//------------------------------//
// Day One 
// Story: Aptitude 
// by Kestrel 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3: Day One
Aptitude
MLP: FiM
By: Kestrel




Daylight crept in from the window, bathing Blizzard and Flathoof’s dorm room in a soft glow. As a beam hit Blizzard Warning in the face, he turned over and took a look at his alarm clock. Seven o’ clock. He could afford to get a bit more sleep. Blizzard rolled over to the other side of the bed and into the wide, open eyes of his roommate.

        “Hey there,” he said. “You should really get up, it’s time to get ready!” The yellow pegasus was once more in Blizzard’s face and he reacted in the best way he knew how, by freaking out.

        “Gyah!” he yelled, flailing with his bedsheets and backing away from Flathoof. Flathoof tipped his head and laughed like he usually did. Blizzard responded by tossing a pillow, which bounced off the pegasus, leaving him stunned momentarily.

        Flathoof shook his head out and put his front hooves up on the bed once more to a bemused Blizzard Warning.

        “Seriously, you’re gonna want to get up,” he reiterated. 

        “But it’s only seven,” Blizzard whined. “Classes don’t even start until eight… I’ll start moving in about fifteen minutes or so.”

        Flathoof shook his head knowingly.

        “Trust me, you’re gonna want to get moving before all the hot water’s gone.”

        Blizzard just grumbled and turned over, tossing his sheets over his head once more. Flathoof nickered and rolled his eyes.

        “Suit yourself, I’m going to go get breakfast,” Flathoof said before trotting out of the room quietly.

        Blizzard’s mind drifted back to his shattered dreams. He had been awake for a whopping three minutes now, but had utterly lost the ability to fall back to sleep. Stretching and yawning occupied his next few minutes as he trudged to the shower in the bathroom.

        Brrr… Flathoof was right, while it wasn’t cold yet, the water definitely wasn’t warm, and it broke Blizzard free of his morning stupor. Not the most fancy or quiet plumbing in Equestria, but it got the job done as Blizzard twisted the knob and the water squeaked to a halt. The young stallion shook his body, sending water droplets to collide against the shower curtain while levitating a towel to dry what he couldn’t shake.

        Brushing his teeth was a quick affair thanks to the dedication Flathoof had shown earlier, which still disturbed Blizzard. Once he was satisfied that his teeth were clean, he flashed a goofy grin at himself in the mirror and fussed with his mane until it was laying in its usual unkempt and messy state.

        Ready to face the day, Blizzard floated his saddlebags on and put on the school’s uniform scarf, embroidered with a pattern depicting Starswirl the Bearded’s cutie mark. 

        “I’ll make you proud, Starswirl,” Blizzard Warning promised his ancestor. With that, he swung open the door and strode out proudly onto the balcony and saw that there was exactly nopony there. Only slightly weirded out, Blizzard decided to proceed down into the breakfast area.

        Fancy carved wood constituted the old-fashioned doors, which worked and sounded in peak condition despite probably being at least two-hundred years old. Inside the room were multiple long tables where there were a sparse amount of other ponies eating their breakfast. They all looked to be first year students since they were smaller than Blizzard for the most part, but there were a few ponies his age in the dining area as well.

        Blizzard trotted up to the buffet line and began to load his plate with what they had, which mostly consisted of pancakes, apples, and orange juice. It was by no means the usual gargantuan feast he indulged himself in, but he ate heartily anyway, scarfing four pancakes in addition to his apple and a few glasses of juice.

        A glance up at a grandfather clock confirmed the time: a quarter to eight. He decided it was time to get moving, as did most of the other students. 

        Outside of the Enchantment Hall, a small group of first-year students were stampeding down the hill toward the school buildings. Apparently, Blizzard wasn’t the only one to underestimate the distance from the Enchantment Hall to the rest of campus. 

        It seemed that there were still a few students trotting from other directions. Blizzard looked away from where he was going for a split second and tumbled headlong into a unicorn filly, stumbling and causing both of them to spill the contents of their saddlebags.

