//------------------------------//
// And One Hoofbasket, Extra Large 
// Story: Twilight's Pirate School 
// by Lets Do This 
//------------------------------//

Twilight awoke to the warm glow of morning sunshine, cascading through the oval window next to her bed in the royal suite. She yawned and stretched, then gazed around sleepily. The suite was so similar to her old loft room in the Golden Oak Library, it was subtly disorienting... though in a nice way. She almost felt like she'd travelled back in time. She allowed herself a long, lazy moment to revel in the pleasant confusion.

Then, practical as ever, she turned to considering her plans for the day ahead. She was looking forward to a leisurely breakfast, and after that her first full lecture class of the trip. Since it was her specialty, she'd decided on a brief rundown of the major branches and types of magic. "Light, Shadow, Dark, and Friendship," she recited, pushing aside the covers and then hauling herself up to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. "Light: Luminance, Elemental, Kinesis, Shield, Divination, Enchantment, Healing, Empathy..."

The suite doors slammed open, and Spike raced in.

"Twilight!" he shouted. "One of the students is hurt!"

"Aaahh!" Startled, Twilight leapt into the air, then came down wrong and fell off the bed, sprawling on the floor. "Omigosh!" She picked herself up, wide-eyed. "Spike, is whoever it is okay?"

"Yeah, sure, but Fluttershy sent me to find you, just in case. They're in the dispensary."

"Ohhhh! How could this happen?"

"Well, it was his own fault. See, he was running up and down the rear stairs..."

"I mean, how could we be so careless! Oh, tell me on the way!" Twilight raced past him, out the door, and Spike hurried after her.

In the dispensary, Fluttershy was examining the hind leg of a sandy-coated, red-maned colt from Appleloosa, while Pinkie Pie stood ready with bandages, stethescope, and candy-striped tongue-depressors. Rarity stood behind both of them, ready in case healing magic was needed, although it wasn't really her specialty. They'd decided to always have a three-pony first-aid team on call, so as to have experience in care for all three types of ponies. But Fluttershy, not surprisingly, wound up being the lead specialist given her experience with tending to injured critters.

"Oh, good," Fluttershy said calmly. "Thanks for coming, Twilight. I don't think it's really anything worse than a sprain, but I wonder if you'd mind double-checking, just to be sure?"

Taking the hint, and forcing herself to calm down as well, Twilight powered up her horn and cast a quick scrying spell over the colt's leg and hoof. To her relief she found no hint of fractures or other major injury. "You're right, Fluttershy. It's just a sprain. But I'll apply a light healing spell, just to be sure."

"Oh, let me do that, dahling," Rarity said. "I need to polish my skills anyway."

"All right. And then I'll want you to take it easy on that hoof for today, okay, Hay Bale?"

"Ah'm powerful sorry, Headmare!" The colt grimaced as the healing spell took hold, then sighed as he felt it working. "Guess ah was just feelin' mah oats this mornin', as mah pappy would say."

"That's all right... just remember the stairs aren't for getting exercise. That's what the gym is for."

"Ah surely will!"

"Yo, Twilight!" Rainbow appeared at the door, looking anxious. "The door to my classroom is stuck! I can't budge it, and my homeroom is about to start!"

"Uhh..." Twilight thought rapidly. "Use the main auditorium. I'll get one of Tempest's soldiers to help unstick your classroom's door, and hold my lecture class in there this morning."

"Thanks, Twi! You're awesome!" Rainbow darted off. But just as Twilight stepped into the corridor, she encountered Applejack.

"Mornin' Twi! Y'all got a minute, hon? Wanted to run an idea by ya."

"Tell me on the way, Applejack... there's a stuck classroom door. And you might be able to help buck it open, actually."

"Sure! I'll give it mah best! Now, what I was thinkin' is, I could throw in some practical lessons 'bout carpentry and suchlike, but we're gonna need some tools and lumber to work with..."

