The Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare

by Cheezy805

Chapter 5

The Tale of a Cross-eyed Mare – Part 5

Zedd had had enough of the party. He wished he could stay longer, but he was far too tired to stay on his hooves for much longer. Zedd heard a high pitched voice call his name and he turned in the direction of the speakers. He couldn’t quite make out what the voice was saying as she was being drowned out by the bass-heavy music, but he immediately recognised the silhouette’s poofy hair.

‘Before you ask, yes I really do need to go, Pinkie. I’m sorry, but I’m st-st-still recovering,’ he said, punctuating the sentence with a huge yawn.

‘Do you really have to go? I mean really, really have to go? The party won’t be any fun without the guest of honour!’ said Pinkie.

‘Pinkie, you can make anything fun, even school. I’ve been in hospital for two weeks, I think, but I’m still healing. If I stay here much longer I’m going to fall asleep on a park bench or something.’

The party was being held in town. Pinkie had gone all out once again to make it her best party yet, and with the whole town invited, that it was. Streamers and balloons were all around the courtyard and lights had been put up on the town hall to illuminate the area. Pinkie had brought out her best speakers, borrowed from a close friend of hers by the name Vinyl.

‘Come on, Pinks. I would know best of anyone; when you need to sleep, you need to sleep,’ said a white mare with lightning blue mane. ‘Go on, Zedd. Dream about me, eh?’ she added with a wink behind her shaded goggles.

Vinyl was only young. She had dropped out of school two years before the last year of high school, mainly to pursue her dream of becoming a world-famous DJ. Her mark was in the form of a connected double note(♫), and she had a love of all music, but focused on electronic; the more bass the better.

‘Ugh… fine… I’ll see you at school on Monday, Zeddie!’

‘Yeah. Night, Pinkie.’

He turned and began to walk back home, bass from the music still able to be heard long after the treble died away; cheers of happy party-goers still heard from half way across town.

Ditzy’s probably still out there having the time of her life. All the best to her, I don’t want to be a drag on her fun.

After only walking for a short while he began to feel his breath shortening. When he was no more than half way home, he had to stop and sit down, panting like a dog in summer.

‘Do you need a hoof?’ came a friendly voice from behind.

Zedd turned and saw Ditzy standing behind him. She jumped up onto the back of the chair, hind legs remaining on the ground.

‘No, thanks. Please, I just need some sleep. Go. Have fun,’ he said, attempting to hide his shortness of breath.

‘It wouldn’t be any fun without you, Zedd,’ she said. Zedd immediately thought back to what Pinkie said and sighed.

‘Alright, thanks, I could probably use a hand,’ he said, giving in. ditzy flapped her wings once and jumped clear over the bench, then helped Zedd to his feet. She let go and he nearly fell over to the left, so she caught him and helped keep him steady as they continued home.

Zedd didn’t really want to ruin Ditzy’s night, but if she wanted to help him he wasn’t going to say no. The house finally came into view and when they walked in, Zedd immediately dropped onto the lounge. Ditzy moved to go and make some tea in the kitchen, but Zedd faintly called her back.

‘What is it?’ she asked, leaning in close.

‘Don’t leave me, please. I…’ he didn’t even get another word out. He was already asleep. Ditzy couldn’t help but smile as she went to the hall cupboard and retrieved a blanket, lying down on the lounge, too, and draping the blanket over them both.

She felt his forelegs wrap around her and she snuggled up close against him, partially to be closer, and partially to minimise the chance of falling off the lounge. She fell asleep quickly, too; smiles upon both of their faces.

---

He glanced around the room. The daily routine was going as it always did. Math Millien was the advanced mathematics teacher at Ponyville High School. He was a Pegasus with a silky white coat and sky blue mane, and his cutie mark consisted of four mathematical symbols (x - + ÷) in varying colours.

‘Ditzy?’ he called. He heard a voice from the back of the room respond and he ticked her name on the roll.

‘Pinkamena?’

Wait for the response. Tick.

‘Vinyl? No… Erm, Rarity?’