        “Hey!” she shouted. “Watch where you’re going!” Blizzard picked his face from off the ground, brushing the dirt off of it, or at least what he could manage before scooping up all the things that had fallen out.

        Once he figured he gathered enough, the colt turned to face a very angry sky blue unicorn mare with a green and pink braided mane. Blizzard shrank in fear from the unicorn, and got a good look at her cutie mark… it was a skull. Now Blizzard Warning felt as if this was a warning, and gulped audibly. The young mare rolled her eyes and snatched her things out of the colt’s magical grip with her own magic.

        “Are you just going to stand there shaking in your horseshoes, or are you going to get to class?” she asked rather harshly. “I swear… you newbie.”

        Blizzard was horribly confused. This pony was younger than he was! Newbie? Come on, he may be a new student here, but she obviously was too.

        “Newbie? Yeah, this is my first year too,” he said. “Wait, newbie… so you’re not a new student?” He tried to sound less incredulous than he actually felt. It didn’t work, and he was rewarded with a slug to the chest from the smaller pony.

        “No! I’m in my third year, well, not exactly. Urgh!” she groaned. “Look, I’ve got to get to class. You’re a unicorn, do you know where they’re holding the unicorn class for directing magic?”

        Blizzard took a quick look at his schedule and map, noting that he too had Directing Magic as his first class of the day. Room 105 in the Starswirl Hall. 

        “Hey, you’re in my class! I’m Blizzard Warning, it’s nice to meet you!” he said to the filly, happy to meet somepony else who he was taking a class with. She rolled her eyes and Blizzard snapped back to the task at hoof. “It’s in 105, Starswirl Hall, let’s go together.”

        “Fine, I’m Strata,” she said, slightly annoyed. The two ponies started off at a gallop to make up for lost time. The clock now read seven fifty-eight. 

        “So, what are you studying?” Blizzard asked cheerfully. “Oh, and you said that you’re in your third year, but not exactly? What’s with that?”

        “Less talk, more running! We’re going to be late!” Strata answered, upset that her first day of the year would be marred by tardiness.





Students were whispering and conversing amongst themselves in Room 105 as the teacher made her way up to the desk at the front of the room. The room itself was large enough to seat at least seventy-five students, but right now, there were about eight empty. 

        The teacher’s bright pink coat and blonde mane stood out in the drab brown of the classroom, as if to attract the attention of students like a lighthouse.

        “Good morning, class!” announced the teacher, grabbing a ruler with her magic and slapping it on the head of the desk loudly to draw the attention of the young unicorns in her classroom. “Welcome to Directing Magic. I’m glad to see all these new faces today. I am Mrs. Guiding Light. We’ll get right into it.”

        All the ponies at their desks scrounged through their saddlebags to find their notepads and pens as they prepared to write. A rainbow of colorful glow illuminated the room as the full group of unicorns payed close attention.

        “Okay then, now I’m sure we all know what makes a unicorn different from other ponies,” she forced out trying to stifle a laugh. Laughs emanated out from the classroom as the students were caught off guard by the lesson from magic kindergarden. “Our horns, duh! I mean right? Well, you’re here to learn about just what makes those horns—”

        Clatter arose from the hall as the door leading into the classroom burst open and two ponies fell over each other onto the floor of the room. A cobalt blue filly regained her hooves first, still standing on top of the bright white colt who laid sprawled out on the ground.

        “So nice of you to join us!” Guiding Light said almost patronizingly. “We have a few open seats for you two, right near the front. That way I can keep an eye on you two lovebirds. Why else would you decide to be late on your first day of class?”

        Strata’s face contorted in rage as she slowly ground one of her hooves into Blizzard beneath her, forcing a few yelps out of the poor stallion before she got off and made her way to her seat. Blizzard slowly recovered and hobbled over to the adjacent seat as the Guiding Light directed.

        “Ahem,” she began once more. “As I was saying, we’ll see just how our horns tick and how to best allow the flow of magic to continue so we don’t get tired. Raise your hoof if you ever got tired from trying to cast too much magic in one day before.”

