To Be Somepony

Ribbon watched the hands of her alarm clock slowly move as her head rested on her pillow, waiting for the hammer to furiously start banging against the bells. The panes of her window were open and the curtains flowed in the breeze that entered her room and chilled her hooves at the end of her bed. Curling up did little to avoid the cold, and any movement seemed like a complete effort on her part. So she continued to stare at the clock until it finally went off.

She turned the other way and hugged at her blanket, closing her eyes for just a moment to try and rest some more. But when she looked back at the clock, five minutes had already eaten away at her morning schedule. Sliding out towards the window, she felt the cold wrap around her body and make her shiver. Quickly she went over to her closet, opened the door then grabbed her bag, then left her room, not to return until the afternoon.

Down stairs it was dark as the sun had yet to breech over the mountains and clouds, and she liked it that way. She went into the pantry in the kitchen, took out a box of oats then poured them in a bowl along with milk and munched away at her daily breakfast. Once she finished and rinsed the bowl and spoon, she went on to preparing the same lunch she had eaten eat everyday for years; a sandwich with very little in it, an apple and a small bottle of water. Some days the apples weren't very good and she'd end up throwing them away with half of the ovary still left, some days the bread on her sandwich got soggy from the mustard and lettuce, and sometimes the water just taste bad and did little to quench her.

It had been the same for years ever since her parents stopped making her lunch for her and she had to start getting up by herself. Her father had to get up early to go to the office to work under Filthy Rich, and her mother didn't get up until sometime after Ribbon left for school. Most mornings she was all along, which she preferred.

She went outside, closed the door and began walking through the streets towards the school. The sun came half way up over the mountains and lit the morning clouds with pink and white rays. Few ponies were out in the mornings, most of them shop keepers cleaning up around their stores for the day.

Her walks were long ones from her home to school, and gave her plenty of time to think to herself about her day. But her thoughts had become mundane from the daily journey. It made her sad in a way realizing it.

The sun had risen slightly when she made it to her desk at school and began taking out her school supplies. Everything had to be in order on her desk, otherwise it made her uncomfortable. When everything was set she looked up at the clock, even though she knew what time it was, then sat back and closed her eyes to rest a little.

"Hey Ribbon." she heard Sprinkles voice interrupt her thoughts.

"Hey." she said and look up at her.

"Did you see Princess Twilight yesterday?"

The tone in her voice made it obvious she wanted to hear what she was like.

"Yeah." Ribbon simply replied.

"How was she?"

"Fine."

"What was she doing?"

"I don't know."

"Was anybody else there?"

"A few."

"Is... that all?"

"Yeah. I didn't get to talk with her, she was too busy."

"Oh... thats too bad."

Sprinkle then left her and went over to her desk which was a few rows over.

Ribbon didn't want to remember what had happened the day before, but it seemed like it was all she could think of. After a long while of thinking to herself the night before, the pain and sadness slowly went away and she went back to normal, mostly. She had taken out a record and played a little music to help ease herself, then went to bed shortly after.

The classroom bell rang as the seats finished filling and the teacher sat at she desk looking over the days lessons. It would be fifteen minutes until class officially started, so Ribbon sat back and closed her eyes again and dreamed of whatever would make her feel better like stories she had imagined and thought would make good novels or scenes of anything she could think of that would complement the music she listened to. Never had she thought she'd make it in show business, but it gave her warmth and a fire in her heart to imagine a great hero leading an army to battle to the sound of drums from her records.

The teacher announced the class and the day started, making her leave her fantasies behind. Before the teacher had even begun to say he was going around to check homework, Ribbon had already taken it out and arrange the papers in order of succession to the days schedule, then rested her cheek on her elbow and closed her eyes again.

School was a enormous priority to her, even if she didn't physical show it. Anything less than a solid B and she felt as if she had let herself down. She wasn't the best reader in the class, nor could she solve every equation right nor could she write the best essay's, but she still did all her homework and scored well enough on her tests to gets A's and B's.

Knowing she was one of the better mare's in her class, though she tried to humble herself, she thought those who whispered to each other during lectures, or teased the teacher with ridiculous, or constantly talked like they knew what they were saying but really didn't were nothing but idiots and was constantly irritated with them. When she was younger and dealt with the same types, and the irritation had gotten up to its breaking point, she would yell over everypony to shut up. Everypony would and looked at her, which made her feel more terrible than triumphant.