Wait for the response. Tick.

‘Zedd?’

Wait for the response. Ti- wait, there was no response…

‘Zeddicus?’ he repeated. He waited, but still no response. I swear I saw Zedd somewhere today… I know he’s at school…

He gave a final look around the room and noticed Zedd slumped low over his table, head in his forehooves. Math stood up from behind his desk and walked between the rows to stand next to Zedd. Never had a student had the nerve to sleep through one of his lessons before- much less before the lesson had even begun!

‘Mister Zorander!’ he yelled, and Zedd woke with a start.

‘The answer is A: Somepony!’ said Zedd groggily.

‘Zeddicus, this is not English, this is Mathematics. I may teach English as well, but from what I remember of your schedule, you haven’t been in my English class since foalschool.’

‘Yes, Mr. Millien. Sorry, sir,’ said Zedd.

Math looked down and saw the blisters still healing on Zedd’s forelegs. He remembered with a start how Zedd had only been discharged from the hospital a few days ago.

‘Oh. No, my apologies; you must still be recovering from your injuries. Please, if you see the need, go ahead and speak to the nurse. I’m sure she would be happy to give you a cup of coffee or something of the like for a pick-me-up, then you may return.’

Zedd was still too tired to even consider arguing, especially if it meant he could leave, so he got up and trotted to the door.

‘But sir! I don’t think I got enough sleep last night, do you think I could go out of class for a while, too?’ asked Sticks innocently, but mockingly.

‘Ah yes, young Sticks. Your friend was removed from this class because he could hardly count how many hooves he had, and if memory serves, the only reason you still remain is because your father is also a teacher here. I believe you need all the class time you can get,’ replied Math, and the class roared with laughter at Sticks’ expense.

Math raised his voice for the whole class to hear and the laughter died away almost immediately. The class respected him enough to fall silent before he asked it. ‘Now, if you would all open your textbooks to page three-ninety-four, we will continue our study of Pythagoras’ theorem and its application alongside quadratics.’

The door clicked behind him as Zedd closed it. The classroom wasn’t large, but he had intentionally walked slowly to hear Sticks getting paid out, passing it off as a limp.

He didn’t even bother to stifle a yawn as nopony else appeared to be in the hall.

‘Woah there, Zedd, I can see what you had for breakfast!’

Zedd suddenly closed his mouth mid-yawn and looked up. Before he could even see where the voice came from he had to yawn again anyway. Trying again, he saw a grey unicorn stallion walking down the hall toward him.

‘Didn’t get kicked out of class, did ya? I did that a fair few times when I was in school, but I didn’t think you would, eh?’

The unicorn was the advanced English teacher. He was larger than most stallions, and had an Australian accent. On his flank was the image of a quill wrapped in a treble clef, and around his neck was a pair of ever-present earphones.

Zedd smiled briefly before answering. ‘No, Mr. Quill. Mr. Millien sent me to see the nurse.’

‘Oh yeah, you just got discharged from the hospital, didn’t ya? Well, how’re you feeling? Tired, by the looks of it. And I’ve told you before, call me Bazz.’

‘Erm… yes, Bazz. I kind of got kicked out because I fell asleep.’

‘’You kiddin’ me? I swear I almost got more sleep at school than I did when I was at home. But, I suppose the principal wouldn’t want me telling you that, so let’s pretend it never happened, alright?’

Zedd nodded, grinning.

‘Anyway, go on, see the nurse. I think I might be late to class. As though anypony cares, though, right?’

Just as he said this the bell went.

‘Oh, well, whaddaya know? I guess old Mathie is just overly punctual. Alright, well, gotta go. Seeya, Zedd.’

‘Yeah, sure thing. See you.’ In all honesty Zedd hadn’t heard half of what Bazz Quill had said. His Australian accent was normally easy to understand, sometimes even sounding sophisticated, but with his mind running as slowly as it was he could only stare and nod. After a few moments he noticed a few stragglers running through the halls to their classes and he began to walk down to the nurse’s office.

