High Expectations

by Judgeitive

Arrival

For what felt like the hundredth time in just a few days, Spike found himself woken by the repetitive noise of Twilight wearing a groove into the floor with her worried trot.

“Come on Twilight, it’s four AM...” Spike grumbled wearily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Twilight spared him the barest of glances and resumed pacing. Dawn was just breaking over the equestrian town and as it creeped through the windows it bathed the room in a warm orange glow.

“Mysteria arrives tomorrow and we still haven’t triple-checked the checklist!” She almost wailed the last part, her eyes visibly twitching.

Shaking his head in resignation Spike crawled out of bed and fetched the checklist for Twilight’s new pupil. The long document dragged along the floor behind him, a testament to Twilight’s anxiety. Glancing at the list, Spike was unsurprised to see that at least half of the items on the agenda were to check the checklist, then check that they had checked the checklist.

Just over a week ago, Princess Celestia had requested that Twilight take on a young unicorn by the name of Mysteria as her apprentice. Twilight, eager to please her teacher, had gladly accepted and began preparations at once. As the day of arrival grew closer, the stress began to mount: even though they had got everything ready days before, she spent her nights restlessly worrying about her new responsibility.

From outside, Twilight heard the approach of some other ponies. Judging from the giggling, one of them was Pinkie Pie. Twilight sighed, facehoofing - now was not the best time to deal with Pinkie.

“Whatcha doing, Twilight?” Pinkie smiled, swinging her head happily from side to side, as she stuck her head through the door.

“We just wanted to see how you were dear.” Rarity called in from behind. “You’ve haven’t been to see any of us in days.”

Then, with her usual chaotic abandon, Pinkie jumped into the library, colliding with a heavily burdened Spike. The impact knocked his burden of books flying and when Twilight came in a second later the room was in chaos. The shelves were devoid of books, which now sprawled in uneven mounds and piles over the floor. One of the mounds shook and exploded revealing a beaming pink mare.

“Pinkie,” Twilight sighed, annoyance clear in her tone. “Mysteria is arriving today from Canterlot and everything must be perfect. Now help me clear this up.”

“Oki doki loki!” the bouncing pony replied, promptly springing through the room around the busy ponies. With his usual resigned attitude, Spike sighed and, setting up a ladder, began the laborious task of replacing the books. Rarity left them in the main room, focusing instead on the task of arranging the guest room. Such manual labour was beneath her, she thought, even if it could be accomplished with magic. She was far more suited to preparing a fabulous guest room.

After a few minutes, a light grey filly entered the library. Upon catching sight of her, Pinkie immediately froze in mid-air, screamed shrilly, and sped off into town.

“Oh dear, I hope I didn’t startle her”, the new mare said quietly. Twilight didn’t look up from levitating her Star Swirl the Bearded collection onto a shelf.

“Don’t worry, Pinkie Pie was just being... well, Pinkie Pie.” she replied.

Smiling slightly, the newcomer set down her bags and began to lift some of the books into the shelves. Within a few minutes the library was back to its usual pristine self. Smiling contentedly, Twilight turned to thank the young filly.

“Thanks for that, I need everything to be perfect for my new student. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen you in Ponyville before. Are you new in town?”

“I’m going to be training here for a few months.” she replied shyly, looking down at her feet.

“Well, ponies in this town are always happy to see a unicorn - being a primarily earth pony town, there’s nopony to help them fix problems with magic.” Twilight responded, smiling at the new unicorn. Come to think of it, Twilight thought, why would a unicorn lift the books with her hooves when she could have levitated them?

Just then, Rarity returned with her duster and immediately began brushing off the nearest pile.

“Really Twilight, you must do something about the dust in here. One more accident and you could get some in my brand new...” she trailed off as she suddenly noticed the new pony standing awkwardly by the door.

“That mane style. That colour choice. Those saddle bags. My dear, you’ve just come from Canterlot, haven’t you?” she quickly spouted, rushing forward to admire the unicorn’s attire.

