First Of Many

by CoverArt

Chapter 4

It was Monday morning and that meant a certain blue coated, golden yellow mane pegasus filly was about to go to her first day of school. Fluttershy was happily making breakfast as Maris packed her saddlebags which they had bought the day before. While visually smiling, Maris, on the inside, had mixed feelings on the whole aspect of actually going to school. ‘Maybe if I keep quiet no one will bother me,’ she thought to herself. Although she figured it wouldn’t be so bad, she was told that Applejack’s and Rarity’s sisters, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle would be in her class, so she’d have some company by association if nothing else. She finished packing her bags and trotted into the kitchen where breakfast was being put on plates. Fluttershy smiled at her and they both took their seats.

“Now Maris, do you remember the rules we talked about?” Fluttershy asked with a smile.

“No hitting, if I’m getting bullied go to Ms. Cherilee, and no talking about my universe.” She replied with a rehearsed answer. This wasn’t the first time Fluttershy asked the question and, unfortunately for Maris, it wouldn’t be close to the last time either.

Fluttershy giggled softly at the filly’s almost robotic response, “You forgot one, the most important one to be exact.” Maris looked at her confused as she was sure she remembered them all, at least the important ones. “Make some friends.” Fluttershy smiled again, answering for the filly Maris audibly sighed. “I’ll try mommy ok?”

“That’s all I’m asking Maris, now finish up we need to get over to the school house before class starts.”

They finished their meals and Fluttershy put the plates in the sink while Maris grabbed her bags and moments later they were on their way to the red schoolhouse in the distance.

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They walked through town on their way and were soon at the gates of the schoolyard. Fillies and colts ran around, played, and chatted as they waited for the bell to ring to signal the start of school. Fluttershy, Maris could tell, was extremely nervous. Maris nuzzled Fluttershy’s foreleg, which calmed the yellow pegasus down slightly. Fluttershy looked down at Maris and nuzzled her before saying, “Well this is it, have a good day at school Maris, and remember the rules, and also, I’d like you home right after school”

“Ok mommy,” Maris quickly nuzzled Fluttershy’s foreleg again, then she slowly walked into the yard. She nervously looked back at Fluttershy who gave her an encouraging wave. Maris took a deep breath and walked up and into the schoolhouse just as the bell rang causing every other foal to walk into the building.

Fluttershy watched Maris walk in and silently begged Celestia to watch over Maris today, she turned and walked towards town. For the past couple of days Maris has slept on the couch in Fluttershy’s living room and while Maris claimed she had no problem sleeping there, Fluttershy wanted Maris to have a bedroom. Fluttershy had a room that could be turned into a bedroom but she still needed the bed and extra hooves to moves stuff from the room and put the bed in. That’s what her goal was today, to get Maris a bedroom before Maris got home. It would be a mix of congratulations on your first successful day of school and a way of avoiding annoyances with Foal Protection Services, which might end up coming if Fluttershy choose to adopt Maris. But that was a decision for another day, now Fluttershy had a bed to buy.

“Good morning everypony!” Ms. Cherilee said with a warm smile, “Now before we begin todays lesson let me introduce a new member to the class, Maris Thalassa.” She motioned to Maris who was standing next to her. “She was recently taken in by Miss Fluttershy and from now on will be in our class so I expect all of you to be nice to her. Now Maris why don’t you go sit in the back next to Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo.” She suggested motioning to the only empty desk in the back of the room.

“Ok” Maris replied as she trotted over to the desk. She glanced at the various faces of the fillies and colts. Most showed no level of interest while a few gave her warm, happy smiles. However there were also two frowns coming from two of the fillies. One of them from the filly Ms. Cherilee referred to as Diamond Tiara who’s cutiemark, just as her namesake suggested, was a diamond tiara. The second one came from a filly on the other side of Diamond Tiara, she had a grey coat and glasses on, her cutie mark was a spoon, so Maris guessed her name had something to do with the word spoon. ‘Such creative parents’ Maris thought to herself as she sat down. She tried not to notice the glaring from the two fillies as she started to take notes on the lesson. However as much as she tried she couldn’t concentrate with the feeling of being glared at. Of course they weren’t constantly glaring at her but whenever the two glanced at her it was with a glare.

‘That’s it… School is gonna suck…’ Maris thought to herself with a sigh.

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Fluttershy walked through town towards “Beds and Parchment.” A shop that had just opened up after “Quills and Sofas” was a huge hit in town. She smiled and said ‘hi’ to some of the stall owners as she walked though the market. Fluttershy was about to open the store’s front door when a grey hoof blocked her way.

“Well, well, well, now what do we have here?” An unfortunately familiar gruff voice said. Fluttershy yelped at the suddenness of the stallion being there.

“Dancing Blade!” She squeaked, backing up slightly, “What are you doing here?”

“What? Can’t a stallion simply walk up to a mare to say hi?” He asked with a devilish smile on his face.

“Not you Dancing Blade…” Fluttershy replied. She soon found herself with her back flat on the ground after Dancing Blade roughly pushed her down.

