It was a normal, winter day in Ponyville with the temperature hovering around the 40 to 50 F (4.4 to 10 C) with sunny skies by the weather team but the sun didn’t help with the temperature.
Anyways, Ms. Cheerile’s class was chattering away without much care with what is going in the world when Ms. Cheerile slammed a piece of wood on her desk to quiet down the class.
“Okay Class! Today we are getting a new student!”
“Cool!” The class said in tone between enthused and “another one?” because they recently got Rumble two days ago.
“He should be here any minute now- “
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“Oh! That should be him!”
As Ms. Cheerile went to the door to greet the mystery colt, the class went back to talking, including the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“So, should be make any assumptions when he comes in?” Asked Sweetie Belle.
“Is it just natural for us to do it? Because I though Rumble would be a wanna be stunt flyer but all he wants to do is travel. What is the fun in that?” Complained Scootaloo.
“But I though you had a crush on him?!
“I don’t!”
“Girls!” Finally spoke Apple Bloom since she knew when an argument starts, it will usually end up with them not talking for like several hours before peace is made.
“Ok class!” Ms. Cheerile said with the new colt but when everyone turned to see who is was, everyone’s jaw dropped.
It was not a colt but rather a griffon whose feathers was on the color range of burnt polished titanium (which none of the students realized) and his fur on the back half shared a similar color scheme to his feathers. His size was easily larger than the largest colt in the class and was about half that of Ms. Cheerile.
The news that the new student was a Griffon brought mixed reactions to the class. Some students were excited that a griffon will be a part of the class and some shuddered at the beast in the class. A part of the excited is Scootaloo who was thinking that he could possible fly with her when she can or even better, teacher her how to fly.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle just sat there with Sweetie Belle drooling over his impressive colors range with Apple Bloom wondering who agreed to let this happen.
Apple Bloom’s reasoning was not because she did not like griffons (she was indifferent) but rather what Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara would do to the poor eagle-lion.
“Oh,” Whispered Sweetie Belle, “I would say his color scheme is more impressive than Rainbow Dash’s Mane.”
“Oh please! Everypony knows she has the best colors!” Scootaloo Retorted.
“Uh uh!”
“Yeah yeah!”
"Can you two please stop arguing?!" Apple Bloom complained since she knew augments never get anything done.
“Okay class!” Everybody stopped what they were doing and directed their attention to the Griffon and Teacher.
“This is Tantium and he came from the town of Vogal in the Griffon Kingdom and Tantium, would you like to tell us more stuff about yourself?”
Tantium though for a second before talking in a deep voice that surprised the class “Yes, my name is Tantium, I am mechanically inclined, and I like to make stuff on my own time.”
‘Uh, interesting.’ Thought Apple Bloom
“For example, I made a fully working model train that runs on compressed air although I sold it when I moved here.” Tantium sighed at the thought of it, clearly showing it was not one of his highlights of his life.
“Okay pretty interesting Tantium, lets see, I will seat you by Rumble.” To which she pointed to him.
Rumbled and Tantium gulped.
“Uh, okay.” Tantium stuttered as he went to his new seat. As he walked, he glanced at his new classmates with a worried look which he received looks of fear and excitement.
“Okay class, so we are going to learn blah blah blah…”
As the class went on, Tantium felt uncomfortable because he was the only griffon in the class which really stood out from everypony else. He wished that he was still in Vogal where he could blend in easily. As the lecture went on, he heard whispering from two fillies that he ignored but wondered what they where whispering about, he hopped not about him, but he knew it was probably about him.
He also thought about what he will do in Ponyville since it looked like he was staying there, he knew it has a library and he hoped it has books over metallurgy and engineering principles so he can build something.
As he day dreamed, he lost track of time and the next he knew it Ms. Cheerile called recess and the class ran outside except Rumble and Tantium who kind of went behind the crowed.
As Tantium went to the door, he was approached by Ms. Cheerile which caused his heart to speed up.
“Hey Tantium, quick question, are you doing okay so far?”
“Eh, sure, but it is to early to tell.”
“Okay, well see you when you get in.”
As he went outside, he got detracted by the everypony what he did not realize he was heading to a foal that he tripped over the poor foal.
“Owww…” Both moaned.
“Are you okay?” Asked the foal.
“Yeah, had worse.” Replied Tantium who got up and looked at the squished foal and was surprised that it turned out to be Rumble who was starting to get onto all fours.
“Oh, uh, hi Rumble.”
“Uh, h-.” Rumble stopped when he realized it was Tantium who was looking down to him, with a concern look on his face.
Tantium started to value what he wanted to do when the staring contest started to become about a minute long, he decided to if he was staying in Ponyville, minus well start to make friends.