        Out of the now nearly seventy students in their seats, the majority raised a hoof. 

        “Well, there are several reasons for that, which we’ll get into as we get on into the year,” she explained. “For now, we’ll start by passing out textbooks. Please form a line at the front of the class and we can hopefully get this done in short order.”

        Twenty minutes of waiting and registering later, Blizzard received a fairly light textbook for the class from the teacher. He leafed through the pages to find that there were only about five chapters. It was an introductory course, so it was supposed to be easy. After all, this class was actually only going to go on for a month or so. Apparently the introductory courses for each pony race was already considered common enough knowledge that they only bothered with a few specifics.

        “So for the remainder of class, I want you all to read up on chapter one of the textbook,” she directed the class, writing on the board the page number of the chapter. “We will have a test next week over the content.”

        Blizzard spent the rest of the day reading about how to avoid mental strain by proper resting and recovery methods through certain kinds of foods and medicines. The reading was boring, but somewhat insightful. At least he knew that there was a reason for eating tomatoes, he just didn’t care much for them. He simultaneously occupied himself by dodging glances from Strata as she gave him the evil eye.

        Brrrrrrrrring!

        The bell couldn’t have rung soon enough! Blizzard got out of his seat and made a beeline toward the door before Strata caught up to him and pinned him up against a wall. A few other unicorns from the class laughed at the situation. It was embarrassing for Blizzard, being held against his will by a smaller pony.

        “You,” she said with a certain weight to her voice that made Blizzard’s soul want to escape his body. “You… do you know where our next class is?” she asked, swallowing a great deal of pride to ask him. Blizzard blinked. Oh no, this crazy mare was going to be in his next class too!? He had already had enough physical abuse for one day, thank you.

        “Mhm…” he whimpered out slowly. “J-just follow me.”

        “Oh, sorry about being all scary earlier, I was just stressed,” she admitted. “This is the first time I’ve actually been here.”

        First time? But she had said she was in her third year. It was obvious she was a new student though since she was taking that first year unicorn class. Blizzard had to take it as well despite being in his second year of schooling.

        “How’s that? Didn’t you say that you were a third-year?” Blizzard put his thoughts into words. Strata swayed her head a bit from side to side.

        “Well, you see, I’m a third-year student by merit, but I’m the age of a first-year, and am therefore a new student,” she explained. “Thankfully, they allowed me to take aptitude tests to let me skip up to where I am rather than having me repeat classes.”

        Blizzard was taken slightly aback. She was younger than him, and apparently a lot smarter. She got in with some serious skills, he got in through something like nepotism and networking. Classes were rumored to be tough, so Blizzard hoped he could measure up to the strain. It would be embarrassing for certain if he couldn’t.

        “Oh, right, and you asked me earlier what I studied,” she continued. “Well, despite your hilarious look of fright earlier when we bumped into each other, it doesn’t mean that I kill ponies.” Blizzard smacked his face with a hoof. Did he really look so frazzled earlier? The filly laughed in amusement at the silly colt in front of her.

        “Your name might be Blizzard Warning, but you definitely can’t keep your cool very well!” she giggled, leaving Blizzard to regard her with a deadpanned expression that would make Double Dose give a deadpanned nod of approval. “Anyway, I’m going here to study archeology.”

        Archeology? Oh, so that explained the skull. That sounded cool! Like all the Daring Do books he read in his room. Maybe she’d have adventures just like that explorer pony. The author, A.K. Yearling had announced her retirement after the last book in the series was released some five years or so ago.

        “Wow!” Blizzard exclaimed. “Like Daring Do! Are you gonna go on adventures to hidden temples and fight bad ponies and all that?”

        Strata scoffed at the notion, making the snow colored colt want to slap himself for being such a fancolt.

        “No, no, no,” Strata admonished with a serious glare. “That’s just fiction, real archeology isn’t like that at all. The real danger is going deep underground for excavations. The stuff Daring Do does in her books is more just for the reader’s excitement, it’s not that great a book series either in my opinion.”

        Now that he felt silly for talking about Daring Do to her, he just tried to play it off.