With help from Applejack, Twilight was able to get the classroom open. The farm pony hurried off to her own morning class, but just as students were arriving for Twilight's session, Pinkie Pie hurried up.

"Hey, Twi! Do you think we can put a couple spare ovens in my classroom? Then I can demonstrate new recipes while the students are waiting for their own cupcakes to bake!"

"Uh, sure... I don't see why not. I'll put it on my list."

"Thanks, Twi! You're the bestest!" Pinkie bounded off happily.

Relieved, Twilight turned to her own students. "Good morning, everycreature! Please take your seats, and I apologize for the sudden change in rooms this morning. Today, I thought we'd start off a series of lectures on the branches and kinds of magic. And... oh, Smolder? You have a question?"

"Yeah." Smolder crossed her arms with a scowl. "How exactly is this supposed to help us learn about friendship? A lot of us here can't do magic. It's only the ponies with horns that can work spells, right?"

"Oh, well..." Twilight realized she'd planned on having an answer to that, but never got around to actually coming up with one. "It's... something I have a lot of experience with. And it plays a pretty significant role in pony society, even for ponies who can't work spells, so having at least a passing familiarity with what magic can do -- and what it can't do -- will be of use to you here."

"Yaks no need magic!" Yona declared proudly. "But Yona want to learn anyway!"

"Oh! We have a transformation spell," Silverstream said, touching the Pearl fragment on her necklace. "For when we need to breathe underwater. And we can do air-bubbles, and... hmmm. There's really not a lot of our magic that applies on land, is there?"

"Will this be on the test?" Gallus asked mischievously, smiling around at the other students.

"Well, let's see," Twilight shot back, "would you prefer it as an essay or practical demonstration?" Then she winced. She'd heard that come-back often enough in her days at Celestia's school, but that was no reason to be snippy with her students. But Gallus was nodding appreciatively, apparently feeling he'd been properly told off.

Seeing there were no more questions, Twilight hurriedly gathered her thoughts, and pressed on. "All right, then. Can any of you name the four kinds of..."

"Um. Uh... excuse me, Twilight?"

"Oh! Fluttershy... is something wrong?"

"No, no. Everything's fine. It's just... well... if it wouldn't be too much trouble... I wonder if we might use that spare office on the admin level as space for some of the smaller critters, so they won't get underfoot so much? I mean, if that's okay?"

"Oh! Well... I was talking with Rarity about possibly using that as a supply cupboard, but..."

"Um, sure. That's okay..." Fluttershy hunched and turned away, waving a hoof dismissively. "It's not urgent... really, it's not..."

"Fluttershy!" Twilight followed her into the corridor, and practically ran into Rarity coming the other way.

"Twilight, dahling! It's absolutely awful!"

"What is? Uh... Fluttershy?"

"I just realized I forgot to pack enough black thread! I mean how are we going to ever do the session on basic black formal wear without black thread?"

"Uh... use another color? Excuse me, Rarity. Fluttershy!"

"Twilight!" it was Spike, wearing his chef's hat and heart apron, running up the corridor from the kitchen. "Those sacks in the pantry I thought were flour? I just opened one, and it turns out they're seed grain! We're gonna need to replace them soon, or we're going to run short on meals for the students!"

"Uh... right! I'll add that to the shopping list. Are we okay on other supplies?"

"I'll double-check!" Spike hurried off.

"Wait! Spike!"

"Hey, Twi!" It was Pinkie Pie again, stotting merrily. "You look like you're busy, and they always say if you need something done, talk to the pony who's busy!"

"Pinkie! Uh... what do you need now?"

"Oh, nothing! Just wanted to let you know my class will be using the main deck this morning. We're going to practice being fired from a party cannon, so we need the extra space."

"What? Pinkie, have you gone insane? I mean, more insane than usual? You know how dangerous that is?"

"Relax, Twi! It worked perfectly for us when we were fighting the Storm King."

