebras get cutie marks?”
“Yes,” said Pinstripe.
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “I’m friends with a zebra, and she has one.”
“Oh! You mean one of Rarity’s friends?” Then, Sweetie Belle faced Pinstripe and added, “Rarity’s my big sister.”
Pinstripe sighed. “I wish I had a sibling.”
“Did you not have any friends back in… Casa… Castor… wherever you came from?” asked Scootaloo.
Pinstripe looked down at the grass. “I had a few, but… I’m never gonna… gonna… see them again!” He squeezed his eyes shut in a vain attempt to stop tears from leaking out.
Scootaloo patted him on the withers. Reflexively, Pinstripe leaped back.
“Sorry,” she said. “I was just trying to cheer you up. Anyway, I was thinking… we could be your new friends!”
“And we could earn our cutie marks together!” Sweetie Belle added, as if they’d rehearsed this. The two of them raised their forelegs and high-hoofed each other.
“So… you wanna join us?” asked Scootaloo, glancing over at him.
Pinstripe hesitated for a moment. He tried to hold back tears, but this time they were tears of joy. He’d only just met these ponies, yet they were already being so nice to him? Maybe this was a good omen, a sign he’d fit right into Stochastia.
“Yeah!” He galloped towards them and joined their high-hoof.
“Alright!” Scootaloo shouted. “Together we’ll be… uh… what’d be a good name for us?”
“I know!” said Sweetie Belle. “The… CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, YAY!”