        “Oh, yeah, it’s totally not real stuff,” he said unconvincingly as he shifted his ice blue mane around. In Blizzard’s mind, he had actually thought it was all real. Maybe he was just making assumptions from what his dad had told him about his own adventures. He’d also heard stories about the deeds of Princess Twilight when a monster from Tartarus took away everypony’s magic before he was born. Perhaps being raised around such stories of grandeur had made him automatically believe it all.

        “Right…” Strata jeered at him. “Well, you said you knew where the class was, so lead on!”

        The two ponies walked on together and made their way into the Moon Building, one of the other two campus buildings, the last one being the Sun Building out of respect for the princesses. Room 208 was the destination for the next class: Practical Magic for the Average Unicorn. Blizzard assumed that this class would be another lame and boring class about things most unicorns already knew by just being… alive. Levitation and illumination. Couldn’t get much more practical than that, right?

        This time, the two arrived on time and chose seats close to the middle of the room, which was situated much like the one in Starswirl Hall, but was designed with a lunar motif, having blue wall paint and posters of the constellations and the like hanging about. Clearly, this building was newer than Starswirl Hall, which made sense. Starswirl Hall was the first building and hadn’t received too much update over the years.

        More students trotted in as the bell rang and an elderly, but spry unicorn popped out of nowhere in front of the students. His white hair frizzed out in all directions, clashing horribly against his charcoal black coat. He wore cracked glasses and coughed up a bit of smoke as he appeared, wobbling uncontrollably. Another strange character to be sure…

        “Hello my little ponies!” the teacher yelled enthusiastically. “My name is Professor, and I’ll be teaching you all a little something about magic and what it can do for you.” A low roar in the crowd of student ponies rippled through the room. Professor? Seriously? That couldn’t have been his name?

        A pony raised his hoof.

        “Yes, you with the silly mane!” Professor cried out. The pony instantly took a hoof to her mane and adjusted it in panic.

        “Uh, yes uh… Professor… is that your real name?” she asked, thoroughly confused like a great deal of the class. 

        “Of course, my dear!” he answered happily. “I’ve been teaching here for fifty years now, I should know my own name!” The odd old stallion guffawed, holding his side with a hoof. Nopony was convinced. 

        Blizzard shifted in his desk to whisper to Strata.

        “He’s silly, I bet he forgot his own name for real!” he giggled. His smile faded all but instantly as the bush of Professor’s white mane assaulted his face as he teleported up to Blizzard’s desk.

        “Whispering in class!?” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “I want to hear secrets too! Let me join in! Go on, speak up!”

        Blizzard shifted slowly back in his seat and tried to swallow his words until the hard gaze from Professor forced them back up his throat.

        “I uh… I commented how I thought you probably forgot your own name…” Blizzard Warning admitted, slightly ashamed for having shown disrespect on the first day. Professor nodded sagely.

        A collective, hushed gasp escaped several students in the back. That took a lot of guts to admit to a mistake like that, especially in front of his peers. Professor turned on his hooves sharply and flashed over to his original spot.

        “Alas, it’s true…” he admitted, provoking some giggles from the students. “Some of the teachers here even want me gone because they think my memory’s going. But I have tenure! If they want me to leave, it’ll have to be by dragging out my dead carcass!”

        Putting his hoof down to complete the gesture, Professor walked back to his desk and prepared for his first lesson of the year. A few of the students put their hooves together for a small round of applause for the elderly teacher. He gave them all a warm smile in return and looked at his notes. 

        “Ahem,” he cleared his throat. “Now, being our first day, we will not go into any material today, but I will explain to you the gist of the class.”

        Blizzard recovered from being put on the spot and quickly acted to prepare to take any required notes. Strata was already scratching away on her notebook.

        “In this class, Practical Magic for the Average Unicorn, I will be teaching you all to cast spells that most ponies would find useful in a variety of professions and situations. You may learn in other classes or by your own practice that unicorn magic generally pertains to their talent, ordained by their cutie mark. However, this does not bar you from casting other spells outside of your expertise.”

