I'M SUPER SORRY! We're back though guys! Don't worry! Here's another chapter, and more will be coming, we have everything planned out.
“Dad, no, I don’t wanna go, can’t I just stay here and watch Rainbow?” The young stallion huffed, clearly upset at the prospect of school.
“Yes, you have to go, we’ve got Rainbow and you need to get back to learning. It’s not healthy for you to be cooped up in here all day with a baby.” Adhesive argued, clearly not changing his mind on the matter. The mailstallion grabbed a fresh backpack filled to the brim with any and all supplies a high schooler could ever need and or want. “You father will be at the school to pick you up when you get home, for now, Ebony is taking you to school until we get a real schedule going.”
As if to emphasize this, said mare skipped by with a knife between her teeth towards the door.
“And if anyone messes with my precious little nephew they’ll regret it~!”
“Ebony, put the knife down, the school has a no weapons policy. Wouldn’t do us any good if he got kicked out on the first day.” Circuit grumbled as he trotted passed with a bag of parts bouncing on his back, clearly preoccupied with something at the moment. He pressed a little kiss to Crescent’s head as he passed, lightly ruffling his mane.
“Have a good day at school.” He muttered as he went past, ignoring the little indignant sputters that came from the pink maned colt as he tried to fix it again.
“Why do I even need to go to school? Can’t I just like..I don’t know, get a job that doesn’t require a degree or something?”
“No! Most jobs nowadays require at least a high school diploma, and you’re going to one of the best colleges we can find. I promise you that! Besides, this is a good school, I did my research on it, and they’re really good folks. Only ones I’m worried about are a few students, but once they see me they’ll know not to mess with you buddy!” The mare smiled, tucking the knife under her wing and between her feathers. She then gave her nephew an affectionate hug before picking up his bag and starting for the car. Crescent whined as he slowly followed after her, dragging his hooves as much as he possibly could.
“But what if they think my outfit looks dumb or my hair is girly or that I’m weeeeeird…” He complained with as much drama as a teenage colt could muster, which was quite a lot. His expression sobered for a moment though as he bit at his bottom lip, shooting a nervous glance towards Ebony.
“What if they...What if they call me a girl..?” The mare stopped for a moment before shooting the colt a reassuring glance.
“Don’t worry, there are a lot of kids there your age who are in the transgender spectrum. And besides, there’s a club of all of them where you can feel more at ease. Maybe you’ll even make some friends there!” The hybrid pulled him into a hug and sighed. “Listen, I know this whole school thing is scary, especially with everything that was thrown at you since you were little. But I want you to know that this won’t be anything like that, I made sure to suggest a place to your dads that would be not just a good fit for you, but where you’d flourish. I promise you Crescent, everything’s going to be just fine.” The unicorn just sighed and shook his head, clearly not convinced.
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say….”
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Crescent only felt his dread grow as they pulled up in front of the school, peering out of the window nervously. ‘Faust Academy’ the sign red in big red letters, accompanying the cream and gold theme that the rest of the school seemed to have. The thing that made it the worst though, was the huge crowd of students all lingering on the front lawn waiting for the bell to ring.
The colt took a few deep breaths to steady himself, wringing his hooves together as he tried to calm down. Slowly he turned to Ebony, a calm look on his face.
“I’m going to throw up.”
“No you’re not, calm down. I know what you’re thinking, religious school, hell no I wouldn’t send you to one of those! What kinda gal do you think I am? Definitely not one like that, anyway. One of the student council members should be here to help you adjust… oh look! There she is now!” The mare pointed out the window of the car at a grey earth pony foal who looked around Crescent’s age, with short cropped navy hair that swept to the left side and golden eyes. She wore a simple scarf around her neck that had a black pattern that looked like ink blotches and a leather jacket. Crescent just let out a panicked noise, having to practically be dragged from the car towards the mare.
“No no, I can’t do this, I change my mind, I’m just going to be a hobo and live under a bridge or something and eat beans from a can.” Ebony, just calmly dragged the young stallion across the campus lawn towards the girl who turned and simply raised an eyebrow.