“You’re right, I want my money back. I was kind enough to pay off the loans you had on your house but now I bucking want them back.” He said, his tone very angry and forceful. All he got as a response was a squeak from Fluttershy. “Answer me bi-“

A powerful force knocking him to the side cut off Dancing Blade. “Get the buck away from her!” Said Rainbow Dash, now standing next to Fluttershy. Having known he wouldn’t get to do much else with that mare here Dancing Blade just got up, grumbled something about if he was on duty and she was in trouble, and walked off. Once satisfied that Dancing Blade had no intention of coming back Rainbow extended a hoof for Fluttershy to take, which she did. “You ok ‘Shy?” She asked.

“Yes I’m fine Rainbow, thank you for helping.” Fluttershy replied, running a hoof through her mane to get any dirt out of it.
“No problem ‘Shy, and don’t worry about what he said, you owe him nothing, well maybe a kick to the plot but that’s about it.” Rainbow said with a smirk.
“Hey, Rainbow do you mind coming shopping with me, I’m buying things to put in Maris’ room, and I’d feel safer having you around just in case Dancing Blade comes back.”
“Sure no problem ‘Shy, come on let’s go.”

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‘Well I survived the first half of it at least’ Maris thought to herself as she walked out of the school building and into the playground for lunch. She chose a quiet spot off to one side of the playground and got out her meal, a dandelion sandwich, not her favorite but still good none-the-less. She took small bites of it as she watched the other foals playing. Therefore she didn’t fail to notice Diamond Tiara and her grey friend, whom she found out through Cherilee calling on her, was Silver Spoon (Maris knew it had something to do with ‘spoon’) walking towards her. She sighed and braced for what she expected to be some sort of torment. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would not disappoint her.

“Oh look Silver Spoon, like another blank flank. When will they learn that they’re too lame to be here?” Diamond Tiara said with a smirk.

“Yea and not only that but even her parents didn’t want her, that’s why she has to live with Miss Fluttershy,” Her accomplice added.

“That isn’t true… just please leave me alone. I haven’t done anything to either of you, heck I just came to school for the first time today.” Maris said trying to defend herself. She recalled what Fluttershy told her to do if she got bullied but saying it and doing it are two drastically different things. She simply didn’t want to give in to what they wanted.

“Oh what’s wrong, like are you gonna cry?” Diamond Tiara prodded.

“What? No! Of course I’m not!” Maris exclaimed. It was true she wasn’t close to crying, although she was getting plenty angry.

“Like you totally are! Silver Spoon, not only is she a homeless blank flank but she’s a cry baby too!” Diamond Tiara said laughing. Silver Spoon joined in her laughing. Maris was slowly making her way to her hooves. She’ll show them. She knew she wasn’t supposed to hit but maybe a small shove would do.

“Hey! Leave her alone!” Came a cry from behind the two bullies. All three fillies looked to see where the voice came from. It had come from a young unicorn colt. His coat was red with a yellow mane. His glasses made his blue eyes look slightly bigger then they actually were.

“What? Like did you just tell us what to do blank flank?” Diamond Tiara sounded both surprised and angered at the colt.

“Do you not understand Equestrian? Well I’d speak Prench but I’m afraid I don’t know it, so I’ll say it clearer so that even you will understand. Leave.” The colt demanded. Diamond Tiara looked like she was about to say something more but the last second she scoffed and walked away and Silver Spoon followed. The colt watched them walk off and then once he was satisfied they weren’t coming back he turned around to Maris.

“You good? I hate ponies like that, all high and mighty because were born into money. I’m Cover Art by the way.” He introduced himself, putting a hoof up to his face to readjust his glasses.

“I’m Maris, thanks for that, a couple more seconds and I don’t know what would of happened, they were getting me angry.”

“Meh, don’t blame ya, say why don’t you come over and sit with us.” Cover said motioning behind him where five more foals were, four fillies and one colt. Maris recognized Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom from Fluttershy’s description of them, and she knew Scootaloo from sitting next to her in class, but the others were strangers to her.

“Um… hi, sure I’ll come eat with you guys.” Maris said hesitantly as she picked up her stuff. She walked along side Cover as they made their way over to the others. When they got over they sat down and started eating.

“Wow! Two new ponies in town in one month and they’re both blank flanks! How awesome is that?” The orange pegasus filly said.

“Scootaloo, do you have to put it like that? It sounds like we’re making fun of them too.” Sweetie scolded.

“Na, you guys are good, At least I know the difference between making fun of and just stating a fact.” Cover replied for Scootaloo. Maris nodded in agreement.

“You know it’s important to know the difference, somepony not knowing the difference started the First Griffon War. Also I believe it was a plot to a video game. I don’t remember the game but I remember it had amazing cover art.” Cover continued drawing stares from the rest of the group who had no idea where the tangent came from. Maris on the other hand simply asked him, “So is that where your name comes from?”

“Well… yea, and I assume that’s the field my special talent will be in, video games at least.” Cover answered.

