Sunset, lying down on the cool linoleum floor, could only sigh as she stared up at the ceiling above. Swinging freely above her feet was her locker door, and sticking out of said locker was a comically large, red extendo glove that, having only just been sprung from her locker, bobbed lightly.
Slowly, Sunset’s eyes craned down from the ceiling to the top of her locker. Crouched on top of it on all fours was none other than the odd girl, Discord’s so called “daughter,” Screwball, who eyed her with the suspicion of a mischievous kitten.
Sunset closed her eyes and let out another tired sigh. “This is my life... huh?” she muttered, as if finally coming to a great realization.
“Sunset?”
Ears perking, Sunset turned to see Coco, holding her school books and looking at her from around a corner. “Are you alright?” she asked. Without hesitation, she raced over and helped her up.
“What in the world happened?” she asked, dusting off Sunset’s clothes. "Do you need to see the nurse?”
Sunset shrugged and shook her head. Looking back to her locker she noticed that both the girl and the glove were gone. Rolling her eyes, she addressed Coco’s questions while closing the locker door with only a tiny bit more force than needed.
“No, I’m fine,” she answered, giving Coco a tired smile. “I’ll tell you more about it later. But we should really get to class. The late bell already rang right?”
“That’s true, Ms. Shimmer.” The two turned to see Principal Celestia standing behind them, arms crossed but a playful smile on her face. “I don’t think being late is exactly what you need at the moment either, now is it?”
“Principal Celestia,” gasped Sunset. “Of course! I’ll go right away. B-but before we go. I had a question I wanted to ask you. If that’s alright?”
Celestia put a finger to her chin in thought for a second before nodding. “Alright then, but you may as well walk to class while we talk.”
Sunset nodded and the three began walking down the path that Coco came from. While Coco looked at the two in curious silence, Sunset took a second to find the right way to form the question in her head.
“So… the new teacher… you know him right?” asked Sunset.
Celestia gave her a small giggle. “I can only assume you’re talking about Discord.” When Sunset nodded, she continued. “Well yes, I do know him.” Sunset sighed with clear relief. “But I really was surprised when he suddenly showed up after all these years, with a daughter no less and requested to be a teacher. After he dropped out of college to become a magician I hadn’t personally heard anything from him aside from a few mentionings, many of which I had assumed were rumors. I had no idea he had become famous.”
Sunset tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “So… you didn’t call for him specifically?”
Celestia shook her head and shrugged. “Unfortunately, when he showed up we were just in need of a new teacher. Don’t get me wrong, he is talented at what he does, always has been, but he’s not exactly reliable… or easy to understand. But, he has a valid teaching degree… somehow... and we had an opening we couldn’t fill in time.”
Coco couldn’t help but giggle into her hand at her principal's defeated tone. “So you had no other options huh?” she asked.
“Discord may or may not be the best person to be taught by and he might have left a bad impression on you, but I know that he’s a good person.” Celestia stopped by Sunset and Coco’s classroom and smiled down at the girls. “So I’m sorry if he's done anything… questionable, but I’ve ordered him not to pull any major mischief while he’s a teacher so you should be able to get used to him.”
Sunset and Coco both immediately nodded happily. However, just as the Principal turned to leave Sunset called out a to her once again. “H-hold on, I have one more question. If Discord isn’t the one you reached out to, who was it?”
Celestia opened her mouth to answer but after a second she simply gave the girls a coy smirk and shrugged before turning to continue walking away. “Oh I’m sure you’ll meet her eventually, she’s bound to stand out.”
Sharing similarly confused expressions, Sunset and Coco glanced at each other before opening the door to their next class.
~~~
Groaning, Scootaloo slammed her head on her desk. “I can’t believe it! A super famous magician comes to teach at our school and his class is nowhere near us!”
One seat over, Apple Bloom slouched heavily in her own seat. “I know, right. I was really hoping he’d take over for Cranky so we could ask him for advice on magic!”
Another seat over, Sweetie Belle sat upright and proper but craned her head towards her friends. “I didn’t know that you were interested in magic?”
Apple Bloom quickly sat up, her increasing slouch finally proving to be more uncomfortable than it was worth. “Well yeah, after the whole thing last fall we know that magic is real. I wanna see if I have a knack for it.”
Scootaloo pulled her head off of the table and fist-pumped, a wide grin spread across her face. “Plus if we learn magic we can get revenge on Sunset! Then we’d be heroes in this school!”
“Heroines,” corrected Sweetie Belle.
There was a scoff from behind them. Turning around, the three immediately frowned at Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who had been eavesdropping on their conversation.
“Honestly, you’re better off joining her little group,” said Diamond, shaking her perfect head. “I’m sure you’d make perfect brainwashed minions. Not having the ability to think might even be your special talent. What do you think, Silver?”
Silver Spoon smirked and adjusted her glasses. “I don’t know, Diamond. I don’t even think that demon could use her magic to make their talents evident.”
Scootaloo’s frown immediately evolved into a scowl for a second before slowly turning into a smirk of her own. “Well aren't you particularly evil today. Frankly, I’m surprised Snips and Snails turned evil back then. I would’ve been sure that Sunset would have sniffed you two out much easier. I mean, you already look like demons.”
