//------------------------------// // Generosity // Story: The Sun and the Clover // by BG9 //------------------------------// In just a blink of an eye Anon and Sunny stood in a large auditorium. Literally hundreds of students sat in the seats overlooking the theater. It was like a rainbow. Students dressed in robes from white to pink and every color in between. Not only that, but it was packed with people of all ages, some looking as young as ten while others looked to be retirement age. This really was one hell of a place. Anon was half expecting to be woken up by an alarm clock at this point. It was hard to believe this was anything but a dream. "Psst! Anon! Over here!" It was Trixie, sitting at the end of one of the middle rows. With her blue robe and pointy hat she really did look like a stereotypical witch. He walked through the rows, taking a seat beside her. "So," Trixie began, holding back laughter "How'd it go?" "Well you weren't wrong." he said "The headmaster was definitely not what I was expecting." "You mean a talking spider?" "Yes. Let's just say I'm pretty well convinced about this whole magic thing now." Anon cocked his head to see Sunset Shimmer take the stage, followed by four other girls. "Oh! Quiet. The show is starting." Trixie said Sunset pressed her wand to her neck and her voice amplified nearly two fold, as if she were speaking into a megaphone "First I would like to thank the students of last years Fourth Consulate for electing me as Lead Assistant Orientation Director. We will now list the students who will be under our care for the reminder of the season." Sunset flicked her wrist and from her wand a list emerged. She read down the list the names of fifteen students, Anon's being one. "Would the students I just named please make their way to the stage please." Trixie nudged his shoulder "Good luck newbie." Anon snickered at her before walking up to the stage to stand in a line with the other students "We will now be determining what robe and house you qualify for." Sunset explained "You will each step forward one by one to be judged in the order in which you were called up" A nervous looking young man stepped up first and Sunset aimed her wand directly at him. The little ball of light at the end of her wand zoomed out, going straight into the man's chest. The man's entire body flashed green three times. After the orb returned to Shimmer's wand, she made a quick jot on her clipboard and the next student stepped up. Sunset performed the same action, only this students body glowed brown and flashed four times. Each student went up seemed to flash either green or brown, sometimes rarely another color and all of them flashed anywhere from one to six times. Finally Anon was up. The ball shot straight into his chest. It was a burning feeling, but nothing altogether unpleasant. Almost like taking a shot of whisky, but the burn was a little deeper. His body shined a bright yellow and flashed a total of five times. Sunset made another quick mark on her clipboard and the remaining students got their assignments. Once that process was completed, Sunset crumpled the paper and shot it with her wand, making it burst into flames. From the flames, small embers sprung forth, striking each student in the chest. Instead of being burned however, a button was now pinned to their chest. Anon's read L:Y H:5 "Each of you have been given a button with your assignment on it." Sunset explained "The L represents your level or year and this is signified by the color of your robe. Brown is the first year, blue the second, green the third, yellow the fourth, red the fifth, orange the sixth. No new students are permitted to practice beyond orange. if your button states a different color than the ones just listed, please notify me. Next your house. There are six houses here: Magic, Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity and Kindness. The order in which I listed them are in the order in which the flashes were. For example Magic is one flash, Honesty two, Laughter three, and so on" Anon rolled his eyes. Those were some dumb names for houses. Sunset continued her explaintion "These are the values this school hopes to help you cultivate and the pillars to magic." she said "I belong to House Kindness. One you go into the next room you will be able to get your robs and directions to your dorms. Any questions?" He looked at his badge again. Fourth year, Generosity House. He couldn't wait to rub that in Trixie's smug, second-year face. What was weird was the house assignment. Anon wasn't all the generous, in fact he was rather selfish by most metrics. Perhaps it matched you with the value you were most deficient in. "No questions? Excellent." Sunset pointed to a door at the left side of the room "Then if you would step through that door there you will be given your next instructions as well as a method to reach me. Remember, my priority is your success so never hesitate to drop in for help whether it be with class or personal trouble. Good luck." Anon and the other students filed into the the next room, a long, stone hallway with a desk halfway down. The desk was odd in the way that it was barred, as if it were some sort of jail cell. Sitting at the desk was a rather portly old man in a purple robe. "Please form an orderly line and hand me your badges." he called out "Once you do I will give you your robe and instructions on how to get to your dorm." The line moved pretty fast and he was there in no time. He was handed the man his badge and the man chuckled a bit. "Generosity house huh? Could've been worse. The House Headmistress is quite strict though. Hopefully you're ready to preform military grade excellence." In a flash of purple light, a long, rather ratty rucksack appeared at his feet and the man slid a piece of paper through the bars. "On that paper you will be given instructions on how to get to your house and the room number as well as how to unlock the door. You will be getting at least three roommates as well." "Thank you, sir." He picked up the bag and was surprised by the weight. It must of at least been thirty or more pounds. No way there were just robes in this thing. Anon made his way to the end of the hall and outside, opening the slip of paper. The sky had become overcast and a chilled wind