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**Five years later**

It’s almost nine in the morning, and my small lecture hall is nearly filled up. Figures the first time I actually teach, and I’m stuck with Tuesday mornings. Oh irony, you certainly are a heartless bitch.

“Keerthana!” a vaguely familiar voice calls out to me. I turn to whoever it is, and see Sweetie Belle walking toward me. At least, I think it’s her. She’s a full-grown mare now, not the little filly I remember. “Or maybe I should call you Professor Griffis,” she blushes.

“Outside a professional setting, my first name will suffice,” I tell her. “Anyways…wow, it’s been a while. Has to have been at least a couple years.”

“I think Twilight’s coronation was the last time,” she says nostalgically. “Where did you go after that?”

“I was actually finishing my studies on Earth during that time; I only came to Equis for the event. Went back to Earth soon after. They managed to make some sort of workaround so I could be ready to teach this class within a few years.”

“Why wouldn’t they just send a normal professor?” she asks curiously. “Not to offend you, but they could just send a human who already knew this.”

“Fair enough question.” I cross my arms and lean back onto my desk. “Princess Celestia personally requested that I do this. She said she’d rather have a human who's well-known here teaching as opposed to some dusty old guy.” I open my arms and spread them out. “Nailed a job as a college professor, and I’m only 24. I’d say I’m doing pretty well.”

“You’re twenty four?” she asks, shocked. “Rarity told me it was impolite to ask a lady’s age, but I thought you were starting college when you came here. Or did I hear wrong?”

“You heard right.” A couple seconds go by, and then something clicks in my head. “Weren’t you like, seven when I first came here?”

“Yes,” she confirms.

“And since about five and a half years have passed, you’re what? Twelve? Thirteen?”

“Twelve.”

“So how come you’re in college that young? No offense, but I didn’t know you were that smart. Well, I always knew you were smart, but not ‘go to college at this age’ smart.”

“I was young for my grade, but I’m still normal age for this.” She looks at me strangely. “Why? When do most humans start college?”

“Eighteen usually.”

“Eighteen?” she echoes, her mouth agape. “Rarity’s only seventeen! Does that she mean she wouldn’t even be in college if she was a human?”

“Usually not. Out of curiosity, how long do most ponies live for?”

“Maybe fifty years,” she guesses. “How long do humans live?”

“Well, with modern medicine and everything, uhh,” I gently stroke my chin, kind of wondering what might happen next. “100 to 110 years typically.”

“A hundred years?” she almost yells. “Wow, I’d love to live that long!”

“Maybe you will,” I say optimistically. “Who knows what human medicine can do for ponies? Maybe 100-year lifespans will be common. And you’ll be able to tell your grandfoals about the time when living to 60 was a milestone.”

She smiles and turns toward the seats. “I’ll be looking foreword to this class,” she says happily. “I needed a history class, and I actually was looking at this one. When I saw you were the only professor teaching it, I signed up right away!” She happily trots to one of the empty seats and plops down.

I go and close the door, then stand behind the desk and can barely contain myself. “Good morning, class,” I announce. “I am Professor Griffis, and I will be your Human History professor for the next semester.”