Diamond and Silver reeled back in surprise. “What did you—” Diamond started.
However, picking up on where she was headed, Apple Bloom joined in and cut her off. “Yeah, with you two on her side Sunset might’ve even won against Twilight. Even with our big sisters helping her. Right, Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie, who may or may not have been paying attention jumped at the sound of her name. “Huh? Oh yeah! I bet you… err—”
Just then a loud groan echoed across the classroom. Rumble, who was seated in a circle with Twist and First Base. Throwing down his playing cards, he looked to the front of the class. “Alright, it’s been like ten minutes, where is our new teacher?!”
First Base chuckled and gathered the cards. “Yeah sure, say that just when I put down my last card to win the game.”
Twist also let out a cute snicker. “Well allth fair in love and war, you know.”
First Base glanced down at the table, scoffed, and rolled his eyes. “Not when there’s two aces and a king I was about to win from this hand.”
Scootaloo, her previous argument already won in her head also turned towards the front. “Huh… he’s right. If Discord is teaching some other class who do we have?”
Just then the door to the room opened and Apple Bloom beamed at the person who walked in in.
The strange woman grinned nervously as she made her way to the teacher’s desk on the other side of the room. Similar to her attire that she wore the other day, Zecora wore a bright white buttoned up lab coat with four golden bangles around both her wrists and going up her neck. “M-my apologies for the disservice… I may have stalled outside being a bit nervous.” she said, trying to relax her stiff posture and expression.
Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And who are you?”
Rumble, who had immediately began gathering the cards that let out loud scoff. “Obviously she’s the new teacher, why else would she be here?”
Diamond scowled and turned his way, ready to deliver a scathing rebuttal. “I know that, you idiot. I was asking for her name!”
Scootaloo simply rolled her eyes from her seat at the front. “Well you sure got a weird way of asking for it.”
“Children, children please,” interrupted Zecora, holding her hands out, “there is no need to fight, so please be at ease. I am indeed your new teacher, call me Zecora at your leisure.” To accentuate her point she wrote “Ms. Zecora” on the blackboard behind her.
By this point just about everyone had noticed the elephant in the room. Each student chanced a glance at the other, but only one student had the gall to pipe up.
However, before that rude, rude student could blurt anything out, Twist politely raised her hand. Zecora smiled, and gestured with a hand for her to ask her question.
“U-um yeth,” she began, “do you always speak in rhymes? I’m just curious.” With the ice broken the rest of the class began muttering similar questions, some regarding her odd markings, and others regarding her rings.
That’s when the rude one piped up. “Yeah, and how come you can wear jewelry to school but I can’t?” exclaimed Diamond Tiara, gesturing toher her tiara shaped hairpin. “I’m only barely allowed to wear this!”
Zecora nodded in understanding. “I completely understand your curiosity, but trust me, there is no need for secrecy. I wear these rings because of my family. They were passed from mother to daughter, and so I wear them happily.”
Rumble half raised his hand. “Yeah but what about the rhyming? I mean… it's cool and all but I feel like it’ll get confusing to understand at some point. Ya’ know what I’m saying?”
Zecora nodded and glanced to the side. “My tendency to speak in rhyme is what you could call, a personal quirk, as odd as it may be, I do hope it won’t interfere with your work,” she said shyly. However, before Rumble could respond, Zecora began making her way towards the boy.
Leaning in closer to his face, she said, “However, for you, I will keep the rhymes simple and light, so if you get lost, please tell me, alright?” she said, giving a coy wink.
Rumble’s face immediately flushed and he nodded repeatedly.
Zecora beamed and made her way back to the front of the class. Silver Spoon, however, merely rolled her eyes.
“Fine, Ms. Dodge-the-question. You’re our new chemistry teacher right? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to teach something like reading or poetry?”
“Ahh a wonderful question. It’s true, that was the suggestion, however, my true talents lie in Alchemy or, as you may call it, the art of Chemistry. Anyway, I’m sure you’re perplexed, so let us start with page eighty-three of your school text.”
With a couple of groans and some eye rolls, the various students all reached into their packs and brought out their chemistry books. As they did, Zecora’s shoulders finally laxed from their formerly stiff position and the fluttering butterflies that were making their home in Zecora’s stomach finally began to settle. Having been worried that her appearance and slight social awkwardness might have made teaching difficult. Seeing all the students actually follow her instructions made her feel slightly more at ease.
To her surprise, one hand rose up among the students. The hand belonged to the only other girl with accessories on her.
Diamond Tiara, noticing that she had been noticed, began talking. “Yeah… no. I kinda agree with Rumble,” she said, the sass strongly evident in her tone, “Chemistry is hard enough with all of these formulas. If you give them to me in rhymes there’s no way we’re going to learn any of this. And if I fail because you can’t speak right then—”
Zecora raised a palm to stop here there. “I see. There is no need for threat, it doesn't take much to understand your mindset.” Pausing for a second, Zecora frowned, her brow furrowing in thought. After a few seconds, her pensive expression changed into one of excitement. “I agree, many formulas are as you proclaim, so how about,” she gave the class a sly smirk, “we turn what is hard into something that is a game?”
The class exploded into a chorus of murmurs and confused mutterings. Among them Zecora could see the beginning of excitement and anticipation. She could only hope that her idea would work.