        This was news to Blizzard. Maybe he could use some of these spells rather than his own talent area? Perhaps they’d be less prone to disastrous effects?

        “To start, you saw me teleport today, multiple times,” he pointed out. “My talent deals in magic, so naturally, I am very adept and it is actually within my talents as a magician pony. But anypony, unicorn that is, can use the teleport spell. I will teach you how.”

        Excited whispers took the crowd by storm once more. Teleportation? Awesome! Can he do that? I wanna use it to visit my parents in Trottingham! More and more comments reached Blizzard’s ears, though it did little to break his focus. He was very interested in this strange stallion and what he could teach him.

        “There are often side effects that are associated with spells outside of your talent area. Some of the spells you learn in this class may already be some you use, as they could coincide with your special talent. But I can guarantee you that you will learn something new and useful before this course is done.”

        The clock was ticking fast, only five minutes left in the class, and yet Blizzard Warning didn’t want it to end! He wanted to learn, actually listen and learn! He was confident that he could pick up something redeeming in this class. Besides, he was a descendant of Starswirl. Just because he was a failure at nearly every other instance of magic he tried wouldn’t mean that he couldn’t have success elsewhere, right?

        “We will go over a new spell every Monday and practice on Wednesdays, followed by class performance tests on Fridays. I can assure you that this will be a tiring class on Fridays, so be sure to eat and sleep appropriately to prepare and recover.” 

The bell rang in the middle of his explanation. Suddenly, the smokey black stallion did an about face in his personality once more, reverting back to his silly and rambunctious side.

“Oop! It’s quittin’ time!” he exclaimed with a hoot and a holler. “Dismissed! See y’all later!” He disappeared with yet another flash of teleportation. Blizzard took note of the drawl to his voice as he excused himself. Was Professor from Appleoosa? He seemed so professional and serious when he was talking. Maybe he just had a split personality? The colt shrugged and left the class, Strata still sticking to his side.





        
The pair of unicorns had finished up with their morning classes and made their way to the mess facility, located directly across from Starswirl Hall. Blizzard Warning was famished, he didn’t have as much time as he thought to eat during breakfast and had spent four hours of class time between then and now.

        A gurgle from the colt’s stomach provoked Blizzard to give a sheepish grin as his ears flopped down. Strata shook her head in mock disbelief, softly rolling her eyes as the two entered the mess hall.

        There was a fair line stretching up to the buffet tables with another line for a made to order hayburger stand. Opening night’s picnic dinner had hayburgers last night and he was hungry, so Blizzard Warning decided to stay in the buffet line. 

        When the line had finally dissipated to where Blizzard could see the food, he was still wowed by the variety of meal choice. Some pasta, some veggie casserole, tomato soup (ew!), and… cherry changas! Blizzard snatched two cherry changas in a heartbeat and picked up a scoop of veggie casserole.

        Finding a table was thankfully not a big issue, with several tables still open. Strata came to sit down with him, floating a tray containing a hayburger and a cup of soda. She placed down her food, gave Blizzard a small smile and started to eat her food. Blizzard followed suit.

        It took all of Blizzard two bites to become dissatisfied with the cherry changa. It didn’t hold a candle to his mom’s cooking. Heck, it was actually not that great. His expression turned to a crestfallen frown as he sniffed and cried on the inside for the wasted potential that was his lunch.

        “What, did you expect all the food here to be five-star material?” a gruff voice said. Blizzard looked up to see Double Dose setting down his tray and taking the seat directly across from him. Merry Weather had accompanied him and waved as she set down her own tray. Blizzard felt a rush of wind as the seat adjacent to him was occupied by his roommate. Blizzard almost didn’t even want to turn to recognize his presence.

        “Hey! I haven’t met you yet,” Merry Weather commented to Strata. “What’s your name? I’m Merry Weather! Those bozos are Double Dose and Flathoof.” Pointed her hooves and named names, earning a flat expression from Double Dose and a dutiful salute from Flathoof. 