“Oh no you don’t, you’re going to get an education young man! I didn’t just get back from my wonderful honeymoon touring all of Europe to watch my nephew become a hobo.” With that she deposited said colt onto the ground in front of her and looked at the mare in front of her.
“Hello, you must be the student council member I assume?” The grey mare nodded.
“Yeah, I’m Stone Gaze… Is this Crescent?” She asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.
“Hi I’m Secrent, I mean Cerscent, I mean Crescent! I’m Crescent!” The colt finally stammered out, his face turning bright red with mortification at stumbling over the pronunciation of his own name. He shot a pleading look at the pegasus behind him, begging her to just end his suffering already.
“Alright well I’m gonna head off now, keep an eye on this one, he might try to run. Toodles~!” With that the golden mare was gone, car skidding off with a squeal as the tires left black marks in their wake.
“Oooookay, she’s… interesting… Your aunt? I heard her call you her nephew so I’m guessing that’s right.” He quickly shot Ebony a betrayed look before nodding, slowly turning back to look at the mare in front of him.
“Yeah ah..Kind of. It’s..It’s complicated..” He sighed wearily, slowly picking up his bag. “You uh..You don’t have to stick around you know, I’m not actually going to run off. Maybe. Probably. Depends on how this day turns out.”
“Okay sure, whatever. Let's get to your first class alright? They chose me ‘cuz I’ve got all but one of the same classes as you. So english it is, let's go.” The mare trudged towards the large school building and in through the main entrance. A grand hallway that looked a lot like what you’d expect from an art museum or a fancy manor greeted the pair as Stone Gaze turned towards a flight of elaborate stairs.
“You coming or what?” Crescent stared at her for a few moments before it finally seemed to click that she meant for him to follow her. He quickly scrambled to his hooves, nearly knocking into a few other students as he rushed to join her.
“Y-yeah..Yeah ah, lead the way..” They continued on for a little while, passing classrooms that looked more like fancy parlors than actual rooms for school until Stone Gaze stopped at one towards the end of the hall.
“This is it, we’ve got english together with Professor Ponitah, she’s pretty chill, kinda crazy at times but all around a pretty decent teacher.” She shrugged, trudging into the room but not before offering him a small smile. “Cmon, you can sit with me.” The unicorn just nodded mutely, keeping his head down as he followed her to their seats. He only looked up once he was settled into his desk, fighting the urge to tap his hoof or fiddle with something. He distracted himself as best as he could by looking around, taking in the fancy decor of the classroom and the other students that dotted it. He managed to catch the eye of one stallion, who just sneered at him until he looked away. With a sigh, the colt focused his gaze back on Stone, not feeling really up to checking out the room anymore.
“So ah..What are you guys learning about right now?” The mare turned to answer before the bell run and in ran a white earth pony mare with flaming red mane streaked with grey and a similar tail that was long and furred that ended in similar tufts of flame in a sort of lion-like tail. Over her shoulders was a worn looking shawl that had an array of colors and patches sewn onto it, and a pair of glasses sat on her muzzle. The older mare then proceeded to hop on top of her desk and look down over her students.
Nopony else seemed startled at this endeavor, but then the Professor spoke.
“Morning ladies and ‘gents! I hope you all have your short stories ready to turn in, yesterday was the last day to work on them after all!” With that she turned and flipped backwards, landing into her seat with grace that was surprising for a fifty year old mare. “Let's get this party started! Oh, and we have a new student in the class, Crescent Script, go ahead and raise your hoof. Don’t be shy, it’s alright! Welcome! I do so look forward to reading your short story, I sent the email ahead to your parents two weeks ago so you’d be up to date with the rest of the class.”
“My..Short story..R-right…” The dark coated colt muttered as he put his hoof back down, frantically racking his brain to try and remember if his parents had told him about it. Honestly, they probably did, but he’d been so set on ignoring anything and everything to do with school that he most likely blocked it out. He frantically rummaged around in his bag for a moment for something that he could turn in. Eventually he just tugged out his writing notebook, ripping some pages in it and scribbling his name on them before passing it forward.
“Alrighty class, as I was saying…” The teacher continued on with the lesson until the bell rang an hour later. At which point the students all scrambled out of the room in a rush of colors.
