Author's Note

Hey, Lunasee here! If you'll indulge me, I'd like to get a few things out of the way before you get to reading.

First and foremost, I'm a fairly new writer, so critiques are welcomed! I do this for fun though, so don't be mean or confused if I take a while to upload. I'll usually try to maintain updates on my blog tho so keep an eye on that if you're curious.

This little series of mine is meant to be a sorta new season of MLP:FiM. Or a new generation. Whatever you wanna say, but I'm structuring it similarly to a season of the show. Every 'chapter' is an episode, and not every episode will be super lore-important, but there will be an overarching plotline with a finale. It'll be more mature, but other than that, I'm keeping it bound to the canon of the show as much as I can (no comics though, just the show) and hopefully won't accidentally retcon anything.

The first 5 "episodes" are actually Pre-Season episodes to introduce the New Six (hehe). I'm intending for them to be optional, but I encourage you to read them anyhow!

--

Another thing to be noted at this point in time: I'm currently in the process of re-writing the first 3 Pre-Season Episodes, because I believe I've grown quite a lot in the short time I've been writing and wanna redo them. I'll make a blog post about it when they're all ready, and they'll probably all release roughly around the same time unless I post otherwise.

With all that said, have fun reading! Spoilers for like, all of MLP:FiM by the way. I recommend watching all of that first.

Pre-Season Episode 1: Flight of the Cricket

Part 1

Ever since Chimney Cricket had been a little filly, she’d known her place in the world. Growing up in the Ponyville orphanage had taught her that. Despite the fact that the changelings had been largely reformed around 12 years ago, there seemed to be some… lingering prejudice.

As a half-changeling hybrid herself, Cricket had experienced this firsthoof, and she’d grown used to the sting of seeing her other, normal pony peers getting adopted while she remained.

She wasn't particularly bitter towards them, though. No, if she had any two individuals to blame for her misery, it’d be her parents. Whoever they were, anyways. They hadn’t done Cricket-- or anypony for that matter-- the courtesy of identifying themselves. They’d simply dropped her off at the Ponyville orphanage about 16 years ago and never been seen or heard from again.

Cricket bristled with anger every time she thought about them, which was pretty often. Some sick joke it was, conceiving and then abandoning her to the world. Cricket figures her parents must have realized they hated each other mid-way into their relationship. Maybe one of them hadn’t realized the other was a changeling, and they’d messily broken up. It’d explain her current parentless-ness if neither of them wanted anything to do with the other. It’d explain her weird name too. What even is a ‘Chimney Cricket’? Probably just the product of two bickering ponies who couldn’t settle on a single, normal name. Cricket rolls over in her new bed.

“Oh, right.” She thinks to herself, looking down at the bed. Contrary to the previous melodramatic spiel, Chimney Cricket had actually recently been adopted. Today, in fact. She’d honestly been expecting to get kicked out and forced to live on her own at 18 before anypony was crazy enough to take her in. The whole adoption was still a blur in her head, but she at least remembers how it started.

Cricket had been sitting in her room at the orphanage, sulking as per usual, when a knock sounded at the door. Cricket didn’t respond, hoping whoever was knocking would go away and leave her in peace, but they knocked again, more insistently.

“Ugh, come in.” She sighed, exasperated. The door creaked open, and one of the orphanage workers-- Fuzzy Feeling-- peered in.

“Ms. Cricket?” She asked.

“Yeah?” Cricket asked back, not turning to look at the door.

“You have a visitor. Please come down to the lobby as soon as you can.” Fuzzy Feeling said, before politely shutting the door. Cricket sighed again. She hardly saw the point in going down there. Even if it was a pony interested in adopting her, one look at her was usually all it took for them to make up their minds.

This time, however, would prove to be a bit different.

Cricket barely managed to not let her jaw drop to the floor when she saw who was waiting for her in the lobby. While she didn’t exactly get out much, Cricket would have to live under a rock to not recognize the pale yellow and pink pegasus standing on the other side of the room.