        Strata took a look around the table, taking in the sudden arrival of the earth pony and two pegasi. She drank down a gulp of her soda before opening her mouth to answer.

        “Hi there, I’m Strata,” she politely responded. Merry Weather smiled.

        “It’ll be great to have another girl in the group!” she exclaimed happily. Strata merely looked confused. Blizzard felt a twinge of sympathy for her confusion. He too had been adopted as a friend by the outgoing pegasus filly. Strata twisted her braid with a hoof.

        “G-group?” she stuttered. “I-I’m fine on my own. I’ve just been going around with this guy cause he’s in my classes and knows where he’s going.” Aww, she was shy! Blizzard felt his heart swell. His new unicorn pal sure was cute when she was embarrassed. Huh… was this what he looked like when he blushed? 

        “Ooooh, looks like somepony has a crush on Blizzard!” she cooed playfully. “Wow Blizzard, you’re just a mare-magnet, aren’t you?” Blizzard hardened his gaze at Merry.

        “Seriously? We just met like three hours ago,” he answered dryly. Merry dismissed him with a wave of a wing and reached over to bop him in the nose. Blizzard Warning winced and put a hoof to his nose while the other colts at the table snickered, their silence restored by an evil grin from Merry Weather.

        “Ah, don’t worry about that,” Merry said, returning her attention to the other unicorn. “Here, I’ll tell you a bit about myself. It sounds like you already know Blizzard, so now you can get to know me! We’ll be friends, you’ll see.”

        Strata nodded cautiously and took small bites of her hayburger as she listened intently.

        “So you already know I’m Merry Weather,” she started. “Being a pegasus pony, you might guess I’m from Cloudsdale, and you’re right! I’ve lived in Cloudsdale all my life and I’m going to school here to learn about weather control. Classes here are really interesting and I’ve already learned a few things that I haven’t picked up yet at the weather factory because my mom won’t let me work with thunderclouds yet.” As she finished this, she huffed and folded her wings back. “Anyway, I like to make friends and go on adventures! So what about you?”

        Strata seemed to be fairly comfortable despite having the outgoing pegasus in front of her bombard her with stories, but she seemed even a bit more open now. Maybe it just took an outstretched hoof to get her to join in.

        “Well, it certainly sounds like you’ve got more prominent parents than I do,” Strata commented. “I come from a pair of high-society ponies in Canterlot, and I’m here to study archeology.” Blizzard blinked. Canterlot? That’s where he met Merry Weather and Double Dose, more or less. He found it strange that he never saw her on the train. “My parents weren’t too happy at seeing what I was destined to do as they thought it was ‘too dirty for a foal of theirs,’ but I managed to provide a decent argument, so now they’re letting me come here.”

        “Cool!” Merry exclaimed. “Tell me more!” 

        Blizzard smiled and looked around the table. Double Dose was listening with his head propped up on one hoof while periodically taking a bite of his food. Flathoof was furiously scribbling down notes, which Blizzard couldn’t decide if was related to the conversation at hoof and whether he should be concerned or not.

        “Alrighty then,” Strata said with a blush. “I discovered my talent and passion for archeology during one of my parents’ trips to Saddle Arabia. We were there on vacation, and we went to go exploring in a gem mining cave. My parents were interested to see all the sparklies, but I was interested in something else that had caught my eye. It felt like I was drawn to the wall, but I picked up a drill and took down one of the rock shelfs further away from the operation. It turned out that there was some really cool fossilized sphinx!”

        “Wow!” interjected Flathoof. “That’s quite the accomplishment! Sphinxes are among some of the rarer creatures in the world today, only found in places like Saddle Arabia in the vast deserts away from civilization or in San Palomino Desert. I’d say you were lying, but I checked out your records and saw that you’re quite honest.”

        In a synchronous effort, all four other ponies shifted away from Flathoof in discomfort. The pegasus colt rubbed the back of his mane in embarrassment.

        “Oops...  I did it again, didn’t I?” he called himself out. Double Dose launched an oat at Flathoof’s face, which bounced off without the other pony missing a beat. “I promise I’m nice!” he blurted out.

