//------------------------------// // Astral Mythos // Story: Time to hire some extra teachers // by Light Heart101 //------------------------------// Twilight was going over some paperwork in her office. She was trying to adjust the new budget for the new teachers. Desert and Wolf wanted to take the kids out for a "survival night", whatever that is. Shy had a request to replace a few books that were damaged. Wolf, Brave, and Light were all coming up with new security ideas. Fox wanted a candy store in the cafeteria. Okay, they weren't all good ideas. Twilight was busy trying to balance the budget and make new plans for the future of the school. As she tried to think about expanding the building to allow more students to come to the school, a male unicorn walked through the door. He had a blue coat and blue, red, and yellow. He wore a white collared shirt and a blue vest. His cutie mark was a book with three glowing orbs surrounding it. He wore blue glasses which was as dark as his hair. Twilight recognized him as Astral Mythos. He was a struggling writer trying to find someone who would help him get his stories published. Twilight loved his unusual ideas and decided to give him a shot. His books started to be a pretty big hit. After that, he usually turned to her for proofreading and publishing his stories. She soon realized that she hasn't touched base with him for a couple of weeks now. Twilight sighed as she pushed some of the paperwork aside. "Hi Astral. I'm sorry I haven't been able to go over your latest story, but I've been a little swamped here. Until I am able to get the new teachers settled in with their jobs I won't be able to get away to help you for a while." Astral shrugged as he walked in. "I figured that you had a good reason. I just wanted to check up on you and see where you were at. I do have a story about a princess trying to comfort a filly during a storm, but I can wait until you are able to look over it." As Astral started to turn around the door opened again. Heat Wave was holding a file in his mouth and placed it on Twilight's desk. "Can you explain why we are cycling the assistant teachers?" Twilight sighed as she realized she wouldn't be able to go through half of the files before the end of the day. "I thought it would be a good idea to allow the assistant teachers to meet some of the other teachers. I'm not only trying to promote friendship between students but between the teachers too. We need to lead by example. I thought you would all appreciate it." Astral could tell from the look on Heat's face that he was very upset about this. Heat lowered his head as he started to walk away. "Alright, never-mind." Twilight grabbed him with her magic before he could leave. She also noticed Heat's attitude and looked concerned. "Wait! What's wrong? I thought you of all ponies here would enjoy this." Heat sat down in a seat in front of her as he kept a somber look on his face. "I know, but I was hoping that I'd be able to spend more time with Brave and help him with his problems. It seems like some of the other teachers are helping him more then I can. I've even seen him getting along with an edgy bald monkey." Twilight almost had to muffle a chuckle at Light Sparker's new comparison of Light Sparker, but she knew what he was dealing with. "Listen, I know what it's like to feel like to see someone you love to get pulled away from you at times. When I first found out that my brother was getting married I thought he was being taken away from me, and that did lead to a whole changeling invasion... but that's a long story. Even after that whole mess I still felt like he was being taken away from me. I had to accept that his wife wasn't going to be less for me, but more for him. I had to allow him to make his own choices and make new friends. You shouldn't be sad about seeing less of him, but encourage him to make new friends. Maybe you can make some new friends yourself." Heat nodded, but Twilight could tell something was still bugging him. "Yeah, you're right, but I'm not scheduled with any assistant teachers for a while." Twilight started to think about it a bit. She knew that even with certain teachers only working part time it would still take a while for him to have a turn with an assistant teacher. As she kept trying to think about how to help him she heard Astral speak up. "Uh, I think I've heard more then I should have. I'll just go now." Twilight's head instantly jerked up. "Hold on Astral, would you like a job?" Astral turned around with a confused look on his face. "Why? You already have a writer here. I might only write kids stories, but I don't think that I'm inexperienced in this field. I doubt you need more than one teacher on this topic." Twilight's mind started racing as she tried to figure out what to do. She really wanted to try and fix this