Fluttershy had been talking with Fuzzy Feeling and shifting her weight nervously, looking around. When she spotted Cricket, she almost seemed to instinctively shrink back, before evidently steeling herself. Fuzzy Feeling also noticed Cricket. “There you are; thank you for coming down on such short notice.” she says. Cricket was still a little too taken aback to form coherent words, so she settled on not saying anything at all.

“This is the pony you say has been living here her whole life?” Fluttershy asked, addressing Fuzzy Feeling.

“Yes.” They responded simply.

“Oh, you poor thing.” Fluttershy cooed, making a way-too-empathetic face and taking a step towards Cricket. Cricket flinched back a little, causing Fluttershy to step back again too. “Sorry.” she apologized, looking down and giving Cricket some space. “I know this is perhaps a bit sudden for you, but when I learned that there was a foal who’d been living here un-adopted for 16 years, I felt like somepony had to *do* something, and if nopony else, then why not me?” she explained soft-spokenly. Cricket had felt like her head was spinning. Fluttershy continued. “I’ll admit I’m a little inexperienced with foals, but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone to help others.” she said warmly. Cricket has still been a little less than fully there at the moment. Fluttershy, seeming to notice Cricket’s lack of enthusiasm, shrunk down a little. “If… if that’s okay with you, I mean…” She added sheepishly. Cricket finally realized Fluttershy was waiting on her for a response.

“Sure.” she managed to get out.

“Oh, great!” Fluttershy exclaimed with all the excitement that could be contained in her quiet voice. Cricket remained spaced out as the paperwork was filled out and Fluttershy took her back to her cottage, giving her the tour. She didn't process much of it, though. She was in a cottage near the woods.

And now she was here, staring at the wall in a new bed. Cricket rolls back over to look at the ceiling. It all felt… weird. Cricket had only heard good things about Fluttershy, but what if she was hiding her true motives? What if this was all a trick? Or a dream? Cricket bites her foreleg. Ow. Nope, not a dream. The other options are still on the table, though.

Downstairs, Cricket can hear Fluttershy softly snoring on the couch. Credit where it’s due, if this was all a ruse, then Fluttershy was committed to making it seem legit. She could’ve made sure she had another bed prepped if this was all planned. Cricket turns to her other side, looking out the window at the moon. She didn’t know how she’d ever get to sleep at this rate.

Despite all her tossing and turning though, Cricket must’ve eventually dozed off, as she finds herself groggily waking up to the sounds of a conversation and the smell of tea wafting up from downstairs. Cricket groans, briefly considering falling back asleep, but one glance outside tells her it’s already probably about noon. She gets out of her ‘not-actually-hers’ bed and slowly trots down the stairs to see what the noise is about.

Cricket sees Fluttershy sitting on a cushy chair. On the other side of a small table, sitting on the sofa, is a large… creature? They appear to be a strange mish-mash of different animal parts. Chimney Cricket nearly startles into falling down the stairs as the creature’s bright yellow eyes apparate on the back of their head, looking directly at her.

“Oh!” The thing exclaims. He leans in close to Fluttershy’s ear and loudly whispers. “Fluttershy, I don’t mean to alarm you, but there appears to be an intruder in your cottage.”

“Oh, that’s no intruder. Discord, I’d like you to meet Chimney Cricket! Chimney Cricket, meet Discord.” Fluttershy explains cheerfully. “Did you sleep well?” She asks as Cricket slowly makes her way down the rest of the stairs, not taking her eyes off Discord.

“Sure.” She says hesitantly. Now that she thought of it, the name ‘Discord’ was familiar. He was the–

“Lord of Chaos!” Discord interjects, almost as if reading Cricket’s mind. “It’s certainly a pleasure to meet you,” he says, grinning. His talon-like arm stretches unnaturally to shake Cricket’s hoof. She hesitantly begins to reach up to it, only for another arm like Discord’s bird one to extend from behind her and shake claws with Discord instead. “But I’m sure it’s even better to meet me!”

His long arm begins to circle Cricket like a jump rope as he shakes claws with his own duplicate, and she has to jump to avoid being tripped before escaping from his long noodle arm’s reach.