“Jeez, I never understood why someponies are in such a big hurry sometimes…” Stone muttered to herself, grabbing her own bag and turning back to Crescent. “I’m gonna stop by my locker quick if that’s cool, yours is next to mine actually so we can cross that one off the list.” Crescent thought about it a moment before nodding slowly, figuring he’d need help with the locker anyways.
“Yeah alright, will we have enough time?” He glanced at the clock as he quickly packed up his stuff, heading out the door with the mare. “It seems like such a short amount of time to try and get everything and still make it to the next class.”
“Seems that way, but lunch is a lot longer than normal schools so it kinda balances out.” The filly shrugged, opening one of the lockers they’d come to. “It’s history for us now, Mr. Scroll will give you a textbook when we get there so yeah.” She then grabbed an old textbook from the locker, it looked more like a tome than anything, the pages all yellowed and the cover banged all to tartarus.
“Mr. Scroll huh..Do ah..Do all the textbooks look like that?” He gestured vaguely to the beat up book in her hooves. “I mean, doesn’t the school have money to like..Buy new ones?” He didn’t think it was possible, but he somehow raised his eyebrow even further. “Or is this one of those weird rich schools were like, they spend a lot of money on appearances but then don’t actually put any of the funds towards education, cause if so I might have to get my family to reconsider sending me here.”
“Oh no, we’ve got some super nice stuff, it’s just that the history books are like, museum quality. Mr. Scroll is convinced that they’re infused with ancient magic or some nonsense. He’s kinda weird but whatever, you saw Professor Ponitah.” With that Stone slammed her locker shut and turned to leave but looked behind him at something. Crescent slowly turned to see what she was looking at, blinking a few times. A few feet away from them were two light colored unicorns with a pale blue manes, frantically whispering to the stallion next to her as she pointed at them. She looked slightly startled when she saw them staring, just glaring at them as though it was their fault they caught her gossiping about them. He furrowed his brow slightly, glancing over at Stone.
“Ah...Do you...Know them?” The mare narrowed her eyes, her mouth forming a sneer.
“Ugh, that’s Oxford, and the twisted twins, Chandelier and Candelabra. Ox isn’t that bad, normally, tends to leave me and mine alone, mostly… but them? Those girls are nasty, absolutely vicious.”
“I see…” He shot a few more glances at them, trying not to be too obvious with his staring. Sure, they’d already seen them, but he’d rather not make things even more uncomfortable.
“And ah, why are they staring at us? Do you have business with them or something?”
“Tch, not likely, they’ve probably spotted you. Fresh meat and all that… c’mon, let’s go-” She was cut off when Crescent’s own locker was slammed shut, causing him to let out a small squeak. The mare twins stood before him, looking him up and down with contempt.
“Why hello there, runt.” The first one sneered.
“If it isn’t our dear cousin!” The second one growled.
“C...Cousin..?” Was all Crescent could think to stutter out, his eyes going wide as he looked at the twins. “I..Um..What?”
“Oh, is this the little freak you were telling me about?” The stallion that was with them earlier slid up, wrapping his hooves around the two mares’ shoulders. Crescent was a little startled to realize he recognized this ‘Oxford’, the stallion being the same one who’d sneered at him earlier.
“How cute, you already got a little marefriend~”
“Lay off Oxford, nobody’s giving out free scholarships here so you might as well beat it bootlicker!” Stone growled, moving in front of Crescent in a defensive move, her books lying forgotten on the ground.
“Oooo, I’m so scared~ Hiding behind your marefriend like the coward you are, hm? It’s almost like you aren’t a real stallion. Oh wait, you aren’t.” Crescent froze as the words fully hit him, feeling his eyes starting to water, despite his best attempts to keep the tears down.
Stone roars in anger, her stoic attitude gone, she flings two books from the ground at the twins, hitting them in the face and then throws herself at Oxford, tackling him to the ground and begins to punch him in the face repeatedly.
“BUCK YOU ASSHOLE!” Crescent just stared with wide eyes, finding himself suddenly surrounded by other students chanting ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’. It wasn’t long until several teachers made their way over, shoving their way towards the fighting pair.