brushed his body. The sooner he got to the House, the better. He unfurled the paper to find it had quite a bit of information on it. His name, address, birth date, even his hobbies. Then of course the directions. It was all the way on the other side of the campus. He groaned and began to make his way to the House. No use complaining about it. Especially since it looked like it could rain at any moment. As he made his journey he began to appreciate just how absolutely colossal this area was. Not only was it large in terms of amount of space it took up, but the scale was also impressive. Some of the towers were as tall as sky scrapers. Gargoyles and intricate stone work were present on almost every building, like some sort of grand cathedral. Even the pope would be humbled in a place so grandiose. It took Anon a full half hour just to get to Generosity house, thankfully the rain hadn't started in that entire time. The house looked almost like a mini castle, moat included. It was about as wide as a small apartment building and extended a mere three stories into the air. It's entrance was a large wooden draw bridge and the front door was adorned with two long white banners, each only displaying a single blue diamond at the center. It certainly was nothing short of immaculate. Even the dirt itself seemed to sparkle. "You got generosity house too huh?" Anon nearly jumped out his skin. He was so busy admiring the architecture that he didn't even notice a beautiful woman with long black hair standing beside him. "Oh, my apologies. Did I startle you?" "No, no it's alright. I was just lost in thought is all." The girl held out her hand "The name's Coloratura. It's nice to meet you." He shook her hand "Anon. It's nice to meet you too." "So what color did you get? I got blue. Pretty good for someone who just started I'd say." "I'm a yellow." Coloratura let out a little chirp of surprise. "Wow! You must be pretty impressive at magic then!" "Sorta..." Anon shifted around a bit "Guess you could say I have a strong magic crest." "Oh really? What family do you come from? I bet you're a noble." Well shit. Really should've seen that one coming. "Uh... well my family likes to keep their affairs private. We're somewhat of an up and coming family and we don't really want to rock the boat." Coloratura smiles sweetly "Fair enough I suppose. I come from the Countess family. We specialize in musical magic." "Musical Magic?" "I know, I know." she said "It's not the most productive field or the one that leads to the most wealth. But I still firmly believe it has it's place in the world. We can't allow the soul of magecraft to be just be dominated with the science of it. The heart and the soul of magic have just as much value." "Very true, very true." At least he was doing a pretty good job at pretending he knew what he was talking about. And, by saving grace, the draw bridge begins to lower, distracting Coloratura from the conversation at hand. It seemed odd though. Out all of the students they were the only two at the gates of Generosity house. Maybe the rest of them would filter in later. "I heard the headmistress here is pretty strict." Coloratura remarked "I did too. The guy back there said something about hoping I had military level perfection. Pretty intimidating." "He said the same thing to me. We can handle it though. It's pretty good preparation for mage craft if you ask me. A good mage is a detail-oriented mage. At least that's what my mom always said." The drawbridge finally tapped the ground, allowing the two to walk inside. It was even more impressive inside. The inside was made entirely from white marble and shined like a fresh cut diamond. Anon swore he could see his own reflection in the tiles. He could tell just from the lobby that the headmistress ran a tight ship. At the far end of the lobby was a girl in a pink robe, sitting at the desk. "You're the new students I assume? Greetings. My name is Blossomforth, I'm Assistant Headmistress of Generosity House. Can I see your papers please?" They walk over towards the desk, handing Blossomforth their papers. She gives them a quick skim before giving both of them a stamp. "Excellent. We're please to welcome you here in Generosity House." With a quick tap of her wand on each paper, the writing completely changes. Now it had a list of rules and a calendar for the month. Blossomforth then placed two items on each page, a key and a dark purple diamond. "I gave you a key to each of your rooms and your Generosity Stone. Do not lose either. Your orientation for Generosity House will begin at Nine PM tonight right here in the lobby. All you need is the generosity stone. Also, from this moment onward, you must be in your robes at all times. Any questions?" The two of them shake their head "Excellent. It's going to be a lot of information right out of the gate but I promise it gets easier. In the mean time feel free to go out into town to get the items on your list or just to tour. Classes do not officially begin for another week." "Why such a long waiting period?" he asked "A few reasons: first to give new students time to adjust. And two to give more senior students a chance to gather the materials they need. Some of their lists can be quite extensive and complicated." "Thank you, miss Blossomforth." Coloratura said "Oh and one final thing I forgot to mention: in your rooms you will find a student manual. Please read it thoroughly as it explains our school wide rules, House rules, and punishments for breaking them." "We will." They both begin to head too the stairs "So which room did you get?" Coloratura asked "403, you?" he replied "Same actually. Looks like this could be the start of a beautiful friendship." "Sounds good to me. Weird they don't divide the houses by sex though." "It's always been that way. Mages are much more... well behaved, to put it in a politically correct way, than mortals are. I'm surprised you didn't know that. Are noble families not teaching culture like they used too?" "Well... I guess you could say I'm just a slacker." Coloratura wiggled her finger "You really shouldn't slack so much." "Who are you, my mom?" he sarcastically replied "Oh hardy har har." The two of them laugh and make merry small talk as they head up to room 403, where the surprises would only continue.