“No fun.” he sighs, snapping his talons and vanishing the duplicate. “So,” he turns back to Fluttershy. “Who is this pony to you, anyways?”

“I adopted her yesterday.” Fluttershy explains calmly. Discord freezes, and then quite literally freezes over, before shattering into a fine, icy dust. Cricket is baffled by this, but Fluttershy is unphased. After a moment, he reforms.

“You WHAT?” He exclaims. Fluttershy simply looks at Discord as he seems to start panicking. “Y- why? Why and WHO?”

“Discord.” Fluttershy warns quietly, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“I-i mean just like why on such short notice? And why THEM and I just don’t understand and–”

“Discord!” Fluttershy says sternly. Discord pauses, looking at her, before composing himself. He clears his throat nervously.

“...sorry.” he says with some visible effort. Fluttershy smiles, satisfied.

“Okay, well I’m leaving.” Cricket says flatly, turning for the door.

“Oh, where to?” Fluttershy asks.

“Anywhere if it gets me away from this conversation.” Cricket mumbles under her breath.

“Oh! While you’re out, you should check out the friendship school!” Fluttershy exclaims.

“Why?” Cricket turns, confused.

“Because I enrolled you!” Fluttershy says happily.

Cricket blinks.

She blinks again.

…

“You what?”

Part 2

“Didn't I tell you yesterday? During the tour of the cottage?” Fluttershy asks, her expression a mix of puzzlement and concern. Cricket paused. Maybe Fluttershy had, but Cricket didn't remember approximately 90% of the tour.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Chimney Cricket says absent-mindedly. “I'm gonna… go. Now. Bye.” She leaves before Fluttershy or Discord can say anything, the cottage door swinging shut behind her. “The friendship school, really??” Cricket thinks to herself as she speed walks away from the cottage.

Cricket had never been to the friendship school-- she'd rarely gone out as it was, because you had to get adult supervision to leave the orphanage; not that there was anywhere she really needed or even wanted to go.

Nevertheless, Cricket has heard her fair share about eeevery little detail of the school from her orphanage peers, who'd fantasize about it like the friendship school was the single greatest thing to ever be invented. Barf. She doesn't want to go and ‘learn how to be friends’. She doesn't want to talk to anypony else as is, and she doubts anypony else wants to talk to her either. She'd lived her whole life without having other ponies getting involved in her business, why start now? She was perfectly fine with how her life was going before yesterday. Mostly. Probably.

Cricket pauses. It occurs to her at this moment that she doesn't know exactly where she's going. She was still on a path that almost certainly led to Ponyville, but she didn't have a destination per say. She looks around. The only sound to be heard was the wind whistling lazily through the Autumn trees.

At this moment, for just about the first time in her life, Cricket could do anything she wanted. She wasn't exactly sure how to feel about it, nor about everything else that had happened in the past day. She looks back in the direction of the cottage, now obscured from view. If she wants, she could just… run away. Live in the wild or something. She could probably make it with her changeling powers. At least, theoretically anyways. They didn't seem to quite work fully. At the orphanage, Cricket had been hesitant to try using her changeling powers to shift into anything, because even if they'd worked, she'd worried that swarms of foals would beg her to turn into Twilight-knows-what for their amusement if they found out, which would decidedly not be fun for Cricket. That hadn't stopped her from trying once or twice, though. Cricket had more or less been able to shift into other ponies, though she didn't seem able to change any more than the color of her torso and head for reasons that probably had to do with her only being half-changeling. Similarly, turning into different creatures did not quite work, as Cricket had discovered when trying to shift into a spider only resulted in turning a hoof-full of her hairs into long terrible spider legs. That had pretty effectively dissuaded her from practicing that any more.

Cricket realizes she was getting distracted. For the time being, she decides it isn't a good idea to run away. It was a solid backup plan, but perhaps a bit too early to commit to something that might end up being more dangerous than it's worth.

Her mind wanders back to what Fluttershy had said about ‘checking out the friendship school’ or whatever. Cricket groans internally. On the one hoof, it was possibly one of the last places she wanted to be right now, but on the other hoof, she really didn't have anywhere better to be.