She squelched those kinds of memories and tried to think of better ones when the recollection of embarrassment made her uneasy.

The teacher came to her desk and picked up her papers and quickly looked through them, stamped, then went onto the colt in front of her. One thing she had learned is how teachers look at homework; how so as long as they see something they don't see anything wrong, like copied answers from previous questions.

Afterwards he asked if there were questions that needed to be answered, which Ribbon knew were more of than the two hooves in the air but nopony else wanted to look unlearned. Even she didn't understand some things, but mostly learned in class than studied at home, fixing errors she had made by watching the teacher review.

"Now before we get into this mornings lecture," the teacher said, "There's something I'd like to share with you. As you all know the semester is ending and school will be out soon."

"Yeeeyeeeaaaahhh!" some colt yelled out and made the class laugh.

"Indeed." the teacher continued, "So I'm to assume your excitement equals your preparation for when you graduate?"

"Ugh... yeah, well." the same colt muttered.

"I know some of you don't have the new college of Canterlot in mind as of right now, but let me remind you why it behooves you to at least know the opportunities the education there opens to its students. With Equestria's border growing ever larger now these days, whose to say we wont need more teachers to teach the future generation, or architects for the new housing, or scientists for the new environments."

"Don't we have anything like that here?" Sprinkle asked, being one of the unfortunate who sometimes irritated Ribbon.

Though she loved Sprinkle dearly, her best friend's enthusiastic energy sometimes overwhelmed her. But she knew no pony was perfect, especially herself.

"Those who've gone to pursue similar careers did extracurricular classes after graduation, and have indeed moved on beyond Ponyville."

"Why would anyone want to do that?" the colt in front of Ribbon muttered in a disrespectful tone.

The remark peeved Ribbon.

"But the college goes far beyond what can be offered here." the teacher continued, "There, if you are willing to give two more years of school, you'll receive a doctrine in the career you chose as your major. A major is a particular area you enjoy, probably related to your cutie marks."

"Is that all you have to do?" Sprinkle asked, "Study something you actually want to do. Why don't we do that now?"

Some of the ponies chuckled.

"Well... not only do you go there for a major, but you continue your studies in general education from where you left off here. Some of you may be put further behind on account of the grades I've seen."

"Not mine." Ribbon thought.

"But anyway, to get in you need to have the grades to prove it anyway, plus the money to pay for the classes and professors. That's why a brought this up; along with the standard end-semester testing, the Ponyville education department is offering an entrance exam to the college for those interested. I'll pass out brochures of the college later for those who want them."

Ribbon had never been to Canterlot, but the thought of more school after graduating was a nightmare and leaving her friends behind to go spend money on a doctrine didn't sound fun either.

The mornings lesson began with literature and advanced grammar; not one of Ribbons favorite subjects. She often thought that if a pony could speak so another could understand, why otherwise? Along with the subject came essay's, which even at the mentioning of the name was like a curse word to young ponies. She never seemed to manage an A in the subject, with essays dominating the grade and her not being the best at them. Whenever she saw somepony with an A on their paper, she became angry and scorned them for life and demoralized herself in the process.

The bell rang for their short break after a while and they all went outside in the sun. Ribbon took out her apple, went to her groups usual hang out at a bench in the shade of the tree in the court yard and ate while the others talked. Listening to the mares and colts was almost like a hobby to her, even though they talked about things that made her envious or pity them.

Once a pony among them said she had gotten to go to Canterlot and actually saw the Princess Luna fly from her tower just as she was going to bed. Ribbon had been amazed and tried to ask more from her, but the others had drowned out her question. Another time she heard one talk about the new comic series that most colt where reading and how amazing it was. But she thought such a thing pointless and the colt foolish for being interested in it.

She finished her apple and tossed it away into a garbage bin, thinking she was the only one who used them. Trash on the ground was another pet peeve of hers, though she did little to prevent it.

"So who actually thinks the college is worth going to?" one pony asked the group.

"Seems like a waste of time really." another answered, "Why spend money to go school when its free to just graduate anywhere else? And its not like I'm gonna be some architect. I got my cutie mark for being a carpenter like my dad; I'm not gonna' go design huge buildings in Manehatten."

Ribbon glanced at his cutie mark, which was a hammer and a plank of wood crossing each other.

"Yeah but think of it." another argued, "You get to live in Canterlot and possibly even see the princesses. Plus it can't hurt to learn more and get a better job later."