“Do you like look at clouds?”
Startled, Rumble said the first thing that came to his mind. “Uh yes although it is stupid.”
“Well I like to do it as well, so it is not stupid. Do you want to do it?”
“Uh sure.”
The two boys [Can’t say colts because Tantium is a griffon] went to a bench on the schoolyard and turned their heads to the sky which has become partly cloudy which was usually since it was winter time and the shade from the clouds will make it colder than it was already.
“So, what do you see?”
Rumble was quick to respond. “I see a arrow head.”
“The one with the shaft that has a unicorn head on it?”
“Yeah, I did not notice the unicorn shaft.”
After about 5 minutes and 50 cloud looks later, the two were talking about who they are and their families.
“Well I have an older brother name Thunderlane and he is the best!”
“Lucky, I am an only child, what does he look like? There so many ponies around that I can’t get a feather on it.”
“He is a dark gray with a light blue main and tail.”
“Hmm, I think I was him kicking some clouds.”
“Well yeah, he works for the weather team right now and he is currently in Cloudsdale going over something that I wasn’t bothered to learn.”
“Okay then, so that explains why the sky is partly cloudy.”
The two watched for another minute until two fillies approached them with smiling faces.
“Well we have company.”
“Uh…” Rumble replied.
“Hi boys, how are you two feather bods doing?” The silver filly said in a not so serious tone of niceness which made the two boys’ question who these fillies are.
“Doing good and by the looks of you two, I am guessing you are rich, friends, and brats.” Tantium spilled out without second though.
The two fillies looked at each other and laughed then looked at the two again.
“Well my name is Diamond Tiara, and this is Silver Spoon and what doing fog horn?”
‘Yup, these fillies are complete brats.’ Thought Tantium and look on Rumble’s face conveyed the same message.
“We are cloud gazing and also talked about each other and, yeah.” Admitted Rumble.
Diamond and Silver looked up the skies and quickly looked back at the boys. “What is so special about looking at clouds? They are boring! Right Diamond?” To which she nodded at Silver Spoon.
“It isn’t boring!” Rumble retorted.
“Well I don’t care, and you should fell ashamed because my father can pay the team to remove all clouds right now!”
“How are you going to contact you father right now Silver Spoon?”
Silver Spoon froze then put on a angry face to which Diamond Tiara started to trot away but was pulled on her tail by Silver Spoon to stay to which she put on a worried face, clearly signaling she is nervous.
“But still, my father can pay for anything! Blank Flanks!” To which Rumble jumped a little bit and blushed in embarrassment that he didn’t have a cutie mark but Tantium put on a calm expression.
“Well it does not mean Rumble here is talent less and useless and I can’t get a cutie mark anyways, so I’m good!” To which Rumble looked at Tantium with a confused look and Silver Spoon looking angrier.
Silver Spoon was about to say something, but nothing came out. She looked at the two with her angrier face then trotted away. Diamond Tiara walked over to Tantium and thanked him for doing what he did and walked in the opposite direction.
“Wow, where did you get that from?” Asked a now curious Rumble.
“When I lived in Vogal, quite a bit of the griffons my age were like that so I learned how to deal with them and it came in hand today.”
“Okay! That will come handy in the future!”
“Yes it will!”
The two looked at each other for about 5 seconds when Rumble asked a question that Tantium though won’t be asked until at least a couple months.
“Hey Tanium!”
“Yes?”
“Do you want to be friends?”
Tantium was not for sure what to say but he was willing to take the risk.
“Uh sure, will do.”
Rumble sighed in relief.
“Wow, that was impressive Tantium!” Which caused Tantium and Rumble to jump and turned around to see a orange and purple, white and pink, and yellow and red fillies.
“Uh hi, what the fuck do you three want?” Tantium said in the flattest voice possible.
The three crusaders jumped back at the F word before replying.
“We want to know how you flipped off Silver Spoon!” The orange and purple filly said.
“Scootaloo!”
“What?”
“Anyways, my name is Apple Bloom and this Sweetie Belle,” which she waved, “and Scootaloo,” who also waved. “and we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” The three yelled at once.
The two boys looked at each other before turning back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Uh okay, anything else.” Tantium said flatly.
“We also curious if you two want to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” Sweetie Belle said.
Rumble gave a look of hesitation, as if deciding between yes or no and Tantium was looking just plain confused.
“Do you girls know that I don’t get a Cutie Mark?”
The three just looked at each other and replied in unison “Ohhhhh….”
Apple Bloom was about to say something before: “Ok class! Back to class!”
“Oh, come on!” Scootaloo griped before the 5 went to the classroom.
