It was a beautiful sunny morning in Ponyville. The birds were singing, squirrels were chattering, and rabbits were coming out of their burrows in search of food. However, none of this particularly mattered to Sweetie Belle for one reason.
She had school this morning.
As her alarm clock rang, she moaned and reached out blindly to switch it off. Instead, she managed to knock it off the stand by her bed to the floor, where it continued to ring away merrily, unconcerned at what it was doing to her sensitive ears.
She burrowed under her pillow, attempting to dampen out the aggravating sound. It was muffled, but the sound still continued to bore its way into her skull. Eventually, she couldn't take it any more, and hopped off the bed.
She groaned in frustration, and mashed the off button down petulantly. "Dumb alarm."
She contemplated crawling back into bed, and skipping school today. Surely nopony would miss her.
"Sweetie Belle!" The sound of her mother calling to her came from below.
Oh brother, she thought. Well, she'd better get up after all, then. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, stretched, and yawned a big yawn. Arching her back to get the kinks out, she eyed the calendar. April 14th. She put the alarm clock back on its stand.
Wait. "April 14th?"
She bolted out of her bedroom.
"There you are Sweetie. Do you know what time-"
"No time to talk, mom! I have to get going or I'll be late for school!" Sweetie Belle said.
She quickly pulled on her saddle bags, tossed a muffin in, and gulped down a glass of orange juice. Grabbing a paper bag her mother was holding in her muzzle, she bolted for the door, leaving her bemused parents behind her.
"Since when has she cared about being late for school?" Pearl asked her husband.
He simply shrugged, and got out his fishing rod and tackle, in preparation for another long day of fishing.
Sweetie Belle started trotting towards the direction of the schoolhouse, only to stop when a scooter came to a halt right besides her.
"Sweetie Belle!"
"Hey, Scootaloo. You ready for today?" she asked her friend.
"Am I?" Scootaloo said enthusiastically. "Come on, let's go get Apple Bloom. She won't want to miss today!"
"No need," a voice called from a short ways away, out of breath. "Ah'm here. What's so special about today, though?"
"You don't remember?" Sweetie Belle said, startled. "Today at school, we have a guest speaker-"
"A very special guest speaker-" Scootaloo continued.
"Coming all the way to our school to talk about her position as the Olympic Games Inspector-" Sweetie Belle said.
"The best Olympic Games Inspector in Equestria!" Scootaloo interjected.
"Isn't she the only Olympic Games Inspector in Equestria?"
"Yeah, and therefore the best one!" Scootaloo said.
"But today is the day Miss Harshwhinny comes to speak to our class!" Sweetie Belle said in excitement.
"Today's that day?" Apple Bloom said. "Shoot, is my ribbon straight? Do I have my notebook? I know Applejack's going to want an autograph. She's always been a big fan, what with her inspecting the rodeo, too, and all..."
At that, Scootaloo began rummaging through her saddle bags. "Do I have quills and ink? I'd better be sure."
"You know, that won't matter if we don't get to school on time." Sweetie Belle pointed towards the schoolhouse with her horn.
They all exchanged a look, and started galloping that way as fast as they could.
The three fillies finally got to the red schoolhouse and everypony started filing inside.
"*huff* *huff* We finally made it." Apple Bloom panted.
"Right in the nick of time, too." Scootaloo said, not nearly as winded because of her scooter.
"Come on," Sweetie Belle said, waving them onward. "We'd better get inside."
They quickly joined the others, and took their seats in the classroom. As everypony finished getting seated, Miss Cheerilee came to the front of the class.
"Good morning, my little ponies! Today we have a long and fun class ahead of us," she cheerfully greeted her class. "As you are no doubt aware, today we will have a special guest, the Royal Games Inspector, Miss Harshwhinny!"
An orange colored earth pony with a blond mane and a stern expression waved from behind her. The class whistled and stomped their approval. Cheerilee waited for most of the applause to die down, and then spoke back up.
"But first, it's time to continue covering division with fractions. Who can tell me what a denominator is?" She tapped at the blackboard, which was covered with math problems. The class groaned. It was going to be a long day.
Sweetie Belle's head was swirling with numerators and denominators when Cheerilee finally halted the lecture. She was also about ready to burst with anticipation. She was hardly alone. All around the classroom, ansy fillies and colt shifted in their seats. Though Rumble seemed to somehow have fallen asleep anyways.
"Alright now, class, that's enough for today." Cheerilee announced. "Make sure to do problems ten through twenty six on page two hundred thirty-five for homework. Let's take a break for lunch, and then afterwards, I'll give the floor to Miss Harshwhinny."
Students started milling outside for lunch. Sweetie Belle eased out of her desk, trying to wake up her backlegs, which seemed to have fallen asleep at some point. Scootaloo sidled up besides her, giving a big yawn, with Apple Bloom following her. Behind them, Miss Cheerilee was gently trying to wake Rumble up.
"Rumble."
"Why certainly, Twist, I'll have two of your peppermint sticks." He murmured.
Apple Bloom stifled a laugh. "Poor Rumble. Good thing most of the class already left for lunch, or I reckon he'd never hear the end of this."
Standing up, hooves still pins and needles, Sweetie Belle motioned to the others. "Let's get some lunch while we have a chance."
They walked out, hearing Rumble mumble something about a "nice long lick" on the way out, which set them to giggling again. Looking around, they managed somehow to claim a table to themselves.
Sweetie Belle pulled out the bag her mother had given her this morning, and found a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange, and an apple inside. Apple Bloom seemed to have some sort of apple carrot walnut salad and two apples.
Scootaloo pulled out Equestria's smallest muffin, and frowned. Apple Bloom quickly hooved over one of her apples, and Sweetie Belle did the same with the orange.
"You really need to start bringing better lunches, you know, Scoots," Apple Bloom said. "How many times is this?"
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Scootaloo reached into her bag. "So, Miss Harshwhinny's lecture is after lunch. Think we'll get a chance to talk to her afterwards?"
Sweetie Belle scratched her head. "I don't see why not. Trouble is everypony is going to want to talk to her."
"Yeah. Hope we manage to get her to sign autographs, at least." Apple Bloom said.
"Autographs is small potatoes," Scootaloo commented. "What we really should do is get her to show us the ropes of how to be an inspector."
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle said. "And then maybe we could earn our Cutie Marks as-"
They all chimed in together, from long practice.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders Game Inspectors! Yay!"
Back in the teachers lounge, Miss Harshwhinny sneezed, then accepted a preoffered handkerchief from Cheerilee.
"Thank you, my dear. Must be my allergies acting up."
"Don't mention it. Do you think you'll be alright for your lecture?" Cheerilee asked.
Miss Harshwhinny smiled. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."
Author's Note
While I’m not planning on continuing this (I ran out of inspiration, and this was written pre-Flight to the Finish, so it feels like some of this already happened on the show), I think I have a fair amount of the second chapter I started writing around, and I may still try to finish that and post it.