Ribbon quickly lost interest and toned out the conversation and began casually walking around the tree. In the distance she saw the other school, where fillies like the one she met the day before went. The courtyard was empty meaning they were still inside learning, but she actually felt like going back to fillygarden and learning how to add and subtract, knowing it'd so much easier than find roots of number.

The bell rang and everypony went back inside for the next lesson in science. It was one of Ribbons favorite subjects though she still hardly paid attention, yet still managed a good grade. They had begun learning the different elements like hydrogen and helium, but that bored her so she let her mind wonder for a while.

As a song played in her head, the Canterlot orchestra came into mind, followed by the college. She had spent some time imagining libraries with shelves towering over floors in epic fantasies and thought that was what the college was like. Thinking over it, two more years didn't sound all to bad to her given she'd most likely have to work to help pay. But a problem that occurred in her mind was what major she would take. Up until a few weeks earlier she had never given her life after school any thought, which brought yet another problem to mind that plagued her ever since elementary.

Her blank flank.

It was something she had grown to live with over the years but still caught the glimpses of ponies almost everywhere, something that she wasn't sure made her famous or infamous. Never had her cutie mark appeared when she was young and never had she found anything she was good at. She had been picked on in school for being a "blank flank", but she always told those who did to shut up and stormed off to cry somewhere alone.

When she had grown a few years older, and matured more she had started to ignore the empty patch of fur, as did all the others. She knew it would come one day and merrily went thinking so, but still it never came. Now when ever she went out with her parents or friends, she catch the stares of others looking at a nearly full-grown mare with no cutie mark. Even the day before she noticed eyes quickly look away when she noticed them looking. Her parents thought no less of her though, and that was enough to help her forget about her problem.

As the school day neared its end, and Ribbon began packing away her things, the teacher asked if there were any ponies who wanted a brochure. Several hooves went up and he went around. She deliberately kept hers down until he came to a mare near her, then she raised hers just enough so he'd see it and nopony else.

"Good to see you're taking an interest, Miss Ribbon." he said and went back to his desk.

She was one of his more favored students, though they were particularly friends.

The bell rang and everyone left. Out in the courtyard, Sprinkle and some others were gathered together and talking, but Ribbon passed by, planning on simply going home and relaxing.

The trot home wouldn't take long though, and looking up she saw the sun was still high and felt a cool breeze. It went through her mane and gently helped her forget the day of school. But the feeling was replaced with an awkwardness as she saw the library slowly come into view. She had gotten over the depression from the day before, realizing that she probably overreacted in a childish way, but against her better judgement she decided to try her luck again at meeting Twilight Sparkle.

She went up to the front door then felt a flashback of excitement, but repressed the feeling and got ready for the worse. Reaching for the doorknob, the door suddenly opened itself and a pony nearly walked right into her.

"Agh!" it screamed and dropped four books in front of her.

Ribbon recognized the pony being the one that smiled at her from a distance.

"Oh... oh my." she said in the softest voice, "I'm so sorry. I never thought there'd be someone else on the other side. I hope didn't scare you."

"Oh no." Ribbon said, "It's alright."

"Oh good, thank you for not being angry. I hate it when others get angry."

"Really... it's alright."

"I'll just be on my way then."

The pony said goodbye, then gave Ribbon another smile that made her blush. Their wings stretch out then gently flapped and lifted her off the ground with her books. Ribbon watched her fly for a short while before another voice spoke to her.

"Oh hey! How's it going Ribbon."

She looked down and saw Spike at the door.

"Hi." she said, "Good I suppose."

Seeing him again made her happy.

"I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd visit the library." she partially lied.

"Glad you came. Come on in."

He closed the door as she walked in then followed her to the center of the room. Again she didn't see Twilight Sparkle, and almost felt glad she didn't.

"Thanks by the way for taking that letter to Twilight for me." Spike said.

"Sure. It was... fun."

"So you here for a book? Besides a whole bunch of encyclopedia's we do have some good stories."

"Uh... yeah." Ribbon said, having trouble focusing on him and looking back forth for Twilight, "Got any good fantasies?"

"Let me check."

He went off to one of the dozens of shelves and search for a book while Ribbon stayed behind.

A door at the top of the staircase opened and down came Twilight. Ribbon held her breath as she tried not to cause a scene. Countless sentences went through her mind as she tried to think of a greeting, but then she noticed a floating piece of parchment in front of her face. The wings on her back fluttered off an itch as the newly crowned princess gracefully went down the stairs then through the door into the basement. Ribbon sighed when the door closed.

