Another Member of the Band

by Magic Step

Endless Ridicule

While Chemical Formula and Test Tube continued to talk, Adorabelle wiped her tears with one hoof and looked up hopelessly at the teacher. Professor Rigid glanced at the clock. He glanced at the grading rubric. He telekinetically pulled his inhaler out of his desk drawer and shook it vigorously.

Adorabelle waited for him to finish taking his medicine. The class, restless, started chatting softly.

Professor Rigid put the inhaler away and started sorting his quill pens by color.

Adorabelle coughed. “Professor?”

Rigid’s ears perked up, but he pointedly kept looking at his pens.

Adorabelle stood on her desk, hind legs on the chair. “Hey, professor! Are you going to wait until class is over and then tell me I’ll have to do my speech next class day, then when that day comes you’ll claim I get an F because I didn’t give a speech?”

“What?” Rigid asked, looking up. “Are you claiming you’re actually… ready?”

Sour Sweet snickered.

“As if she’ll ever be,” an unidentified student on the far side of the room whispered.

“Well, like, duh! Today’s the due date, amiright?” Adorabelle picked up a sheet of paper. “I’ve got my speech right here!”

The class giggled.

Professor Rigid smirked. “Well, although I did clearly say that the speakers were only allowed to use 3x5 index cards, I do realize somepony with an intellect as shining as yours can’t possibly be expected to understand things such as units of measurement and, anyways, I’m sure you can’t possibly do without the full text of your speech right in front of you, so it will just make the experience that much less painful for everypony involved.” He flicked one hoof at the front of the class. “Your platform awaits.”

Adorabelle felt her ears burning. “But, like, you said that I had to have everything, like, all written out and stuff-”

“Is that really your speech topic? ‘Random things my professor said’?” Rigid pulled out his grading rubric. “I can’t say this fulfills the requirement.”

Adorabelle pressed her ears against her head. It was no use. It never was.

The class was laughing, but Adorabelle didn’t really blame them much. It was no secret that Professor Rigid hated his class, his job, and each and every one of his students; it probably felt good to see him picking on somepony else.

Adorabelle shuffled to the front of the room and looked at her classmates. Some looked annoyed, like Black Snooty; others, like Sour Sweet, looked ready to pounce. From the far right of the room where she leaned back in her chair, Lyra projected the image of a green hand making some arcane, human gesture; Adorabelle thought it was called a ‘thumbs up’. That was encouraging at least, so she smiled at the mint unicorn.

Adorabelle then looked down at her paper, cleared her throat, and began to read.

“So, like, after the three tribes were united and stuff, racial tension turned from warish to diplomatic-like…”

“Diplomatic-like?” Water Fire whispered to Moondancer, blinking.

“That’s what she said,” Moondancer grumbled back.

“…but everypony wanted to keep things segregated… and, y’know, the races were still used to enslaving each other and stuff…”

“Did she literally write down ‘and stuff’, you think?” Chemical Formula asked Test Tube.

Adorabelle huffed. Nopony was talking during the other speeches.

“Adorabelle,” Professor Rigid said slowly, as if talking to a child, “your topic was supposed to be ‘Recent Developments in my Field of Study.’ How in Equestria is this connected to legal matters?”

Snickers rose, as did Adorabelle’s color.

“Well, uh… I have, like, a special emphasis on race relations, y’know…”

“Fine, let me ask another question.” Rigid tapped his quill impatiently. “How in Tartarus can this possibly be considered RECENT?”

Adorabelle jumped back. “Uh, y’know, I thought I should…” she squeaked. “Eep. Get everypony… acquainted… with, y’know… background?”

“We already know all this!” Sour Sweet shouted. Several other ponies gave consent.

Adorabelle looked down at her piece of paper. “S-sorry… uh, can I say it anyway?”

“No,” Professor Rigid said. “If you don’t have any modern news to share, sit back down.”

“I do!”

“Then skip to it!” The light-blue coated professor dug his quill into his desk as he started writing zeros all over the paper.