When he arrived he noticed another pony was already in there. There was usually one or two in there for scrapes and bruises, sometimes even a stomach virus, but not usually the first thing in the morning.

The nurse had a red cross on her flank, along with a white coat and red mane and tail. He name was Redheart, and her life goal was to work at the hospital.

When Zedd came in he saw her placing a small band-aid on a unicorn colt’s foreleg. ‘Now, I’d suggest using your scissors with your hooves until you have a little more practice in levitation, okay? That cut will heal itself by the end of the day. You can return to class now,’ she said.

The colt nodded with a sad frown and left. The high school shared a nurse’s office with the primary school, so young colts and fillies would often be seen in tears over minor cuts and bruises. She noticed Zedd walking in and smiled as though she had been given an early Hearth’s Warming gift.

‘Young Zeddicus, I was hoping I’d be able to speak with you. But I guess you haven’t come for no reason. What can I help with?’

Zedd pondered what she meant when she said she had hoped to speak with him, then eventually remembered the situation and blurted ‘Oh, yeah, I fell asleep in class. I mean, err, I, uh, Mr. Millien sent me here for… I’m not entirely sure. He said for me to get a “pick-me-up”.’

‘Oh, that’s easy. Tea or coffee?’

‘Erm, coffee, I guess… but I thought students weren’t allowed to have it?’

‘Oh, please, Zeddicus, you’re an exception. I can only imagine how tired you would be; having to heal all of those burns… and I even heard you had a minor aneurism?’

‘Erm, yeah…’ he said, not entirely sure where she was going.

‘Well… I can see your confusion. I’ll get straight to the point. I want to be a nurse at Ponyville hospital, as you may know, but I need more experience. Now, having you here would make the perfect opportunity. Would I be allowed to just… examine you? I just want to have a look at the damage, would that be alright?’

‘Yeah, I guess. What would you be doing?’

‘Just a bit of this and a bit of that,’ she said, eyeing a medical tool used to observe the retinas. ‘One lump or two?’

‘I’m sorry, what?’

‘Your coffee, dear.’

‘Oh yeah, two, I guess.’

She quickly poured him his coffee and went to her cupboard to retrieve a few select tools that would probably never even be needed in a school, but she had anyway. After a half hour of testing the coffee began to kick in and he was becoming restless.

‘Just one more minute and you can go, I swear,’ she said. True to her word, no more than a minute later she was placing the tools back in a box and reflecting on what she had seen. Zedd had no idea what she might have seen in his eyes, or listening to his pulse, but she seemed to be greatly interested.

‘I guess I’ll go back to class, then,’ he said. She mumbled something absentmindedly and retrieved a chart to start some sketches and record numbers.

On his way out Zedd saw a certain young colt with a band-aid on his foreleg, tears in his eyes and another small cut on his opposite leg. Zedd held the door open for him and immediately heard ‘Scissors? Right, sit on the table. I swear I’m going to have to tell your parents if you don’t stop this’

---

‘Have fun in the nurse’s office?’

‘Oh yes, oodles of it. I was poked and prodded and had lights flashed in my eyes, but I did win a prize! I got a free cup of coffee.’

Ditzy eyed him (with one eye) for a moment before she spoke about her math lesson. ‘Mr. Millien set some homework, but I guess you got out of it when you didn’t come back. He tried to get Rarity up the front at one point to write out the answer to a question on the blackboard, but ended up making her sit down again when she couldn’t get the 5 quite right and kept erasing it. We didn’t learn much.’

‘Right. Well, what do you have next? I have Music and History then double English. At least we’re going to end the day with a fun lesson.’

‘I have a flight lesson and home ec. I can’t wait for English.’

‘Why do you need flight lessons anyway? I’ve seen you fly, you’re incredible.’

Another glance from Ditzy.

‘I-I-Incredible at flying, that is, erm, ahah,’ he stammered, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof.

‘They think that I need lessons because I don’t live in Cloudsdale.’

A voice rang out from behind them. ‘Yeah, maybe you should move to Cloudsdale, then. Not only would we not have to look at your face, but you’d probably fall off!’