"That was a total fluke! We still don't know why the six of you didn't end up pasted on the wall of the castle!"

"Oh, c',mon, Twi! It'll be fine! We'll set up mattresses and everything. What could go wrong? I'll let ya know how it goes! La la-la la-la..."

"Pinkie!"

"Uh, 'scuse me, Twi...?"

Twilight facehoofed. "What now, Applejack?"

"Just wanted ta let ya know... Hay Bale fell down the stairs again..."


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


It was well past lunchtime. But Twilight hadn't had lunch. In fact, she hadn't even had breakfast yet. She was back in her suite, lying on the bed, face pressed firmly into the pillow.

The muffled, high-pitched noise might have been frustrated screaming. It was hard to tell.

"A bit for your thoughts, Highness."

Startled, Twilight looked up. It was Tempest, standing in the middle of the suite, with Grubber beside her munching on a slice of cake.

Twilight blinked in surprise. She hadn't heard the two of them enter the room -- and she thought she'd locked the door.

She sighed wearily. "I thought I was ready to handle this," she said. "But it's been one thing after another all morning. I barely got through a quarter of a lesson with my own students. And half of the classes had some kind of disruption or other. And I still need to write up the requisition and shopping lists. And Spike's so busy in the kitchen I haven't had his help with doing that, or with organizing the lesson schedule for this week, and..."

"... and with all due respect," Tempest interrupted, "you appear to be out of your mind."

"Uhhh... does it show?" Twilight asked, half-seriously.

"I meant," Tempest went on, "you're apparently under the delusion that you have to do everything yourself."

"Well... I am supposed to be headmare here. I need to keep everything running, and keep everypony busy and happy."

"And the most important lesson you can learn, as the pony in charge," Tempest said, "is delegation. We need you focused on lesson plans, on advising your teachers and students. So we can't have you dealing with administrivia all the time. Plus, you can definitely dole out some of the work to the other professors. For example, you need Spike to help you with dictation and organization, so why is he working the kitchen?"

"Well, Spike said he didn't mind helping out. After all, he usually does meals back at the Castle..."

"Seems to me Pinkie Pie could get the cooking done ten times as fast, even on top of her class load. You should have her handle the kitchen duty. And Applejack can help see to ship maintenance. Fluttershy is perfect for first-aid duty, I wouldn't change that. Rainbow can help with finding ponies when they're needed. And Rarity... well," Tempest smirked. "Somepony should see to it the Headmare gets a wake-up call and a hot breakfast every morning, right?"

Twilight flung her hooves in the air. "But I still need to make sure the teachers have the supplies they've been requesting... and oh, drat, I forgot! We need to restock flour for the kitchen, on top of restocking other supplies, and..."

"I wasn't finished, Princess. You can delegate supply work like that to Grubber here. When it comes to handling requisitions, my cake-chomping associate is the best scrounge this side of Klugetown."

Grubber looked up at her, startled. "Gosh! Thanks, Tempest!"

"Don't let it go to your head. Grubber here can manage gathering and filling requisitions for the teachers. Though he'll of course get your approval for anything major, or expensive." She gave Grubber a warning look. "And, he can see to restocking the kitchen as well. Though we'll want Pinkie to draw up the shopping list, or we'll be eating cake for a month."

Grubber shrugged. "Can I help it if cake is the perfect food?"

"Okay..." Twilight said, the beginnings of a smile on her face. "If the two of you wouldn't mind, that would really help!"

Tempest eyed her derisively. "Princess, we do happen to work for you." She snorted. "And I've found that keeping Grubber busy is the best way of keeping him out of mischief."

"Thanks, Tempest. And you too, Grubber! I really appreciate the help... uh, not to mention your candor in setting me straight."

"It's what I do best, Princess. Oh... and speaking of mischief..."

Tempest smiled evilly.

"Have you given any thought to having a truant officer?"