Adorabelle fought back tears. She skimmed her paper.

“Okay, um… well, following the cold war between the Blessing in Canterlot and the Manehattan Peace Corps, Manehattan had all these kids who, like, didn’t know what to do with their lives except be soldiers, and Canterlot had all these adults glutted on power who needed to be restrained and stuff.”

“Did she call them adults?” Water Fire asked Moondancer.

“Quit talking to me.”

“Also, Celestia wanted to harness the magic of friendship.” Adorabelle gestured dramatically. “Friendship… between races!”

“Boo!” Black Snooty said.

Many students rolled their eyes.

“So that’s how she enacted the Canterlot-Manehattan-EU Division of Labor act! Adorabelle beamed. “From then on, the federal law enforcement branches were split. The police was one branch, and would be manned by earth ponies from Manehattan. The prosecutors were the other, and they-”

“-were already split because that’s how it works!” Black Snooty shouted.

“-would be all the unicorns and traditional ponies,” Adorabelle finished. “So-”

“Adorabelle,” Professor Rigid said, “how old is this piece of legislation, again?”

“Um, something like, uh… ten years?”

“I ask again.” Rigid cleared his throat. When he spoke next, he was screaming. “How. Is. This. RECENT?”

Adorabelle blinked. “W-well…”

“You mean to tell me that literally nothing has happened in the field of law or race relations in the past ten years except this one reorganizational memo? No new laws, no new crime fighting technology, no… stupid quota… things?” Rigid rolled his eyes. “For heaven’s sake, Adorabelle, the purpose of this speech was a chance for you to tell students something they didn’t know, and there’s not a single pony in the room who didn’t know this.” He turned to the crowd. “Is there? Anypony?”

“I don’t think Twinkleshine did,” Lyra piped up.

Twinkleshine was admiring her reflection in a window pane. “Er, what?” She jerked back around. “Uh, yeah, that’s right! I-”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rigid said. “She probably just never thought about it.” He started making cursive Fs across the paper. “But then, I suppose there really isn’t anything you know that the class doesn’t.”

Adorabelle’s tears evaporated when they reached her burning cheeks. That did it. She wasn’t getting an F because the teacher couldn’t keep from interrupting her. Was she?

“Well, like, y’know… I know lots of things.” Think, think, think! What was something nopony else in the class knew? Something only she could figure out? Something… oh, yes! This would impress Rigid for sure! “I could tell them what’s really in your inhaler. I don’t think anypony knows that.”

Rigid looked up with a jerk. “But neither do you!”

“Wanna bet?” Adorabelle beamed. “The Perfects are my neighbors, or at least Karma is. Grand Dame Tasha is there every time she’s out on parole.” Also she’d sorta-accidentally grabbed one of his spares (thinking it was something else), read the label, and showed it to another student so she could learn what it was.

Rigid’s lips started twitching, unsure whether to scowl or snarl. “You… you…”

“Hey, Herbal Remedy!” Adorabelle reared on her hind legs to look at the young stallion in the back of the class. “What was that stuff you told me about yesterday?”

“Repulmonary Aziosparkleamide-” Herbal Remedy answered without apparently thinking, never taking his eyes off the leaf he was drawing. Then he gave a start. “Hey, leave me out of this!”

Some of the class gasped. The rest widened their eyes. Some looked at Herbal Remedy, some at Adorabelle, and some at Rigid.
Rigid threw his inkpot at Adorabelle.

She gasped and dodged, but then Rigid came after her with his ruler, telekinetically slapping the general area, sometimes colliding with her muzzle and ears.

“You- prying- little- filly!”

“Stop it!” Test Tube shouted, standing half on her desk. “You’ll get in trouble!”

Rigid poked Adorabelle in the nose once more for good measure, then scowled deeply at her. “Get out. All of you. Get out!”

After this quickly-becoming-traditional dismissal, everypony fled gratefully.

***

“Wow, your speeches are always so exciting!” Lyra gushed.

Adorabelle had been walking down the hall alone when two unicorn mares suddenly flanked her.