They heard a stupid guffaw and turned to see Sticks and Stones approaching.

‘Not these two again,’ said Ditzy, face-hoofing.

‘Leave her alone, Sticks.’

‘You stay out of it. I don’t want to hurt you, Zedd. It wouldn’t look too good, beating up a “hero” now would it,’ he said, eliciting another guffaw from Stones.

‘Yeah, good luck doing that to begin with. Leave. Before I make you.’

Sticks stared in disbelief at why Zedd would defend her. Look at her eyes! Who wants anything to do with a freak like that?

‘Oh, you asked for it. You’re gonna be back in the hospital by the time I’m done with you,’

‘OI!’ a voice rang out across the yard. ‘The only reason he’ll be in the hospital is because he’ll be visiting you! Back off!’

‘Oh? Who’s going to make me?’ Stones turned to be face-to-face with the large English teacher, Bazz. His pupils dilated and he seemed to shrink in size.

Stones said in his slow voice ‘Did you all hear that? A teacher just swore!’

‘No, I said “back”, but you can feel free to “take it” any way you wish,’ he explained. The crowd that had gathered around them was roaring with laughter. Bazz had a way with words that often threatened to get him in trouble, but nopony could ever prove the double-meanings. Stones sat down hard with a confused look on his face; the gears could almost be seen clicking in his mind.

‘Are you two going to leave any time soon? Recess is nearly over, and you wouldn’t want to be late to class, would you?’

Sticks and Stones quickly glanced at each other before scampering back to the main building of the school.

‘Thanks, sir,’ said Zedd quickly, ‘but… what are you doing out here? Why aren’t you with the other teachers?’

‘Oh, I was, but then Math told me about what happened in his lesson this morning. I knew that Sticks would want to get someone back for it. Besides, can’t a teacher come and enjoy nature from time to time?’

He took a deep breath and stared off toward the forest, listening to the birds chirping. Zedd and Ditzy stopped to listen, too. They had never noticed how they could hear the birds from the school; they could only ever hear little colts and fillies playing on the playground. Ditzy moved and sat next to Zedd, linking her tail in his own, and Bazz plugged his headphones into a small device and began to walk back to the staff room, his head bobbing slightly with whatever beat he was listening to.

‘Hey, good work standing up to those bullies, Zedd!’ said an orange earth pony with a curly orange mane.

Zedd looked up and noticed that while most of the crowd had departed, a few still remained.

‘It was totally awesome! Man, you looked ready to fight it out!’ said a yellow earth pony he didn’t recognise.

‘I must admit that it makes me feel a little safer knowing there are brave stallions like you out there,’ said Rarity with a sigh. Ditzy shot a warning glare at Rarity. She was holding a book with hearts all over the cover, no doubt another of her love stories. At the look she received from Ditzy, she immediately picked herself up and hurried across the yard.

A bell began to toll across the yard and they stood up to move off to their next lessons.

‘See you at lunch, Ditzy.’

‘Yeah’

---

‘Okay, so we’re supposed to be reading something by Wingian Hoofspeare. Here’s the short version: death, death, incest, death, exit stage left,’ said Bazz. He paused to wait for the laughter to die down (caused by him saying “incest” in class) before going on to say ‘It’s worth a read, but that can wait until later. For now, let’s just go over a review of something else. Have any of you read any good books lately?’

Leaning back in his chair, he was staring up at the far wall. Without even looking to face the students, he said ‘Nope, didn’t think so. So let’s review some stories. Has anyone heard any good stories lately?’

Still no response.

‘Well, I suppose I could share a good one with you all. It’s about a heroic colt. No, not Superstallion, this guy saved another person from certain death, but nearly caused his own in the doing.’

He finally looked down from the far wall and saw the class all leaning forward with rapt attention.

‘There ya’ go. I could tell you this story, but I don’t know it that well. Zedd, you probably know the story better than anyone else, would you tell it?’

Zedd’s jaw dropped. ‘I-I-I have no idea what story you mean! I’ve never heard of anything like that, sir.’

