My Life Sucks

This is the most annoying part of my day, Sunset thought to herself as she stood in the lunch room, examining the room of ponies either sitting with their friends laughing or standing in a lunch line. Her own lunch was being levitated in the air next to her as Sunset groaned.

“Uhm, could you please move? You’re blocking the hallway?” Sunset glanced back at a colt behind her along with a line of frustrated students. “Sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and stepped aside, trotting down the carpeted incline towards an empty lunch table. Or well, half empty lunch table. That dark orangish brown mare from the other day was sitting there, idly using her hooves to peel an orange as she read a book. Sunset’s two guards had their own lunches held in their wings as they flanked her and she sighed.

Sunset levitated three chairs out and sat down with a tired sigh, the other mare not reacting much except for her eyes flicking over to examine her for a brief second before they went back to her book.

“Aren’t you gonna ask to sit here?” Comet reminded Sunset with a raised eyebrow.

“Why would I ask permission? It’s a free country and it’s just a lunch table. It’s not like I’m asking to trade lunches with her,” Sunset shot back and rolled a hoof in the air.

“Maybe she wants to be alone?” Thunder chimed in and Sunset glanced at him.

“Well, then she has nothing to worry about because I don’t plan on talking to her. She’s busy reading as is.”

Sunset glanced at the mare licking her hoof and she turned the page. Sunset didn’t entirely believe that actually helped ponies turn the page of their books. Sunset had no idea where the heck that idea even came from to begin with.

Sunset idly watched the ponies around before she levitated her own lunch out, staring at the sandwich, salad with some red dressing and croutons followed by cookies and a water. Clearly Celestia packed her lunch. Sometimes Sunset could sweet talk one of the maids or Raven into slipping a pop into her bag.

Sunset knew she could just order them too, but then the relationship she had with Raven would be affected and the staff would just resent her, equally making her life difficult at home as it already was at school.

“Ready for the test next hour?” Comet asked as she took a bit of her own sandwich her kid had made earlier this morning. Daisy sandwiches weren’t her favorite, but they worked.

“No.”

Sunset was like everypony else and shared a mutual hatred of tests. Especially surprises tests that come out of nowhere. Just because she studied and had high hopes for getting a decent grade didn’t make her all too happy to spend her class time writing.

“You got this,” Comet reassured her and Thunder nodded as he tossed some more sunflower seeds in his mouth. Sunset stabbed her salad with her fork, crunching a crouton in her mouth as the other mare switched to eating something with hay and various layers of cheese and some red sauce in it. “You’ve been studying for the past week and a half. Hey you over there.”

“Me?” Silver Spanner pressed a hoof to her chest and Comet nodded. “What’s up, ma’am?”

“You’re making me feel old. You got the same class as Sunset next, right?” Comet asked and Silver Spanner started flipping through her schedule before nodding. “Nice. I bet you don’t gotta take the test. This is only your fourth day here, right?”

“Yes ma- I mean, correct.”

“I was just teasing ya kid,” Comet chuckled and took another slow sip of her water. “Call me ma’am all ya want. What’s your name again?”

“Silver Spanner, ma’am.”

“Comet Chaser, Sergeant of Princess Celestia’s royal guard. And thats Corporal Thunder Wings and one of my oldest friends. We grew up together,” Comet smirked slightly at her and rubbed Sunset’s mane with a wing. “Come on, kid. Be friendly.”

Sunset shot her a glare and used her magic to fix her mane.

“Hi,” Sunset commented and stared down at her lunch, tossing a few grapes into her mouth. Huh, cotton candy grapes. That’s a new one. “Comet, what the heck are you doing?”

“She has no friends, you were worried about having no friends. Take a chance with her,” Comet whispered back into her ear, jerking her head to Silver Spanner reading something called Mechanic Weekly.

“Let me sleep on it.”

Comet and Thunder both shot each other a tired look over Sunset’s head as the two mares ignored each other to eat in silence.

Gloriosa Daisy sat at her desk, greeting her students with a warm smile followed by a wave. As the only earth pony teacher at the CSGU, Gloriosa Daisy often felt lesser around her unicorn counterparts.

But one of the upside she had was she a way better nature teacher than the unicorns. Not that she felt superior than them. Gloriosa shifted in her seat and sighed. On top of being a earth pony teacher at a unicorn school, it didn’t necessarily help that she was only a first year teacher. Most of the others had at least three years or more experience than her.

“Welcome,” Gloriosa smiled as Silver Spanner pushed her way through the beaded entrance of the classroom. “You like it? New addition to the room.”

“It’s certainly something Miss,” Silver Spanner conceded and she looked around. The classroom was brightly colored with a tree painting on the wall, the students names wrote in curve on some leafs stuck to the tree with velco. “It reminds me of Ponyville. I like how nature orientated your classes always are.”