"Here you go." Spike suddenly said from behind her.

She turned and saw him with a book in his claws.

"I don't no if you'll like it or not, since its a little big, but it's one of my favorites."

Ribbon looked at the title; Over the Mountains and through the Void, by William ColtField it said. On the cover she saw a drawing of a pony wearing medieval armor standing on a plateau and looking out to a valley of clouds where in the background and great and ominous mountain went up.

"What's it about?" she asked.

"Its pretty much a basic epic fantasy, only done right by ColtField. It's full of action, drama, romance, you know all the good stuff."

"Sounds good. How long do you think it'll take me?"

"Ah... well gee." he said, opened the book and flipped through the pages.

Ribbon watch as the number in the corners of the pages went well over eight hundred, with each page filled with small text.

"I'd say a while, a long while."

"Oh... well then i guess i could look for anoth..."

Before she finished her sentence, the door to the library opened again and in came Rainbow Dash.

"Hey Twilight!" she yelled quite rudely, "You home?!"

"Down here!" Twilight yelled from the basement.

Rainbow Dash trotted towards the basement door.

"Hey Spike." she said, then glanced at Ribbon.

She passed by the two of them, then stopped a moment after and turned around.

"Ssssaaaaayyyyy." she said, "Do I know you?"

"What?! No. We've never met." Ribbon worriedly said.

Rainbow Dash scratched her headed while still looking at her. Then her eyes opened wide when she knew.

"Yes we have. I saw you yesterday."

"You know what," Ribbon said then turned to Spike, "I think I'll try that book. Thanks for picking it out for me."

She quickly opened her bag and placed the hefty book inside and went towards the front the door.

"Wait!" Rainbow Dash said, "Yesterday, why do you star..."

The door closed behind Ribbon, leaving the other two in the dust.

"You know her?" Rainbow asked Spike.

"Yeah. We met at Rarity's shop and she said she'd take Princess Celestia's letter to Twilight for me. She came by for a book. Why?"

"Well after she gave her the letter she started crying for no reason. Got me worried for a little bit."

"Hmmm."

Rainbow Dash started again towards the door then stopped.

"Which book did you give her?" she asked.

"The same I tried to give you."

"Oh... yeah. That one. Waaayy to long for me."

Ribbon got up to her bedroom and threw her bag onto her bed. The buckle came unloose and everything spilled out onto her blanket, but she didn't bother cleaning it. Over on her desk in the corner, right next to the window was where a large piece of paper with a roughly sketched figure mocked her in its amateurish shading. She had tried drawing the figure of a pony, but some of its features were disproportional and its shading did little to help it pop off the paper.

She looked out the window and down at the street where she saw her father coming home from work. He walked through the door, sat his briefcase on the floor then hung his hat and tie.

"Ribbon!" he called out, "You home?!"

"Up here!" she called back.

He came up stairs and into her room.

"How was school." he asked, a tired yet caring look on his face.

"Fine." she said.

"That's good."

He noticed the mess on her bed and went over to it, then noticed and picked up the book.

"Where'd you get this?"

"The library. I stopped by on the way home."

"Ah! ColtField! He's a good writer, you might like him."

"You've read that book?"

"No, but some of his other works I have. He was actually rather famous back in his time, and a lot of his books are still popular."

"Hmmm." Ribbon said growing bored.

Her father looked back down and saw the brochure and swapped it with the book.

"What's this?"

"Just something the teacher gave us. Something about the new college in Canterlot. I was interested."

Her father closely examined the brochure.

"Interesting." he said in a less compassionate tone, "Looks pretty impressive. Were you thinking of going?"

"I don't know, maybe."

He set it back down on the bed.

"Well dinner won't be ready for awhile, so go ahead and have a little snack if you're hungry."

"Okay." she said and watched him walk out.

She felt as though he was skeptical about her going to the college, and felt a little betrayed by his tone.

A record still sat on the player by her closet. She lifted the needle, cranked the handle then gently placed it back on the record. First static came from the bronze cone, then came the trickling sound piano as keys were hit from high to low in a melodic fashion.

Ribbon took some of the papers from her bed to the desk, sat down and began working on her homework.

"By the way!" she heard her father call out, "Did you see Princess Twilight at the library."

"No." she said, then looked back down at her pencil.