‘Ugh, mate, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me “sir”?

‘Anyway, of course you do. This story was new about three weeks ago, you know.’

Zedd finally began to catch on.

‘Now, I don’t think the colt’s name was ever brought up. Let’s just hear the story of this nameless hero.’

Zedd walked up to the front of the class and began to speak in the third person, retelling the story of how the brave colt had saved the little filly from the pyre of the burning house despite huge personal danger. The class listened with great attention, but only three ponies in the room knew who he was talking about. Zedd ended the story at the point that the colt had passed out. The class applauded lightly and he returned to his seat next to Ditzy.

Bazz shot Zedd a small questioning look and Zedd nodded. Conversation without words had been something Bazz mastered with some of his favourite students. When the class’s attention returned to the teacher, he stood up from his chair and walked to the front of the classroom.

‘Now, what do you think the moral of the story was?’ he asked. Zedd knew he was playing them, so he sat silently. Ditzy followed suit.

The orange pony from the school yard raised a hoof.

‘Yes, Carrot Top?’

‘Was it that no matter what danger you may be in, you should always try to help others?’

‘It might have been. You’re looking a little bit too literally at this; while that may have been close, it wasn’t exactly the “moral”.’

He saw a purple hoof raised at the back of the room.

‘Yes, Berry?’

‘Is it that no matter what the outcome might be, you should always do what you think is right?’

‘Once again, it might have been. Now, I’m going to tell you something. This colt still lives. You may respect him, or you may not. Whatever you think of him shouldn’t matter; just know that he did what he believed was right, and he saved a life because of it.’

‘Sir?’ came the voice of Berry Punch again.

‘Bazz. Not “sir”. Erm, yes, Berry?’

‘You’re saying all of this as though we know him, but it was just a story, wasn’t it? Heroes like that don’t really exist, do they?’

‘You tell me. Have any of you asked Zedd how he got his cutie mark?’

The class collectively gasped and spun to face Zedd as fast as they could.

The voice of Allie Way was heard from across the room. ‘I knew you were in one of the fires, but it was you who saved Heartstrings?!’

Zedd stared in disbelief. He was wondering why none of them were reacting to his recount except interest in a good story, but this would explain it. They all lived under a class-sized rock.

‘Come on, sorry to do this to you all, but Zedd doesn’t exactly need more attention than he currently has. Everyone take out your copies of Lamblet and we’ll begin. Yeah, yeah, I don’t know why he wrote this about goats, but just go with it. Not everypony is a pony. Err, wait…’ he said. The class roared with laughter. That was part of his humour- he would say something intentionally wrong, but in such a way that it seemed like he was serious at the time.

‘Come on, page one, does anyone want to read it? No? Fine,’ he said, opening his own copy of the book to the first page and beginning to read. Whenever he came to a character he would put on a high or a low voice depending on who it was. Two of the witches had high, croaky voices, while the third bore a striking similarity to a bear snoring.

Zedd laughed with everypony else until his ribs hurt. These were truly the best times of his life.

---

The day of their final examination was drawing closer by the second. Zedd was feeling the strain more than anypony else as he had missed a whole three weeks of work, and hadn’t been able to concentrate properly for almost a fortnight after that. He and Ditzy had begun to forfeit almost all of their spare time to study. At least together they managed to get something done.

They worked their hardest, Zedd helping Ditzy with whatever mathematics she didn’t understand, and also helping her a lot with her essay on Lamblet as she couldn’t read the book anywhere near fast enough to write about. They studied their other lessons hard and finally considered themselves ready for testing, then studied some more. Once, Pine had kicked them both out of the house for a few hours to make them get some sunlight.

Finally the week of their exams was upon them.

‘Are you ready?’ asked Zedd.

‘Can you give me a week or two to answer?’

‘I could, but then you’d be stuck herding clouds for the rest of your life.’

‘Alright, yes. I think I am.’

‘That’s what I want to hear from my girl’ said Pine, entering the kitchen while they weren’t paying attention. ‘What about you?’ he asked to Zedd.

