//------------------------------// // Welcome To Hopes Hooves Academy // Story: Hope in Despair: The beginning // by Harmonic Scrible //------------------------------// Hope's Hooves Academy, the most prestigious center of higher learning and magical development in all of Equestria. Only the most elite of all ponies attend the courses presented. Even though every pony grows up to learn their special talent, it is said that those who go there are the ones who truly master their marks of destiny and become the ultimate pony in their field. Those who manage to graduate and elevate themselves are set for life with a Guarantee for Success. To get into Hope's Hooves Academy you needed two things; to already have your cutie mark in addition to being the best at what you do, and to be attending high school already. However no ordinary student can enroll here. The only way in is to be scouted by the school itself. The Hope's Hooves Academy works towards bringing all of Equestria's ultimate ponies together and spread their combined hope across all of Equestria for a better future. That's exactly what was going through my mind when I stepped up to the front gates of Hopes Hooves Academy. My name is Sigil Sparks, and I am a student here at the academy. I'm a orange Unicorn with a light red mane and tail. My cutie mark is a flame with a light purple eye on the center. Really I was just an average mare that was attending an average high school for average ponies. My talent before Hope's Hooves was discerning information and finding truth. My friends used to say I was a lot like The Famous Applejack who saved Equestria several times and was the element of Honesty. But honestly that was only partially true, I was really just good research gathering and fact finding in information already available. And more often than not I only found out after something unfortunate had happened. Through the early morning sun, I stared at the overwhelming sight of the second largest building in all of Canterlot. Only the palace of the royal sisters itself was taller, and not by much. As I stared on, the memory of how I enrolled in such a prestigious school of higher learning surfaced. About how by chance the letter that was supposed to go to the original winner of the lottery for the Ultimate Lucky Pony had burned up after a series of unfortunate events which had happened to me. Ultimately, this was resolved by a second lottery that named me as The Ultimate Lucky Pony for that year. I shook my head to clear my memories and brought myself back to the present. "I still can't believe that I'm standing here. I never thought I'd ever attend this school." I looked back to my destination one last time as I took the first fateful step onto the schools property. A sense of unease settled in my stomach as a little bit of my nerve ebbed away at the back of my mind. Shaking my head once again I cleared my unease as I prepared myself for what was to come. I levitated the acceptance letter out of my saddles and looked it over once more. It said there'd be a meeting for all the new students in the main hall for 8 a.m. "So I still have some time before then, might as well wait inside for then." Muttering to myself, I scratched the back of my head with my hoof and then took my first step onto school property. As I reached the door, I placed my hoof gently onto it. As if reacting to my touch the door swung inwards revealing the brilliant main corridor. "Is this where we're supposed to meet? Guess I'm the first one here." My gaze turned to an elegant clock on the far wall. It displays the time at 7:10 a.m. "Whoops, looks like I came way too early." I gave myself a small laugh as I realized that was why no pony else was here yet. Along that line of thought, I decided to go take a look around the school a bit. I was thinking it shouldn't be that big a deal since I was a student now. If anything I could familiarize myself with the school a little and maybe kill some time. Smiling to myself, I took my first step into Hope's Hooves Academy, and the first step towards my new life. Or at least so I had hoped... All of a sudden it felt like my vision was warping and twisting in impossible angles, and nausea overwhelmed me as everything began melting and mixing together like some kind of hallucination. Finally, after everything was completely turned upside down, inside out, and ripped apart, my vision went black. This is how it all started... Everything I had ever known fell apart before me. And maybe back then I should have realized that I hadn't come to Hope's Hooves Academy because I had ultimate good luck. Instead, It was so I could experience ultimate despair... _______________ ... ... "Wh-what? Where am I?" When I awoke, I had been sitting in a chair attached to a wooden desk. When my vision cleared I noticed that I was in a classroom, but not any classroom I had ever seen before. My body felt sore as I gently pushed myself away from the desk. The classroom itself looked fairly average,with the exception of what looked like a camera attached to the ceiling and where there looked like there might be windows there was huge steel plates that were bolted on instead. There was also a magic mirror on the wall for displaying images of ponies from a far. The mirror and the sprite-bot actually made a little sense, This was a establishment funded by the princesses themselves. On the desk I was resting my head on and directly beside where the line of fresh drool, from where my head was just resting, was a piece of paper with a crude crayon scribbling of the words 'Orientation Guide'. "Huh? What's this? Levitating it off the desk I opened it up and read saw a message, also written in crayon, and a poorly drawn.. building? The message read, "Welcome friend! The next semester is about to begin. Starting today this school will be your whole world!" "What in the name of Tartarus is going on around here?" I glanced up to the clock above the teacher's desk. "What? 8 o'clock already? I must have passed out from all the excitement, then maybe someone carried me here? I mean if that's true then that would mean this is a classroom in side Hope's Hooves!" Scratching behind my head I realized if that