Chimney Cricket groans again, this time verbally. Fine. She'll go to the friendship school. And if she happens to get lost on the way and never get there, then that'd be great.

Cricket continues down the path, now at a more leisurely pace. Eventually, the town of Ponyville comes into view. Plenty of colorful, happy looking ponies can be seen trotting around and doing their daily business. Cricket wishes she didn't stand out so much, with her dull gray pelt, changeling-like features, and permanent sour expression.

…Maybe she didn't have to stand out so much. As Cricket gets closer to the town, she looks around, hoping to spot somepony she recognizes. Bingo! She spies Ms. Cheerilee chatting with a vendor at a stall of some kind. While Cricket doesn't know Cheerilee very well, the teacher pony had come by the orphanage a fair few times to help teach basic school lessons to the foals there in her free hours.

Cricket closes her eyes, focusing on a mental image of Cheerilee, molding her being to resemble her. She feels herself get taller, and her mane puffs out a little in places.

She opens her eyes, looking down at her new hooves. Wow, that is way too pink. One color adjustment later though, and Chimney Cricket figures she looks at least passably like Cheerilee. She waits out of sight until the real Cheerilee is far enough away before stepping out into Ponyville.

The streets weren't exactly busy, even during mid-day, but this was still by far the most amount of ponies Cricket had ever seen in one place. The orphanage was fairly small; At its fullest from Cricket's memory, there'd been around 10 foals there, alongside 3 staff ponies. Here on the roads, there have to be like, maybe 20 ponies visible from where Cricket was standing. It was surprisingly overwhelming. Okay. Focus. Cricket tries to remember where the friendship school might be.

She'd never been able to see it from her window at the orphanage, but she'd been told it was next to the large, crystal friendship tree castle thing, which was VERY obviously visible from pretty much anywhere in town. That would make it a little harder to feasibly get lost. Cricket thinks. If she can't get lost, then she can at least 'explore' around and take the long way. If she's lucky, it'll get dark before she gets to the school. Surely Fluttershy would want her home before it got late, right?

Now, where to go that wasn't the obvious and huge friendship castle. The sound of a loud train horn interrupts her thought. Right, the train station! Despite the loud and abrasive nature of the train horn, she’d always found it oddly comforting. Perhaps because the train station was rather close to the orphanage? Regardless, it's a place to go that isn't the school, and that's all the reason Cricket needs.

Cricket steps onto the train platform, watching as various ponies pour out of the recently-arrived train with luggage in tow. One young-looking pony in particular squeezes herself out through the doors between two other ponies. Cricket is taken aback when she realizes the pony is an alicorn. Her pelt is a shade of pink so light it's nearly white, and her mane and tail are very curly-- looking almost unkempt-- with swirls of light blue on purple and pink hair. Cricket has to practically shield her eyes from the sheer amount of excitement radiating off of this pony.

To Cricket's horror, the pony’s eyes lock onto her, and she speeds towards Cricket. Cricket recoils as the new pony stops in front of her, narrowly avoiding a collision.

“Hi!” The alicorn chirps. Judging by her appearance, Cricket would guess this pony is a couple years younger than her. She looks around, but unfortunately spots nopony who would seem to be this kid’s parents.

“Um. Hi.” Cricket responds uncertainly.

“I think I recognize you…” the bright pony says, squinting at Cricket.

“Why would y–” Cricket stops. “Oh no, that's right, I'm Cheerilee.” She thinks to herself with a gulp. “Yyyup, it's me! I know… youuu..? Too? Probably?”

The new pony squints harder, and Cricket begins to sweat. After a moment though, she seems to buy it, as her expression immediately changes back to one of sheer joy. “Cool!” She says. “Just in case you don't know, I'm Princess Flurry Heart!” She raises her hoof expectantly, beaming.

“I'm uh… Cheerilee.” Cricket says as un-suspiciously as she can muster, shaking hooves with Flurry Heart.