Zedd nodded and grunted in affirmation.

‘Then it’s time to go. Your first exam will always seem the worst, but they get easier,’ said Spring, placing lunches on the table for the two young ponies.

‘Mum, you didn’t need to make us lunch, we aren’t foals anymore’

‘I’m not complaining,’ interjected Zedd.

‘You’ll be able to concentrate better if you don’t need to worry about lunch. Now go, walk slowly so you don’t wear yourself out before you get there!’

Pine laughed a little bit at how overprotective his wife was getting. Zedd and Ditzy both thanked her for their lunch and turned to leave, tails intertwining as they walked.

‘They’re all grown up. I must have missed it,’ said Spring from the doorway, tears enveloping her eyes. Pine put a hoof around her neck and gently nuzzled her.

‘They’ll be fine.’

‘I know, it’s just… I… I’m so happy for them.’

They continued watching their daughter and foster-son walking to school at a slow pace, both laughing at something Zedd had just said. Pine turned back into the house with his wife and closed the door behind him. Their sides didn’t stop touching until they both had to go to their workplaces.

---

The English exam came and went, Bazz being more serious than they had ever seen him. He left the room at one point and Sticks immediately asked what the answer was to one of the questions. Bazz came back in before anypony could respond and warned him that if he spoke again his test would be confiscated and he would have to leave. Sticks figured he had just been hiding around the corner. Bazz left the room again after a short while and Sticks got up to see where he had gone. Nowhere to be found, he asked again what the answer was. By the time he had finished writing the answer, the paper glowed and disintegrated right below his hooves.

‘Hey! What the?’

‘I gave you fair warning. You spoke twice, and stole an answer to a question. You have failed English. You may leave.’

‘But-’

‘You may leave,’ he said again in his deep, commanding voice. Everypony watched as Sticks left in dismay. Bazz immediately levitated his headphones. ‘There is more than one way to hear people speaking in a test. I’d strongly recommend not doing it when a unicorn may be listening.’ He was looking over to the small earth pony who had given the answer. He sat back down at the front of the room, bobbing his head to whatever sounds were coming through his headphones.

Not a word was uttered after that.

Mathematics passed in much the same way, but Math didn’t leave the room at all while watching over his class along with the lower mathematics class. Only one warning was given, but no tests were taken. The days went by slowly. By the end of the second day, Zedd felt like he had aged five years. On the fourth day, Spring took Ditzy to Cloudsdale for her flight test. On the way out the door, her mother was urgently muttering to Ditzy.

‘Clear, fly, fall, complete, clear, fly, fall, complete. Please tell me you’re getting this!’

‘Relax, mum, it’s not like I’m going to die if anything goes wrong.’

‘Please don’t make me think of that! No, no, please, clear, fly, fall, complete!’

She had said the wrong thing. Her mum got jumpy sometimes over the smallest things, and that joke had been a bit too much. She grimaced to Zedd (he had the day off, there were no tests to be done) and took off beside her mother.

Hours later, Ditzy returned. Zedd had tried to study, but he couldn’t get his mind to work. Instead, he had just borrowed the newspaper from Pine and begun to read. Zedd had long-since passed the point where he stopped finding newspapers boring, and had begun to read them almost every day.

Spring looked shaken up about something and Ditzy looked a little uneasy.

‘What’s up?’

‘They… somepony failed. I’ve been told that whoever fails is taken far away and they’re never seen again… I didn’t know the person, but still. I’m glad I passed,’ Ditzy said.

Spring moved off to the bedroom and wasn’t heard from for the rest of the night.

After the final exams on the Friday, they were told to attend an assembly. The principal of Ponyville High was there to speak to them all. First up was Bazz for the introduction.

‘Congratulations, fillies and gentlecolts! You somehow beat the odds and managed to make it through the week. I wish all the best for all of you, and I also realise how you want to get out of here as fast as you can and grab an ice-cream from the local store.’

He watched as several ponies licked their lips.