Blushing furiously, the filly slowly nodded her head. It was true - her curled mane was combed back in a sweeping wave and she did have bags sporting the royal canterlot colours.

“Wait” Twilight said, a frown appearing on her face “Who are you?”

Shuffling her feet, the unicorn quietly responded.
“I’m Mysteria, I’m here to learn magic from you. Ummm...where shall I put my things?”

The look of shock on Twilight’s face was replaced almost instantly by one of happiness. She vigorously began shaking Mysteria’s hoof. The grey mare smiled awkwardly at such an energetic response and blushed even more.

“Oh, we are going to have the best time together, we can stay up late reading books and practice magic all day - we may even forget to eat. This is going to be the best!”

Twilight was so caught up in her outpour that she didn’t register the flash of horror crossing her new student’s face, to be quickly replaced with a forced smile.

“Yeah this is going to be great.” Mysteria forced herself to maintain her outward happiness, inwardly despairing at the prospect of being worked so hard.

Just then a horn blared outside. A mass of streamers burst into the room, closely followed by Pinkie, who was wheeling an enormous cannon. Laughing, she rapidly fired at the tables and walls covering them with streamers, balloons and a bowl of purple punch.

“Come on everypony, let’s have a welcome party for Ponyville’s newest resident!” Pinkie announced, whilst putting a party hat on her head. Quickly, the library filled with ponies of every hue. From her saddlebag, Pinkie brought out a radio and many of the ponies began to dance.

Twilight glanced at Mysteria, rolling her eyes, as if to say “Oh well,” but was surprised to see a smile creep onto her student’s face.

“Huh,” Twilight thought to herself, “She seems a bit more outgoing than I was. Never fear, Twilight - I’m sure she has an aptitude for magic, or the princess would never have sent her to you. After all, you are her star pupil.” Having reassured herself she let herself get dragged into the party and searched out her friends.

Twilight found Rainbow Dash with Fluttershy by the table of cakes which had been set up. She was telling Fluttershy all about this new trick she was practising for the the next Best Young Fliers competition.

“I’ll plummet towards the ground as fast as possible, then create a sonic rainboom. Then, I’ll fly up into the sky and spin some clouds into the explosion. Clouds will go everywhere, then begin to follow me as I do a loop of the stage. It is going to be so awesome!”

“Umm, are you sure that’s safe, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked her nervously.

“Sure I am.” She replied confidently, “I am the best flier in all of Ponyville!” Twilight smiled ruefully at their conversation - some things never changed.

“Hi guys,” She interjected, “What do you think of Mysteria?”

“She seems cool,” Rainbow Dash responded, “More open than you were when you first got here.”

“I think she seems concerned about something.” Fluttershy interjected. “Just look at her face - that’s the face of somepony worried about something, I just know it...”

“Aw come on Fluttershy, you always worry to much. Remember that time when you thought that Angel would starve because he wouldn’t eat your food?” Rainbow Dash responded cynically, taking a bite out of a small green cupcake.

“Well, he wasn’t eating. I thought he was sick, and that meant he could only eat that certain dish...” Fluttershy responded, quietly hovering next to the table.

Twilight frowned at this but didn’t respond, instead turning to observe her student, who was now standing with another group of ponies. She didn’t see what Fluttershy was worried about - Mysteria seemed to be enjoying the party, she had a smile on her face and was sipping punch. Shrugging off Fluttershy’s worry as her being overprotective, Twilight thought no more about the issue.

Later that night after the party had died down and they had finally managed to force Pinkie, still singing about parties, out of the library, Twilight turned to Mysteria. Brightly, she exclaimed,
“Come on, let’s make a schedule for your training, we want to be super-organised so you can train efficiently.”

She had already turned around and gathered up a sheaf of parchment before Mysteria interrupted, frowning slightly and barely holding back a yawn.

“Do we have to that now? That was quite a hectic party, and after the journey to Ponyville, I’m ready to hit the hay.”