“I know!” Flurry cries happily, her cheery expression unwavering. Cricket gives her a puzzled look, but Flurry doesn't seem to notice.

“So what are you, um. Doing here?” Cricket asks, mustering all of her social interaction skills. She needs to find a way out of this conversation as fast as possible.

“I'm here for the friendship school!” Flurry practically shouts. Cricket is worried the child might explode from how giddily she's prancing in place. “It starts in just like, a week! I'll be staying at Twilight’s Castle, although now it's more like Starlight's Castle, until it starts! IN JUST ONE WEEK! eeeEEEEE!!”

By this point, most of the ponies had gotten off the train. From within, Cricket hears a voice calling.

“...Flurry Heart, dear, where have you run off to?”

“Oop, sounds like my parents need me.” Flurry says, turning her head towards the train. “Again…” she adds quietly under her breath. Cricket silently thanks Twilight for mercifully bringing this conversation to a close.

“I'll, ah, be going now..!” Cricket says, eager to get away from Flurry Heart.

“Okay, bye! See you at the school!” Flurry yells, waving as Cricket sprints off.

After a minute or so of running, Cricket stops to catch her breath in a narrow, shady path between two stores. She hopes she doesn't have to interact with that pony any more than necessary when school starts.

...

Wait. Did she say that she'd see Cricket at school? But she was currently disguised as–

“Ah, Cheerilee!” A familiar, jovial voice exclaims. Oh no. “That's right, it's me, your good pal Discord!”

Cricket looks up to see Discord slowly gliding down from the sky towards her, holding an umbrella that's somehow perfectly slowing his descent. He lands, pulling Cricket into a tight hug.

“Ow. Hi, er, Discord.” Cricket manages to gasp out despite being squeezed. Discord sets her down.

“You know, it's the strangest thing! I could've sworn I just saw you walking down the street all the way across town, but here you are instead!” He says just a little too happily. Cricket gulps. “That reminds me! Did you hear that Fluttershy of all ponies adopted a child yesterday?” He says, getting close to her face.

“...No?” She lies.

“I'm so happy for her.” Discord says, teary-eyed as he strikes a dramatic pose, unfazed by Cricket's response. “Her and I are best friends, you know, so I believe in her judgment of character, but it sure would be terrible if that pony she adopted turned out to be... rotten." Discord stares at her for a beat before continuing. "There's no telling what kind of mischief she could get up to with her changeling powers! Did I forget to mention she's part changeling? Oh, silly me!” He snorts. Cricket doesn't say anything.

“Anyways, I've got important chaos business to attend to. Toodles!” Discord salutes, before plugging his nose and cannonballing into the dirt with a surprising splash of water. With that, he's gone. Cricket stands in silence for a moment. “That was ominous.” She mutters to herself. Perhaps disguising as Cheerilee had been a bad idea. Cricket ditches the false appearance, returning to her normal state.

She steps back out into the streets and almost immediately bumps directly into Fluttershy.

“Eep!” the Pegasus lightly exclaims, stumbling back and dropping a bag of produce. “I'm so sorry– I didn't see you!” She apologizes. Cricket just stares blankly at her. Why did she have to keep getting into social interactions???

“On the bright side,” Fluttershy says, standing up and retrieving her bag. “You're just the pony I was hoping to bump into!” She giggles softly at her own joke. Cricket rolls her eyes. “You haven't been to the friendship school yet, have you?” Fluttershy asks.

“I haven't, why?” Cricket responds, trying to hide her hope that Fluttershy will give her an excuse not to go.

“Because I wanted to go with you!” Fluttershy beams. It takes all of Cricket's restraint to not loudly groan in distaste.

“Do you not have a tea party or whatever with Discord?” Cricket ventures.

“No, he left shortly after you did. Said he ‘had something to deal with’.” Fluttershy replies thoughtfully. Cricket deflates a little. She briefly considers making up a lie to get out of going to the school, but with Discord’s words fresh on her mind, she decides against any more misinformation for the moment. The truth was she didn't have anything more important to be doing, as much as she dislikes admitting it to herself.