‘Enjoy that thought, and suffer knowing you can’t leave until this is over!-’ pause for laughter- ‘and here is Principal Lily to give you a final speech.’

She shot a livid glance at Bazz who smiled sweetly as he took his seat again.

‘Well, has it really been that long? You’ve already finished high school. Where do the years go?-’ pause for crickets to chirp- ‘Well, you’ve all become grown mares and stallions, and you’re ready to pursue your own dreams in the world. I wish all of you the best, and… well, I would say more, but I suppose that Mr. Quill has already sidetracked you all.

‘Your test results will be mailed out within the month, and you may speak with me or any of the other teachers at any time to clarify anything. Please, enjoy your lives. I look forward to seeing how far you’ve gone in ten years time!’

Everypony in the room cheered and began to swarm the exits. Zedd fought his way through the crowd to speak one final time to Bazz Quill. When he finally came into view, Bazz seemed completely oblivious to the stampede going on in front of him. He was leaning back in his chair, earphones in both ears, and his head was bobbing lightly to his music.

‘Mr Quill?’ asked Zedd.

‘Mate, I don’t know how long it’s gonna take you to realise my name is Bazz. It’s an Austallion name, you know, Bazz.’

Zedd had never known where his teacher came from. He never took geography either, so he had no idea where Austalliona was.

‘It’s an island, mate. The biggest island in the world. Far from here, at any rate.’

Bazz finally looked down from the roof and removed the earphones from his ears.

‘Walk with me,’ he said.

‘Sir, I just wanted to ask how you could hear Sticks talking in the exam?’

‘Oh that’s easy, can’t you give me a harder question?’ he asked. After a moment, he let out a huge sigh and said ‘Alright, I guess I’ll just settle for full marks and no difficulty.

‘It’s a spell that only I and a few others can do. Y’know my mark back there?’ he asked, gesturing his flank. Zedd looked again at the quill wrapped in a treble clef. He had always wondered why he had two significant points to his mark when most only had one.

Seeming to read his mind, Bazz went on to say ‘the quill represents my talent in English. The reason I slept in school so much was because it was too easy- it was boring for me. I took up writing as a hobby, and only became better. The quill didn’t appear for a while yet, though. It was about the time I took up my writing that I discovered my love of music. I’ll listen to pretty much anything so long as it’s well made.’ He took out his little metal device. ‘On this little device here, I have everything from the Canterlot Orchestra to one of DJ PON-3’s new remixes.

If Zedd was surprised that his English teacher knew about PON-3, he didn’t show it. Vinyl was already becoming well known at a fast rate.

‘Anyway, when I was writing once, I had my music going on full, and I felt a small burning. I looked back, and my mark was just there. I call it my “treble quill”.’

‘And the spell?’

‘It just came naturally to me. I leave this device in a room and take my headphones with me and I can hear anything that goes on where the receiver is. I made it myself, but I completely forget how it works. Let’s hope it never breaks, eh?’

Zedd laughed a little at this. He was interested in knowing a bit more about magic, but he mainly just wanted to talk to Bazz. He had a feeling that they would drop out of contact after school finished, and they had become as close to friends as teacher and student could be.

‘I know something else you’ll want to hear, Zedd.’

‘What’s that?’ he asked, happy that the conversation could keep going.

‘I know your father’

Comments

[Cheezy805]

Ch5.
Uploaded.
Time for bed
YAAAAY.
Cliffhanger. Muahahaha.

[ScootaLewis]

Whooooah. Dude.

I like Bazz. HE'S SUCH A CHILL BRO.

Hey, uh...as a writer I respect, would you mind taking just a quick look at the pieces I've submiutted? There's only two, and they're very short...

[Di0nysus]

If you are blind and have not yet figured it out:

AUTHOR = BAZZ

One of the biggest hints is the picture he uses for Bazz is titled "My OC".
Just pointing it out.

[Cheezy805]

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First to get it, haha! Good job.
Yeah, the other thing is that my middle name is Basil. Basil shortened is Bazz, and Bazz Quill is obviously Basil, derp.

[Di0nysus]

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