Rosy's School Days

Rosy poked her head through the door and almost fainted at the insane amount of fillies and colts inside that tiny room. Foals were laughing, talking, or spitting paper balls at each other, and Rosy had to dodge so she didn’t get hit by one that flew across the room. She gulped. then stepped bravely into the schoolhouse.

Immediately she was welcomed by a group of fillies. One was yellow with bright red hair and a huge pink bow. Next to her was a white unicorn with pink and purple curls bouncing with her movements. The last one was an orange pegasus with spiky violet hair. They were all smiling at her, at it was starting to get kind of creepy.

“Hi there!” the yellow pony said, stepping back after a long awkward pause. “Ah’m Apple Bloom, and that’s Scootaloo, and that’s Sweetie Belle!” They continued their happy gazes.

Rosy stared at them, her face twisted in confusion. The first one, who was apparently Apple Bloom, softened her smile. “You must be the new student Ms. Cheerilee was talkin’ about yesterday. What’s yer name?”

She was frozen in her spot. Celestia forbid her hooves to move, and she almost tried to break her legs and run away back to her mother. But she just said quietly, “I’m Rosy Cheeks.”

“What was that?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently.

Rosy sighed. She really didn’t feel like repeating herself. “Rosy Cheeks,” she said a bit louder.

“That’s a cool name!” Scootaloo said, grinning. “Hey, wanna sit by us?”

Rosy contemplated this for a second. Her mother had told her to try and make some friends. Sitting by nice ponies was making friends, right? She nodded and started to follow them to the back of the room.

There was a snicker beside her as she walked. “Look at that new pony’s hair,” the voice sneered. Rosy turned and saw a pink pony with a purple and white mane. A large tiara sat atop her head.

Rosy just realized the tiara pony had insulted her hair and felt a rush of blood creep over her muzzle. She folded back her ears in embarrassment and hurried to catch up with her new friends.

She sat down in the chair and, after a few moments, a purple pony with pink, bouncy hair walked in, her sappy eyes sparkling. That must be Ms. Cheerilee; Twilight had talked about her the day she signed her up for school. Rosy sat with her back straight and put her pearly whites to the test.

“Good morning, class!” she sang, standing behind her own desk and placing her ruling stick on the top.

The class echoed with the same happiness, “Good morning, Ms. Cheerilee!” and Rosy found herself following the crowd.

“As you probably all noticed, we have a new student today. Say hello to Rosy Cheeks!” She pointed at Rosy, who nearly jumped as other eyes gazed upon her. She wanted duck under the table, but decided better and waved her hoof shyly.

The pink pony from earlier chuckled, but Rosy tried not to acknowledge it.

From there, the day went pretty smoothly. The lessons varied from multiplication to griffins to just plain grammar and language. Rosy was bored to death when they were on the latter topic, having already known all of it from Twilight, and hadn’t even noticed anything else until the bell rang for recess.

Rosy snapped up from her trance and looked around wildly when the ring hit her ears. “What? Who?” she stammered, then sighed in relief when she realized it was just the bell. She got out of her seat and, not knowing what else to do, just followed the rest of the students outside.

The sun was shining brightly and warmly onto the ponies beneath it. Some were playing hoofball or jump rope, while others just sat at the picnic tables and ate and talked. Rosy had no idea what she would do first, until the pink pony with the tiara walked up to her.

Her voice was just as snobbish as before. “Hey, new kid,” she jeered, and Rosy noticed the silver pony behind her.

“Uh... hello,” Rosy said, since she didn’t know what else to say. She thought of her options and settled with the ‘try to be nice’ approach. “What’s your name?”

“Diamond Tiara,” she said. “I’m surprised you didn’t know that, but then again, you were probably raised in a barn or something.” She pointed at her messy bangs and pigtails. “What’s up with your mane?”

Rosy frowned, putting a hoof up to one of her pigtails, and said, “There’s nothing wrong with it. That’s just how it looks.”

“Whatever. It still looks like a pile of hay was put on your head and pulled back,” she said and glanced over at the silver pony. Even though Rosy didn’t find it the least bit funny, the filly with glasses was laughing at her lame joke.

Rosy had no idea what to do. Her first instinct was to just punch her in the face, but that would get her in trouble, and she didn’t want to have a note sent home on her first day of school. Her other urge was to just walk away slowly, but somehow her hooves were glued on the ground again.

“Diamond Tiara!” a drawled voice said, and Rosy whipped around to see Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo coming over with angry frowns on their faces.

“Leave her alone!” Scootaloo told her sharply, who, in reply, simply rolled her eyes.

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle agreed, a bit more calmly. “She’s just gotten here. You don’t need to be mean to her.”

“Whatever, blank flanks,” Diamond Tiara scoffed, and Rosy began to wonder if that was her only response to anything. With that, the bullies scoffed at the same time and twinkled away like snobbish stars.

Rosy smiled at the fillies. “Thanks for standing up for me,” she said.

“No problem,” Scootaloo said. “That’s what Cutie Mark Crusaders do!”