“I don’t get it,” Twinkleshine said. “What’s repummel… er…”

“It’s, like, lung reconstruction stuff,” Adorabelle said. “Like, when a pony is turned into a spider or, like, a frog or something, their lungs change, and sometimes it gets messed up when they turn back.”

“Ew!” Twinkleshine said. “Who would want to be a spider?”

“Maybe he didn’t,” Lyra said. “Maybe he was cursed…”

“…to be a frog forever and ever until he received true love’s kiss!” Twinkleshine sighed. “Of course, we know that’s not true…”

“…or he’d still be one!” Lyra finished.

All three girls giggled.

“I see Minuette!” Lyra called. “Hey, wait up!”

The two galloped off without another word to Adorabelle. That was okay; they weren’t exactly friends. Just classmates who were polite to each other. Which was as close as Adorabelle had ever gotten to anypony in her school.

Adorabelle had an odd twenty minutes to kill before her after school project, so she wandered towards Memory Chamber.

Behind two doors made of shiny pink metal was a room two stories tall. The walls were lined with pictures, all different sizes and shapes, with frames in every style and color. They all showed previous students engaged in various activities, from science experiments to grand displays of illusions to environmental projects. There were also some study parties, because only in the GUA was a group of ponies reading books considered a treasured memory. The newer ones were photographs, the older ones were paintings. A movable ladder made of warm brown wood let ponies get closer to the pictures higher up. Adorabelle took a few steps up and telekinetically swung the ladder to the far wall.

Then, since she was alone, she swung herself back and forth a few times. She wasn’t quite an adult yet.

Finally she let herself come to a stop in front of the graduation pictures. These were all the same size, framed in gold. She swung to one near the beginning of the photographed section; these photos were a bit too boldly colored due to imperfections in the image reproduction spell popular in the time period.

There they were, all three of them. Right next to each other, no less.

Two of them were stallions, nearly identical to each other. Both had chocolate coats and white manes with gold streaks in them. One had his eyes closed, laughing; the other had the same sheepish grin he wore every day Adorabelle came to greet him. Her father had always been more… reserved, while his twin brother had always had some kind of wild scheme cooking. In their academy days, her uncle was known as her father’s evil twin.

That wasn’t funny anymore.

The third pony was right next to them, and her dad had one foreleg around her shoulder. He’d liked to describe them as “college sweethearts, who got lost for a while.” Everypony always said Adorabelle looked just like her mother, and Adorabelle could see the resemblance. She had the same periwinkle coat, the same bright blue eyes, and the same mane, albeit with no gold streak. It didn’t show in the photo, but even their cutie marks were identical: a blue-and-yellow, heart shaped, open lock.

Of course, with her mother, True Beauty, it referred to her talent for discovering the truth. When she spoke with ponies, she knew how to shatter the locks on their hearts that they used to hide their secrets.

Adorabelle’s cutie mark was a bit more literal that that. Speaking of which…

“Adorabelle!”

Adorabelle whirled around and fell off the ladder. Fortunately she’d only been a few steps up, and landed on her hooves.

“You okay?” Romana asked, closing the pink doors behind her.

“Dandy,” Adorabelle said. “Sorry I’m late…”

“Late?” Romana cocked her head to one side. “Why would you say that?”

“You… you, like, wouldn’t come looking for me otherwise, right?”

“You’re not late; we just finished our previous experiment early.” Romana’s Canterlot accent was far stronger than most ponies Adorabelle knew. “Come on, then. The Doctor will see you now.”

Comments

[PonyJosiah13]

I have to say, I am genuinely intrigued. Adorabelle does seem to be an interesting character, and she has both my attention and my sympathy.

The one suggestion I would make with this scene is that you could potentially use this to establish what kind of emotional attachment Adorabelle has with her parents. How does she feel when she looks at their picture? What does she think of? Those are the kind of questions you could be answering there.

Good work so far!

[The Villain in Glasses]

Well... looks like I may have to rescind my previous comment. The scene in the hall of memories was played VERY well.