“Alright fine, let's get this over with.” Cricket sighs.

“Great!” Fluttershy exclaims. “Even though I'm a teacher at the school, I should check in with Headmare Starlight first to make sure it's alright if I let you have a tour of the building, since the school isn't open yet." She explains. "I have to drop off this produce at Sweetfeather Sanctuary, but then I'll meet up with Starlight at the castle. You can get a head start to the school in the meantime!”

With that, Fluttershy takes off, flying roughly in the direction of her cottage. Cricket grimaces at the sky for a moment, before sighing loudly and trudging towards the friendship school. She makes sure to take her precious time. Maybe this ‘Headmare Starlight’ would be against her getting an early tour of the school. That'd be convenient.

Suddenly, Cricket hears voices approaching from behind her. She turns, seeing Flurry Heart and her parents making their way down the path towards the friendship castle. Oh no. Thinking quickly, Cricket dives into a nearby bush. She's jabbed by protruding branches, but it's better than being subjected to Flurry Heart again. Cricket watches as the family passes. Flurry was in front, evidently failing to contain her excitement as her gaze remains fixated on the friendship school. Her parents trail behind her, barely keeping up. Cricket thinks she recognizes the mother based on description. Princess Cadance, was it? She's a bright pink alicorn with an elegant stature and an apparently magical mane of magenta and gold that's literally flowing around her. She's chatting with somepony who Cricket presumes is her husband: a brilliant white stallion with a deep navy mane. She didn't really remember his name quite as well. Shiny Harbor or something?

The doors of the friendship castle open for the trio, as they're greeted by a pinkish purple unicorn with a violet mane sporting teal stripes. The unicorn invites them inside, before the door closes. Phew. Tragedy averted. With the coast clear, Cricket frees herself from the confines of the bush, shaking off a few clingy twigs and leaves, before she continues walking towards the friendship school. Not that she has to walk very far. The friendship school is pretty much literally right beside the castle.

Despite the latter being much taller, the friendship school in specific seems to loom over Cricket. She tries not to acknowledge the fear rising in her gut at the thought of going to the school. She stares at it, apparently losing track of time during which, only being snapped out of her trance as a flash of teal light appears beside her, making her jump slightly. As the magic dissipates, Cricket sees Fluttershy alongside that pinkish unicorn seen opening the door for Flurry Heart and her family earlier. Fluttershy spots Cricket first.

“Sorry for making you wait, Chimney Cricket, but I'd like you to meet the Headmare of the school, Starlight Glimmer!” Fluttershy says. Starlight Glimmer steps forward beside Fluttershy.

“It's nice to m–” Starlight Glimmer begins, before cutting off as she sees Cricket. The two lock eyes, and a flash of what looks like fear, or recognition, or perhaps some mix of both crosses Starlight's face for a split second before she looks away, letting out a small cough. “Apologies, there must have been something in my throat.” She says, looking back at Cricket, who squints slightly. “As I was saying, it's nice to meet you, Chimney Cricket! I'm sorry to hear what you've gone through, but I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends at this school!” she says in a very teacher-ly way. “If you'll excuse me for juuust a moment, I need to check something really fast!” She says quickly, teleporting before Fluttershy or Cricket can get a word in.

“That's odd.” Fluttershy remarks. A few moments pass, before Starlight teleports back as abruptly as she'd left. There's a look of relief on her face, though Cricket still feels like she has an apprehensive air about her.

“Apologies again! Where were we… ah, yes!” Starlight leads the group of two up to the large front doors of the friendship school.

The building, to Cricket, is aggressively colorful. Far too many bright pinks and purples assault her eyes as she gazes upon it. Not only that, but the building is practically showing off with not one, not two, but THREE waterfalls coming out of it. One of which parts in the middle just above the front doors, cascading on either side of it. Excessive much?