problem quickly, and Astral seemed like the best response. "Well... Maybe you both could be teachers for the class? You are both great writers with two different styles, and Heat is already working part-time. Maybe you two can work together on it, and one of you can cover the class when the other one isn't here. You both can make great teachers in my opinion. Maybe you two will be stronger together?" Astral placed a hoof to his forehead as he tried to think about it. He never wanted to place his focus on teaching a class. He spent most of his time just studying. He didn't like the idea of adding another project onto his plate, but he could see the pleading look on Twilight's face. He slowly sighed as he started cleaning his glasses. "One condition, I also help with your paperwork. You need a few assistants to help iron out this mess of an office." Twilight smiled. "Thank you so much! I know you two will get along great! Heat will show you around the school, and I will let you two work out how you want to manage the class." Astral shrugged as he walked out. Heat looked confused, but he didn't argue with him. As he walked out he tried to think about what to say to Heat Wave. "So, I'm guessing you're a writer too?" "Oh, yes. I mainly write about the members of the royal guard and the stories about them. I also write a few adventure stories. How about you?" "I write kid stories. It's not as impressive as the stuff you have written." "Well, we have two different audiences, I'm pretty sure that my kid would like your stories better than mine." Astral raised an eyebrow. "You have a kid?" "I adopted him. He's only eight years old, but he's a sweet kid. He's actually the reason why I'm working here. I thought he would be able to adjust to meeting new ponies so I made a deal with Twilight. He got into the school and I get to be a teacher. It was a win-win scenario in my mind. Why did you join the school?" "Twilight asked me to. Frankly, I didn't plan on making this a use of my free time." "What do you do in your free time?" "Reading, I keep trying to extend my knowledge to be a better writer." "Hey, didn't Twilight spend all of her time reading before she made friends?" Astral suddenly felt like he was being put on trial. "Hold on! I have a social life. Don't compare me with what Twilight used to be." Heat quickly backed off. "Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just made a bad comparison." "It's alright. I'm just a busy guy." Astral said as he started thinking about it. He did put a lot of time writing, reading, and all his studies. He has a few friends, but how much time did he spend with them recently? When was the last time he took a break and had some fun? Astral's thoughts were soon interrupted by Heat. "Well, here's the class. Are you ready?" "What? Oh, yeah, sure." They both walked inside to see all of the students making their way to their seats. They all weren't causing any trouble that day, so Astral just walked in while trying to think about his recent pursuits. ====================================================================== Grass Valley was busy heading to another class. He was an earth pony with a yellow coat and a green mane with bluish-green tints to it. He didn't have his cutie mark yet. He was a bit scared being one of the youngest kids there. Everybody else seemed to tower over him. It was cool seeing other ponies, but nobody seemed to notice. He really wanted to make some friends, but it seemed to be impossible to talk to someone else. As he made his way into Emile Core's class everybody seemed to have already had their own groups. It started to feel hard to be the young kid in school. As he made his way to his seat he noticed that there was a group talking right next to where he was. As he started getting his books out he turned to see a young buffalo two inches from his face. "Hey, aren't you a little young to be in this school?" At first, he jerked back from seeing someone so close to him, but this was the first pony who talked to him. "Um, my dad became a teacher here and wanted to say close to me, so he talked to Twilight to let me study here. I'm officially the youngest kid here." FastFox smiled. "That's so cool! My dad is a teacher here too, well, assistant teacher. You have to be pretty smart to be able to take these classes! Did your dad teach you how to be super smart, or did your mom teach you?" Grass winced as he rubbed his stomach. Before FastFox could press him Trail Dancer grabbed her. "You would be wise not to pry. He has scars on his chest and pain in his eyes." Fox looked at Grass's chest to see a few scars. They were curved and faded. They seemed to be over a year old. Fox shrugged as she turned to her friend. "I'll admit I don't have any scars like that, but it's not unusual for kids to get a few scars while playing. By the