“Ponyville is a nice town. I’ve traveled though while going to visit my brother in Appaloosa,” Gloriosa commented as she stroked a plant in a vase. “Class is starting soon. Why don’t you take a seat? Got a surprise for the class.”

Oh boy, Silver Spanner thought as she sat at table with a white unicorn and a pink mane and three blue stars for a cutie mark.

“Hi!” Twinkleshine smiled at Silver Spanner as she stretched. “How are you?”

“Good, yourself?”

“Meh, I’m okay.”

The two fell into an awkward silence as some more students filed in, Sunset somewhere in the middle with a pissed off looking expression and Silver Spanner idly noted her horn sparking occasionally.

That doesn’t look, Silver Spanner mused as the two guards behind her looked frustrated.

“What do you think happened?” Silver Spanner asked curiously and Twinkleshine gave a noncommittal shrug.

“Your guess is a good as mine. Sunset occasionally gets mad, but only when it’s something that genuinely angers her. Oh well. She’ll get over it in about five days or a week,” Twinkleshine mused as she opened a books on plants she levitated shakily from the shelf. “Just fair warning, be ready in case something accidentally blows up.”

Sunset slammed her books down on her table in back, sulking with a scowl. The male guard sat down with her and they had a quiet conversation as Sunset flailed a foreleg around in the air angrily before slamming it down hard on the table. Silver Spanner got the feeling it wasn’t either of them she was mad at.

“Everything good back there?” Gloriosa called out worriedly as she glanced back to the amber unicorn.

“Just calming her down is all,” Thunder replied and smiled at her. “I’ll tell you about it after class.”

Gloriosa nodded and gave him a warm smile. Thunder and Sunset had another quick conversation and he stood up, trotting outside the room where he and Comet had a quiet conversation.

“Alright everypony, before we start our test, I’m happy to announce we’re gonna have a month long project on plants around Canterlot,” Gloriosa stood up and some of the students groaned. “Now now, it’s not that bad. I’m gonna be placing you in groups of four. Starting with group one, Twinkleshine, Ivory Melody, Sunset Shimmer and Silver Spanner. You four kindly make your way to a table together.”

Sunset rolled her eyes, but trotted over with her books, resting them on the table next to Twinkleshine, yanking a chair out with her magic and sitting down. She looked a bit less angry than before, thankfully.

“Hi,” Twinkleshine smiled at her and it faded slightly as Sunset grunted in response.

“Sup?” Sunset answered finally as colt joined them, the four idly listening to Miss Gloriosa naming more groups as the other ponies started moving around.

“So based on what’s she’s saying, we’re gonna be going to each other’s houses for this too. So write down your addresses except Sunset. Everypony knows where she lives,” Twinkleshine opened her notebook. “We can probably meet at the library, but that’ll most likely be a hot spot. Especially since everypony is going to be doing this, I assume. There’s a donut shop we can go to as well. It’s called-”

“Donut Joes. I know the place,” Sunset finished for her and received two surprised looks. “What? I liked donuts as much as the next pony.”

Silver Spanner didn’t necessarily know what the big deal was. Everypony likes donuts, especially her. Sugarcube Corner was a staple in Ponyville. Everypony goes there unless you’re a dentist or something. Then you probably wouldn’t go. And she didn’t necessarily understand the whole “Everypony knows where she lives” comment either.

Silver Spanner took a quill in her hoof, writing her address and name down quickly followed by a smiley face at the end of her name.

“Oh, you live near me. Cool,” Ivory noted and he brushed his mane aside as Sunset and Twinkleshine both leaned away from him slightly.

“I guess,” Silver Spanner shrugged and Sunset made a cutting motion across her throat behind the colts back.

“Anyway,” Twinkleshine coughed loudly into her hoof. “I’d like to state for the record I’m not doing everything. Last time I did a project with classmates I had to.”

“Fine by me,” Sunset commented and spun her quill around with her magic.

“You’re the only one not to put your address down,” Silver Spanner used her hoof to spin the note book around to her.

“Right. I’ll let the guards know to allow you three passage for the rest of the month. But don’t blame me if they search you and bags,” Sunset told her and Silver Spanner gave her a confused look.

“Fine by me. So you must live in some pretty protected part of Canterlot then, huh?”

Ivory snorted and Sunset nodded with a bored look on her face.

“Canterlot? Try all of Equestria,” he snickered and Sunset visibly resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Sunset personally wasn’t a fan of him. Most ponies weren’t. He came off as annoying to most.

Twinkleshine eyed them both warily and sighed quietly in relief as Sunset turned away to examine the test that had been placed in front of her.

Silver Spanner leaned back in her chair and opened a book on train engines. Since she was new still, she was allowed to skip taking this week’s test.

At least she got to do something productive in her eyes, reading.