“ALRIGHT BREAK IT UP! EVERYPONY GET TO CLASS! You five, office, now!” Stone Gaze, who’d gotten up off of the other stallion, spit in his general direction before tromping towards the office with Crescent in tow. The five students quickly arrived, flopping down on a plush waiting couch in front of the desk and waited.
“...Crescent?” Stone muttered. “I’m sorry I went ham like that… I just… couldn’t let anypony say things like that…”
“It’s fine I…” He let out a little sigh, running a hoof over his face. Only Faust knew how Circuit and Adhesive were going to react..Hopefully not too bad. “Thanks for standing up for me it ah..It means a lot.” He smiled gently, lightly patting the mare on the shoulder. He could hear snickers from the group of three as they whispered together, but he chose to ignore them.
The secretary at the desk then picked up the phone.
“Yes headmaster, I’ll send them in, alright.” She croaked. “Alright kids, the headmaster will see you now, and try to behave.” Oxford and the twins gleefully jumped up and strutted into the office as if they owned the place while Stone dragged herself up.
“Okay, let’s go.” Crescent nodded as he got to his hooves, taking a deep breath before beginning his ‘death march’ into the office. Honestly, it was more like a ‘death shuffle’, but whatever.
The headmaster quietly sat behind his desk, sitting straight and regal behind the oaken table. He gestured for them to sit, plush chairs seemingly materializing out of nowhere to seat all of them.
“Please, please sit.” He spoke with an air of authority, leaving no room for question. He waved at the secretary who’d let them in. “That’ll be all Melody, thank you.” They all sat down onto the couches in front of his desk, one of the twins spoke first.
“Headmaster, these, freaks attacked us! I don’t think there’s any reason for Oxy and us to be here, it’s really not our fault! We were minding our own business when they jumped us.” She batted her eyelashes and put on a disgustingly sweet puppy dog look. He held up a tan-gold hoof before the other twin could jump in, clearing his throat.
“That’s enough you two, I’d like to hear our new student speak first.” His gaze zeroed in on Crescent, pulling a nervous squeak from his throat. “But, first things first..Would you like some candy?”
“I- Wait, what?” He stared at the elderly stallion for a few moments before flicking his gaze over to Stone, trying to figure out if this was a joke or not.
Stone nodded and accepted the treat held out to her before looking at Crescent and shrugging. “Welcome to the Headmaster’s office.” She whispered.
The twins next to them shed back in disgust. “Eww, sugar.” One cried, “Ugh, carbs!” The other one shrieked. Oxford just snatched a lollipop from the headmaster’s grasp and shoved it into his scarf pocket. The dark coated colt slowly took the offered candy, tucking it away for the time being.
“Thanks….”
“My pleasure. Now...I’ve already heard the twins speak, why don’t the rest of you tell me what happened?” Oxford rolled his eyes, sitting back in his seat.
“It’s like the mares said, I was just trying to say hi to our new student, maybe offer to show him around, when suddenly that mare leapt out of nowhere and attacked me. Probably possessive over her new boy toy..” He muttered the last part under his breath.
“That’s not true Professor.” The grey mare said, her stoic tone returning. “We were at our lockers, preparing for the next class, when they approached us and made some… negative comments about Crescent. I snapped, it’s my fault that the fight started and for that I’m sorry.”
“No no, it’s my fault, I just….Overreacted, it’s my fault fo-” The headmaster held up his hoof again before he could keep speaking.
“All of you relax, I don’t actually need to know what happened. I watched you the entire time on the cameras, I just wanted to know who’d tell me the truth, and frankly I’m disappointed in you three.” He turned a disapproving eye on Oxford and the twins.
“But, no matter. You’ll all be serving mandatory detention for the next few weeks, no buts. And yes, I mean all of you. I want you to use the time to get passed your differences, and perhaps even become friends.” The stallion shot a pointed look at Oxford. “And perhaps even learning something from each other, maybe get some new facts on things you may not fully understand.”
They all nodded, and with a single reply of “Yes Headmaster Bumbler,” were on their way.
“Welp, that was a brilliant first day at school… My parents are gonna kill me.” Crescent muttered.