were all true then there would be so many other questions that we're left unanswered. But if it's already 8 then there must be others here, possibly waiting in the main hallway. Determined, I floated the orientation guide into my saddle bags and left the room. Even as I entered the hallway I realized that everything felt... wrong somehow. The hall was illuminated in dull lights, completely different from the way the main hall shined brightly earlier that day. I took note of the classroom I just left, 1A it read. I looked over to the next door, 1B. Grasping the door handle in my magical aura 1B attempted to open it out of curiosity to reveal that it was locked. As I trekked the corridor I tried opening various doors to reveal that they were also locked. A few were blocked off and one had caution tape blocking the way. One hallway had a sign saying Despair Hotel. I didn't feel like going down there quite yet, and I did need to find the main hall. after a few minutes of looking around I eventually found the main hall and entered into the doorway. By the time I had entered the main hall... everyone else was already there... "Hey look! There's another new kid!" A stallion was the first to speak. "So that means you're all...?" I started to speak but trailed off. "Yeah, we're all new here. Today is supposed to be the first day of class." A mare spoke this time. "So that means that including her, there's 15 of us total.. right? That would be a pretty decent cut off point. But still, makes me wonder if there are more still." A different stallion spoke that time. Looking at the group assembled before me I realized that they were all close to my age. Almost all of them wore a similar uniform to the one I was wearing, the schools uniform. In the cases of most mares they either wore a skirt or dress which had their Cutie Mark, except one mare that wore a swimming suit and a red jacket over her shoulders. I took a few seconds just to take in their faces. I could have been imagining it, but It felt as though there were a different aura coming from each of them. Even the earth ponies and pegasi among the group had that feeling. I looked down towards the ground a little ashamed. "U-um sorry! I should introduce myself. I'm Sigil Sparks. Sorry I was late. a bunch of weird stuff happened and then, I was just... asleep." "Huh? You too?" I recognized as the first stallion which spoke, a light blue pegasus with with a rather intense blue mane that stuck up all over the place. He wore a loose jacket over his shoulders and had a messed up uniform underneath. A crystal ball with a blue mist inside of it lay bare on his flank. "Things seem to be getting curiouser and curiouser..." An light grayish blue earth pony mare with a dark blue mane tied off into ringlets and pigtails at the same time. She was wearing a black dress with white frills and heavy makeup which appeared to make her look even more pale, and had a dark blue heart surrounded in little four little half crescents for her Cutie Mark. "So strange... I declare that beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a strange situation indeed!" A chubby little unicorn pony stallion that was a rather light red-ish colour with a dark brown mane which seemed to have a little point going upwards. His Cutie Mark was a quill which was scribbling in a scroll, and wore a regular uniform. I raised an eye brow after hearing all this. "Um... What are you talking about? I honestly have no idea whats going on right now." I said as I scratched the back of my head with a hoof. "Just a moment! There's something else we must address! Sigil! Your Tardiness is unacceptable! Surely you were aware that the meeting was to start at 8 a.m. sharp! To be late on your first day is unspeakable! I must report you, and you must accept your punishment!" A white earth pony stallion with a neat black mane had all but shouted at me. He had a pair of black and white fish joined together to make a complete circle, and his uniform looked perfectly fitted to him. "What's your problem? It's not like she wanted to be late. She didn't have any control over it." A unicorn mare with a light purple coat and a slightly darker purple mane also in pigtails pointed out to the previous stallion. Her Cutie Mark was covered by a skirt but emblazoned on the hem was a silver star with a needle, the rest of her uniform loosely covered her body. "Guys come on, calm down! Listen, why don't we just go around and introduce ourselves?" Another earth pony mare with a teal coat and blue mane shaped like a drop of water. Her Cutie Mark was a wave of water and she wore a swim suit and red jacket. "What in Tartarus are you talking about? This ain't the time for friggin' introductions!" A muscular and tall dark brown pegasus stallion with a dark orange spiked mane and tail snarled at the swimmer pony. He wore a black jacket and his Cutie Mark was a flying dumbbell with wings. "Maybe, but it may be beneficial to at least find out who we all are before digging into bigger problems here." Ringlet pony countered. "I mean, how are we supposed to talk to each other if we don't even know each other's names?" "That's a good point..." A rather small and demure looking unicorn mare with a light yellow coat and light brown mane said. Her Cutie Mark, which was emblazoned on the hem of her skirt, was a series of one's and zero's floating over some kind of crystal. She wore her uniform properly in addition to her skirt. "Okay, so let's get introductions out of the way, then we can move on to whatever else. Sound good?" Something about this light blue pegasus mare with a candy coloured pinkish mane reminded me of somepony I knew, or knew of, but I couldn't remember where from. Her uniform was fitted perfectly to her body, skirt included. She had a microphone with little dancing stars for a Cutie Mark. I felt totally lost still, but I think it's best just to focus on getting to know each other for now. Well this was as good a chance as I could get. I still didn't really know what kind of ponies they actually are. Just what they look like. Better time than any to find out. With that in mind I walked up to the closest pony, the one I nicknamed Yell Pony. _______________