“Hey Tantium, could I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure Ms. Cheerilee.”
As Tantium approached Cheerile, Silver Spoon was sneaking because he though he was in trouble for saying the F word while the rest of the class was amazed just how large Tantium is compared to Ms. Cheerile because Tantium was only a couple of inches shorter than Ms. Cheerile and his body was only slightly smaller than Ms. Cheerile.
“Tantium, before you get a black eye or a bent beak, we don’t use that type of language because ponies find that offensive.”
“*Sigh* Okay then but you probably have to remind me several times because where I came from, we used that language in everyday speech, offensive and not.”
The class cringed at that.
“Okay we’ll see about that, but besides that, I am proud of you defending yourself and Rumble, keep it up.”
“Thank you.” As Tantium sat back down in his seat to which he saw a horrified Silver Spoon.
“Silver Spoon, I would like to speak with you.”
As Ms. Cheerile was talking to Silver Spoon, Rumble was a little on the excited side when Tantium sate in his seat by him.
“Thank you, bro.”
“De nada amigo.”
“What, what?”
“Your welcome friend, it is Griffonish.”
“Ooooohhhh.” The class replied which made Tantium feel good.
“What, how do you speak Equis so well?”
“I spent six months in Canterlot before moving here.”
“Oh.”
“Okay class, let’s continue.”
After about an hour of class and daydreaming later, the lunch bell rang, and the class got their lunches out.
Rumble pulled out a dandelion sandwich and sunflower seeds for lunch. Tantium pulled out a beef and chicken sandwich that had a strong smell to it that Tantium found pleasing. Not even before he could take one bite out of his meat sandwich, a student commented “Wow, he likes to eat ponies.”
Tantium stopped in his tracks and found that the entire class was looking at him and he suddenly found his face heating up.
“Hey now Scrubs, that is not polite. Every living thing has its culture and for Tantium that is one of them., eating meat is one of them.”
“Oh, sorry.” Scrubs said.
“That’s okay, I got a lot of weird looks whenever I ate something strange in Canterlot.”
Lunch went on normally from there with fellow classmates asking Tantium what he liked to eat and what was he eating which didn’t bother Tantium although he was surprised that no one ridiculed his lunch choice besides Scrubs.
Lunch went and pass and so as the class at a snail pace which made Tantium sigh in relief when the class was over. But he started to wonder what the future will hold in store for him, so he got up and went to Ms. Cheerile.
“Ms. Cheerile?” Which prompt a slight jump from his teacher.
“Uh uh, yes Tanty?”
Tantium grimaced at that.
“First, could you not please call me that and second, what will we be doing this school year?”
Ms. Cheerile paused for a second before replying.
“Well, tomorrow I am going to have a project that will be due on the last week of school which will be about 23 weeks out.”
“Uh okay, what will it be about?”
“You’ll see.”
“Um okay, thanks.”
Tantium left the classroom and realized that Rumble left before he did.
‘Probably had something after school he needed to do, eh.’
After a couple seconds, he decided to walk to the library to see what books they have regarding engineering and building stuff. As he walked to the library, Tantium tried to ignore the fact that a lot of ponies were staring at him because he was the only griffon in Ponyville besides his parents. He thought back to the welcoming party earlier that month that everypony was giving worry looks because of the presence of the griffons, today only shows that time needs to pass before he blends in easier.
When he made it to the Library/Castle, he was hesitant at first to proceed but made his way in to the Library.
Tantium was kind of taken back at the size of the Library with all of its rows and shelving of books and the desk for reading/writing. He quickly found the Engineering section and was quickly lost in a book over forming metal tubing.
“Hello there how are you doing?”
Tantium, again, jumped up into the air before landing in front a green and purple lizard that was looking at him with a surprised face, indicating that he wasn’t expecting him to react that way.
“Uh good, I am doing good, how are you?” Tantium replied in a somewhat rushed voice.
“Same here, interested in engineering?”
“Yes I am uh, what’s your name?”
“My name is Spike and I am a dragon, not a lizard.”
“Nice to meet you Spike and I am guessing that happens often?”
“Yes it does and it gets very annoying very quickly.”
“Makes since.”
“Why are you doing at the Library just out of curiosity?”
Tantium froze for a second before replying. “Well I like to design and build stuff and right now, I am out of I ideas to build so I am hopping to be inspired here at the library.”
“Ah, okay then, if you need help, just call me!”
“Okay! Thanks man!”
As Spike left, Tantium went back to reading the book and while reading, he though that he may get along when everything in Ponyville just fine.
About 2 hours later, Tantium retreaded home for the night to his house and settled in his bed after a meat-based dinner, thinking how his dad went, he had high hopes for the future.