Twilight was shocked - she had just suggested they make a schedule together. She then scolded herself - of course her new apprentice was tired, and probably wanted to sleep after meeting that many new ponies, especially Pinkie.

“Sure thing Mysteria, you get some rest. I’ll draw up some ideas for tomorrow.” Twilight replied, smiling brightly at her.

Mysteria nodded gratefully and followed Spike into the adjoining room where a bed had been set up. The moment the door had shut behind her, Twilight turned on Spike in a frenzy.
“What is wrong with her Spike?” she exclaimed, briskly passing the parchment and quill to the dragon.

“What do you mean Twilight?” he sleepily responded.

“First she doesn't announce who she is, then she makes up excuses to not do work!” she exclaimed, rapidly trotting around the room. “Spike, take a note.”

Sighing he grabbed the quill pen and nodded to show he was ready.

“Dear Princess Celestia. I am pleased to confirm that Mysteria has arrived here safe and well and has been welcomed by the community. I seek guidance on how to teach her as we may have conflicting work ethics. Hoping for a quick response, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” she finished, moving towards the window to gaze up at the moon.

“Are you sure about this, Twilight? We’ve only known her for a day. Aren't you jumping to conclusions about her character a little quickly?” Spike asked, looking at her, a slight frown on his face.

“Of course I’m sure, Spike. I am an excellent judge of character, and the Princess must know that she has sent me someone I am unlikely to be able to teach. Send it off, Spike.” Sighing heavily, the dragon went to the window and lifted the parchment up before breathing light green fire at it. The fire and parchment coalesced into a green cloud which zoomed towards Canterlot Castle.

In the adjoining room Mysteria pulled the blanket over her head and tried desperately to forget the conversation she had just heard.

Comments

[monkeymmk]

I am thinking that this is a good start but I am wondering what is wrong with Mysteria's magic? And if there is somthing wrong why did Celestia send her there.

[Tundara]

Interesting start. I'm curious to see where you take things.

[oN1GHTMAREo]

Mysteria is obviously evil!

[Judgeitive]

Thanks for the support. I will be posting more chapters later this week, probably by the end of Sunday.

[xprincesscelestiax]

(Hm...Must Read for me!)

[Cinnamon Clover]

Maybe Celestia wanted Mysteria to be Twilight's student is so she could learn some work ethics?

[Flamer_Brony]

Hello, this review is brought to you on behalf of the group Authors Helping Authors.

Name of Story: High Expectations.

Grammar Score: Seven out of ten.

Pros:
-The plot for the story seems very interesting from what I can tell of the first chapter.
-You did an excellent job portraying Twilight.
-The OC reminds me of a fusion of Twilight and Fluttershy as foals. She's just adorable.

Cons:
-You have some grammatical errors that caused me to pause momentarily in the story.
-I found descriptions in certain areas lacking, like Twilight's guest room for Mysteria.
-Where's PeeWee or Owlicious?

Notes:
-Bravo! I found this first chapter very interesting. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on this. Though the grammar could use some work. For example.

As the day of arrival grew closer, the stress began to mount: even though they had got everything ready days before, she spent her nights restlessly worrying about her new responsibility.

There should be a semicolon after mount and got should be a gotten.

“You’ve haven’t been to see any of us in days.”

Wait...... This is saying, "You have have not been to see any of us in days." There should only be one have. So either change the You've to You, or the haven't to not. But seeing as this is Rarity I'd go with the haven't to not, seeing as she is, well, Rarity.

“Oki doki loki!”

There actually an "e" at the end of Okie.

“Do we have to that now?

You forgot the do between to and that.

Well that's all I found in the grammar mistakes while reading. Continuing on with my notes, wouldn't PeeWee or Owlicious be there as well helping Spike clean up? Or is this before they came into the show? If not I'd highly suggest adding in them helping Spike clean up.

Okay, that's everything I have to say about this fic. I like, it looks great and I'm giddy to continue reading it. You've already reviewed my fic (THANK YOU!) so I'll see you next time. Cheers mate!