“So does that me yer folks are…” Apple Bloom trailed off expecting the answer to be artists.

“Yep… surveying engineers,” Came the reply from Cover with a smile on his face. Again, there were faces staring at him quizzically. “Don’t ask me they just named me that. Makes about as much sense as mo- I doubt you guys will know what I’m saying so I just wont say it.” Cover reached into his saddlebags and his eyes went wide. “Oh dang it… I left my bits at home… guess I can’t go out with you guys after school.”

“Arty! You forgot your bits at home!” Came a voice from the fence at the edge of the schoolyard. Cover groaned. They all looked over to see a light blue unicorn mare. Cover walked over, said something to the mare then came back with a small bag of bits.

“That was my sister… calling me a nickname that WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE SAID IN PUBLIC!” He raised his voice for the last part making sure his sister heard. This caused the rest of the group to giggle. “Yea, yea, laugh it up…”
Maris laughed and thought to herself ‘Ok so with these ponies, maybe school wont be so bad.’

---

“Thanks again Rainbow, I don’t think I could have gotten Maris’ room finished in time for her to come home without you.” Fluttershy said with a smile.

“No problem ‘Shy, anything for a friend, now I’d love to help more but I need to get back to work.” The air quotes around the word ‘work’ were almost manifested as she said them but Fluttershy paid it no mind. She waved as Rainbow Dash took off.
Fluttershy looked out the window and noticed from the sun that it was about three o’clock; Maris would be getting out of school now. Fluttershy went into the kitchen to prepare a small snack in case Maris was hungry. She couldn’t wait to hear about Maris’ first day. However her mind soon went to all the bad things that could have happened at school. ‘Oh what if she was bullied, what if they picked on her, what if a dragon attacked the school and ate her?!’ She thought. She admitted the last one was highly unlikely, however so was Nightmare Moon choosing to attack Ponyville and Discord choosing Ponyville as his capitol of chaos. Oh who was she kidding, Fluttershy was worried.

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“You sure you can’t come with? You can always just tell Miss Fluttershy you were running late.” Cover pleaded with Maris as they walked out of the schoolyard with the others.

“Sorry Cover, I told her that I would go home as soon as school ended, I don’t want to worry her. Maybe tomorrow though.” Maris suggested.

“Suit yourself, we’ll try to not have too much fun.” Cover said with a small laugh, which Maris and the others joined in on.

“See you guys tomorrow,” Maris said as she took off to fly home, close to the ground of course. It took her no more then ten minutes to get home and she landed right outside. She walked into the cottage and called out, ”I’m home!”

She was immediately bum rushed by her mother who scooped her up in a hug, “Oh! I was so worried about you, nothing happened right, no dragon ate you?!”
Maris tried to answer but was stopped as she gasped for air due to how tight the hug was. Fluttershy realized the hug was too tight and let go with a ‘sorry’. Maris looked down at herself and then up at her mom. “Well I certainly don’t feel eaten. And the only dragon I’ve ever seen was Spike, and while I’m not sure, I don’t think he likes eating ponies.”

“You have to tell me everything that happened. How was it?” Fluttershy asked her charge.

“It was… something.” Maris said. She then went on to recount the entire day, including the parts with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Fluttershy seemed concerned with the bullies but when Maris explained how Cover Art helped her, her face went to a wide smile.

“Oh Maris you made a friend! I’m so proud of you!” Fluttershy softly exclaimed.

“Uh that reminds me mom, he wants me to hang out with them tomorrow after school. Can I? Please!” Maris pleaded. Fluttershy could only giggle at the filly.

“Of course you can go Maris, I’ll give you some bits for it before school. Now why don’t you go do your homework in your room while I finish the chores, then I’ll make us dinner.”

“My room? But I don’t have one.” Maris said confused.

“Why don’t you open the door next to mine and see for yourself.” Fluttershy said motioning towards the door that was next to hers on the second floor. Maris smiles and ran upstairs. Fluttershy followed, although at an admittedly slower pace. She had just reached the top of the stairs when the filly hugged her foreleg.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you mommy!” Maris exclaimed. Fluttershy giggled and nuzzled her.

“Your welcome Maris, now go do your homework and in a bit I will get dinner ready” With that Maris headed into her room.

Dinner was quiet, with them talking quietly about their days. Fluttershy didn’t tell her about Dancing Blade but that was, as she thought, for the best. For dinner they had one of Maris’ favorites, salmon. It was rare to find but when it was found it was a delicacy among the pegasi populace The following evening was quiet, Fluttershy and Maris drank some tea, or in Maris’ case apple juice, as they read some books they got from the Library/Palace. Soon enough though it was time to go to bed and after cleaning themselves they walked into their respective rooms with ‘good night’s. However while it might not have been clear to them at that moment, somepony was adamant on making it impossible to sleep that night.

Author's Note:

So yea I added my OC as a character. No I'm not making them some important character, well in one sense they are but that would be spoiling. Anyway Cover Art is just a normal blank flank colt. So no yelling at me or I'll send you to Maris' Pinkie