way, did you know that you rhymed? I heard about another Zebra who does that." Trail pulled her away from where Grass was. "Ignore my aunts choice of words for a moment. Those hoof print scars on his chest and the look on his eyes when you brought up his mother leads to the belief that his mother was unkind to him." Fox thought for a moment until it suddenly hit her. She quickly turned to Grass with a shocked look on her face. "I'm so sorry! I had no idea!" Grass had to take a few deep breaths before speaking. "It's alright, not many ponies notice. These were actually from my first dad. I never understood why he and mom hated me, but I have a new dad. His name is Heat Wave." Trail placed a hoof on his shoulder. "I offer you my sympathy. From what I understand we are without parents too. I have never met mine, and I have yet to understand Fox's and Shy's origins, but I understand that their current father isn't their first. My name is Trail Dancer, and this is FastFox. What is your name?" Grass extended his hoof. "Grass Valley. It's nice to meet you. I haven't met many kids outside of the foster home." Fox looked happy that her mess was somewhat fixed, but she thought she could try something else to help iron things over between them. "Well, I noticed you looked new here and a little lonely. Would you like to meet some of our other friends? I'm certain that they'd love to meet you." Before he could answer Emile walked in with Light Sparker behind him. As everybody quickly made their way to their seats Fox quickly wrote a note and handed it to Grass. Grass opened the note to see the words "Talk to you soon!" As everybody sat down Emile started talking. "Alright, before we get started today Light Sparker wanted to bring something to everybody's attention." Light Sparker stepped forward with a letter in his hands. "Listen, I'm okay with the occasional prank, but I think sending a letter to me, addressed to the waxed diamond dog is rude." "Um, Sparker?" "Now I understand that at least most of you already know that I am what is know as a human. I know that I am probably the only one you have ever seen, but it's getting annoying." "Uh, Sparker?" "Now I want the pony responsible to step forward. I've already judged what ink was used and how long it took to dry. I know it came from this class. Now you are not in trouble, but I would like to ask you to step forward now and explain yourself." Emile finally walked up to Sparker and tugged his coat. "Sparker, I sent the letter! I just wanted to ask about what you were." Sparker was silent for a moment before he opened the letter and read through its contents. He bit his lip as he tucked the letter back into his pocket. "Carry on." Everybody was trying to hide their snickers as Light Sparker made his way outside with a rather embarrassed look on his face. =================================================================== At recces, Heat was watching the kids playing around. The class went rather smoothly, but he could feel like Astral was distracted with something. When the class was dismissed Astral took off without saying anything. As Heat tried to figure out what he could to better the situation he heard someone speak behind him. "How good of an umpire are you?" Heat turned around to see Astral who was carrying a truckload of baseball gear with his magic. Heat's eyes widened as he looked at this site. "Wait! You play baseball?" "Yeah, I was the pitcher in middle school. If I didn't get my cutie mark in writing I might have stuck with that. I had a mean curve-ball." Heat chuckled as he pulled out an umpires mask. "Alright, what brought this on, because I don't think you were planning something like this when you got here." Astral took a deep breath as he set everything down. "You made me think about how much time I put into my writing. I know it's my job, and it isn't a bad thing to do, but I'm realizing how much of the world around me I am missing. I'm still writing stories, but I need to make time for me to live. Maybe it'll help my stories in the long run, but maybe it will help me more. I only have one life, and I need to make the most of it." Heat could see a certain light in Astral's eyes that seemed a little childish. Heat grinned as he pulled on the umpire hat. "Play ball." They both got the kids together and started the game. The teams were randomly divided into catchers and batters. Astral stuck with pitching and Heat stayed as the umpire. Astral wasn't as good as a pitcher as he once was, but he didn't need to play like a pro, he was just happy having a bit of fun. As the game went on Twilight watched from her office smiling. As she got out her quill and paper she heard a loud crash as a baseball smashed through the window. She sighed as she threw it back out. "Well, this doesn't fix all of my problems, but I'm good with this."