Rosy didn’t know what that word was and stared at them in confusion. “... A what now?” she finally said, and Scootaloo face-hooved.

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders!” she repeated. “We search for our cutie marks! Wanna join?” Her wings buzzed in excitement.

Rosy would have accepted, but then she remembered. She already had her cutie mark. She couldn’t share in their adventures unless she just tagged along, but that would be kind of awkward. “Well,” she said hesitantly. “I, um, have mine. Already. I’m sorry.”

Their faces fell. “Oh,” Sweetie Belle sighed. “I guess you can’t, then.”

Apple Bloom stepped closer to Rosy. “Ya’ll can still join us,” she said. The other two fillies were confused, but Apple Bloom ignored them and continued, “You can help us look! You have experience, so that can be useful! We can even make you a cape and everything!”

“A cape?” Rosy inquired, and was yet again forced into another explanation. They were really into this, weren’t they? Not wanting to crush their feelings, she said, “Fine, I’ll join.”

“Yay!” they cheered, and held up their hooves readily, then stared at Rosy like they were expecting her to do something. She processed that, then raised up her hoof with them and they had a four-way hoof-bump.

It was awesome, to say the least.

Later on, back in class, Rosy was sitting closer up front, next to Diamond Tiara and an orange colt with teal hair and a glazed, distant look on his face. Ms. Cheerilee was in the middle on an engaging lesson about economy, but a sudden harsh noise interrupted her listening.

She looked to her right and saw Diamond Tiara with a stern glare and a note in her teeth. “Psst...” she whispered again, and leaned forward so Rosy could take the note.

Much to Diamond Tiara’s surprise, Rosy just sighed and levitated the note from her grip, then scanned it silently. Magic was so underrated in this school.

There was only one sentence on the paper.

Join us. :)

Rosy frowned, then crinkled it up and threw it inside her desk. After making fun of her hair, she was not going to become even remotely close to their friend. If anything, she’d be their enemy. Luckily, Ms. Cheerilee hadn’t seen them passing notes and was still talking about how the economy was falling more than it had in years.

Once the final bell rang, Rosy literally zoomed out of the door and waited impatiently for her mother to come by and pick her up. She didn’t want to be there any longer in case Diamond Tiara decided to abduct her into their clique.

To Rosy’s dismay, Diamond Tiara, her follower, and her mother walked up. At the same time. She wanted to run off and hide, but that wasn’t an option anymore.

“Hello, dear!” Sweet said, smiling warmly. Rosy sent her the same greeting, then winced as Diamond Tiara made a snide comment.

“Rosy, your mother is bald?!” Diamond Tiara said before busting out in laughter. The silver pony looked confused for a moment, then followed her in a fit of giggles.

Sweet heard them and gasped inaudibly to herself. Rosy turned around to face Diamond Tiara, rage, tears, and frustration rattling about her brain.

“What did you say about my mother?” she snapped, and grabbed the tip of Diamond Tiara’s hair with her magic. The pink pony’s laughter turned into a squeal of surprise.

That surprise faded away as Diamond Tiara glared at Rosy with a taunting grin. “Your mother is bald. It’s so obvious. I think she needs a wig to cover that up, don’t you think, Silver Spoon?”

The gray pony, who was apparently Silver Spoon, nodded fiercely.

Rosy growled. “I don’t care what you think, Diamond! Just leave us alone, okay?” she said. She had the right mind not to rip her mane and tail out by the roots to see how she liked it, but knew her mother and friends wouldn’t like that. So she let go of the purple and white tail, pivoted, and walked back to Sweet with her nose high in the air. She felt so powerful all of a sudden.

“I’m sorry I did that,” she apologized as they began their trek back to the apartments. She didn’t know how her mother would respond, and Rosy was starting to regret the whole thing. They were probably going to restart teasing her again the next day, anyways.

Sweet didn’t appear to be happy nor sad. She said without tearing her eyes away from the road, “It’s okay, darling. You didn’t have to say anything to them, I didn’t mind it.”

How could she not have minded it?

“But they were making fun of you!” she retorted. “I had to do something!”

“Violence is not the answer. If it was, I would have done a lot more than just stand there,” Sweet said, then smiled a sly smile down at her daughter.

“I have an awesome Momma,” Rosy said, knowing her actions were most likely correct now.

“Off the topic,” Sweet said to try to change the subject. “how was your first day of school?”

Rosy was grinning again. “It was great!” she said. “I became part of a group of three other fillies, found out my enemies, and learned that the economy is a gigantic black hole of death!”

Sweet faced Rosy quickly. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said, not mentioning the last part again.

Dear Diary,

Today was my first day of school. I learned all sorts of new things, and made new friends. Their names are Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. They made a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders and let me join them, even though I already have my cutie mark.

I also made two new enemies: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They made fun of both my hair and my Momma’s lack thereof. But I showed them who’s boss, though they’ll probably make fun of me again tomorrow.

Oh well. I still had fun anyways. I hope I’ll have a better day tomorrow.

Your Friend,

Rosy Cheeks

PS: The economy nowadays is a scary place. I feel sorry for Momma.