        “Yeah, he’s alright,” Blizzard cut in, trying to salvage the situation. “He’s actually my roommate. We’re staying in Enchantment Hall.”

        Strata mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’ while giggling a little bit.

        “I’m staying in Animation,” Strata answered to Blizzard, earning a breathy and exaggerated gasp from Merry Weather. The pegasus filly had put her hooves to her cheeks and squished them together while making a starry-eyed expression.

        “Oh. My. Goodness!” she got out. “Me too! We can totally hang out together and it’ll be so much cooler than anything the boys can do.”

        “Hey…” Blizzard complained. Merry just stuck her tongue out at him while Strata giggled.

        It was good to see the two of them were hitting it off.

        “So Blizzard,” Strata said, getting the colt’s attention. “You and I were talking earlier and I forgot to ask you about yourself, I was so busy talking about me, and you know, forcing you to lead me around.” Double Dose snickered and imitated a whipping noise. Blizzard shot daggers at him with bared teeth. Wasn’t it supposed to be called ‘being a gentlecolt?’

        “Oh, right, well I’m studying weather here, and I just managed to get into this academy moving from going to school in Hollow Shades,” he answered. “And I guess since we’re also apparently on the topic of parents, my mom used to be a medical mare like Double Dose is studying to be, and my dad was part of the Royal Guard.”

        “Part of the guard?” Strata asked. Living in Canterlot gave her proximity to the guard on a near daily basis, so it would make sense that she would be somewhat interested. Maybe she was just trying to see if she had seen him.

        “Yeah,” Blizzard affirmed. “But he quit when I was about two years old. He was apparently a fairly popular guard. He told me about some of this border skirmishes. Apparently, as a ranking officer, he led a group of ponies against a bunch of rogue ponies who tried to attack Vanhoover by causing calling on a full grown dragon.”

        Strata gasped audibly as Flathoof’s pencil snapped in his mouth. He knew exactly how this was going to go and waved his hooves furiously at Strata not to.

        “Wow, wow, wow!” Strata exclaimed excitedly. Then she lowered her voice to a barely contained whisper. “You’re him! You’re the Starswirl family member!” Blizzard lost color to his coat in sheer desperation, which thankfully didn’t show. 

        “Whaaat?” he said slowly, trying to play it off. “Me, a Starswirl family member? No way, if I was, I’d be waaay better at magic.”

        Strata was undeterred from her hypothesis. She shook her head and grabbed Blizzard by the shoulders.

        “Nope, I know it,” she assured him, making him feel weak in the knees. “I know cause of your dad and what else you said. The hero Lodestar is obviously the one you’re talking about, and everypony knows that he’s of Starswirl’s blood, and he was the one who led that group of ponies against the dragon while Captain of the Guard Shining Armor was away on diplomatic business guarding Princess Cadance. He mysteriously quit a few years after that and virtually fell off the face of Equestria. Wow! It’s so cool to meet you! I would have totally treated you better if I knew who you were!”

        Double Dose and Merry Weather’s jaws hung open while Flathoof had his face pressed against the table. Now some other ponies were starting to look Blizzard’s way with awe and wonder painted on their faces. He couldn’t be here, he needed to leave. He felt short of breath. Time to go…

        “Uh, I need to get to my next class,” he said, excusing himself. He picked up his tray with some unstable telekinesis and emptied it, placing it haphazardly on a dirty dishes table before making his way out the doors. 

Nopony had to know, why did they all seem to find out? How long would it be before they discovered his reputation back home? Hopefully nopony would follow him. He needed to get some fresh air.

Back in the dining area, murmurs of intrigue spread through the crowd. Flathoof had picked himself up from the table and was giving Strata a glare that would make Double Dose jealous if he wasn’t too busy being in a vegetable state. 

“Was that supposed to be a secret?” she asked, clapping her hooves to her mouth, pain welling up in her eyes. She hadn’t meant to reveal something like that to everypony, it just sort of slipped out.

All of Blizzard’s friends got up and left the cafeteria to go look for their friend before their next classes.