Starlight’s horn glows as she pushes the doors open with her magic, revealing a large, spacious room with many stone pillars tipped by sparkly pink crystals. It branches off to the left and right further in, as well as having a collection of archways back down the middle, which seem to connect to a small central outdoor plaza of sorts. “Welcome to the school of friendship!” Starlight announces, leading the small group inside. A banner reading ‘WELCOME, NEW STUDENTS!’ is hanging from the ceiling, displayed… sideways, as it appears to have fallen on one end.

“It’s a… work in progress at the moment.” Starlight says nervously. “Even though this is my fourth time going through this, I’m never fully prepared.” Starlight laments with an exhausted chuckle. “But enough about me! Do you have anywhere you’d like to see first, Chimney Cricket?” Starlight asks, trying to look less tired than she probably is.

Cricket shrugs. Starlight throws a sideways glance at Fluttershy, who looks away awkwardly. “Alright, then!” Starlight declares, feigning excitement. “Why don’t we check out the dorms first? Maybe you could give some input on which room you’d like to be in for when I go to assign the groups?”

“Groups?” Cricket asks.

“Yes! Demand for the friendship school has been rising, but we only have so much space,” Starlight explains. “So I figured I could solve that problem by having two students per room! Now we can have more students, and it’s like you get a friend as soon as you start your time here at school! Roommates are fun!” Starlight exclaims.

With perfect comedic timing, the other half of the banner falls down. Starlight groans, putting her hoof to her face.

“...What if you just, like, didn’t assign students to rooms and let them decide for themselves?” Cricket ventures. Starlight opens her mouth to respond, but stops, pondering.

“That’s not a bad idea,” she says, beginning to pace. “It’d also lessen my workload a bit…” she mumbles to nopony in particular. “I can also always make adjustments if necessary…”

Fluttershy politely clears her throat, snapping Starlight out of her pacing. “Oh– sorry! Right! Uhh.. Why don’t we go see the dorms then, and you can perhaps pick one in advance?” Starlight says, clearly just a little distracted.

“Sure.” Cricket agrees, generally disinterested.

The group of three walk down the halls of the school, and Cricket continues to be unimpressed by the flamboyant palette of the school, which regrettably persists throughout the ENTIRE building apparently.

“Here we are!” Starlight announces as the group stops in front of a branching hallway. “Well, partially. There’s a few different wings of dorms. We have around 50 rooms total. Some have different views from the windows, so–” Cricket walks past Starlight as she talks, heading for a room labeled ‘13’. She’s drawn to it because she’d grown up in a similarly labeled room in the orphanage. She’s happy to find that, when she opens the door, the view outside is about 75% obscured by a tree, making the room significantly darker.

“I like this one.” Cricket says with a tiny grin. Fluttershy and Starlight peer in above her. Starlight looks unsurprised.

“Alright, well you probably weren’t getting much competition for this one anyways, so it’s all yours. Well, besides your roommate, of course…whoever that ends up being.”

A while later, Cricket is walking back to the cottage with Fluttershy. The tour had ended shortly after the dorms, because Starlight said she had something to work on. Not that Cricket was complaining.

“I’m sorry that you didn’t seem to have much fun today.” Fluttershy speaks up suddenly, looking back apologetically at Cricket as they walk. “...I get the impression that this has all been happening very quickly for you– perhaps too quickly…and it’s my fault.” She continues. “...If you want, it’s not too late for me to un-enroll you in the school of friendship.”

Cricket’s gut reaction is to say 'OH YES PLEASE'... but something holds her back. She thinks back to the events of the day. Despite the fact that it was probably mundane for most ponies, it was the most she’d done in... gosh, easily several years. That thought made her feel... sad. Even though she was left exhausted, it was also somewhat refreshing, weirdly.

“...Nah.” She replies to Fluttershy, who looks happy and relieved.

“I’m glad.” She says, looking forward again. Cricket was admittedly maybe a little tiny bit terrified of going to the friendship school, but she remembers back to how Fluttershy had mentioned she went out of her comfort zone to help her. Cricket wasn't about to get all mushy, even in her thoughts, but she has to admit that if she couldn't at least try to do the same, she wouldn't be doing a good job of thanking Fluttershy for saving her from the orphanage.

It’s not like she has anything better to do, anyways.