“Alright Buddy, you behave yourself. I’ll be back to pick you up later.”
“Okay daddy, love you.”
Shield hugs his son, “I love you to buddy.” He shoo's him off in the direction of the other ponies.
Chitter meanders over but is brushed off by the other foals. He doesn’t see Midnight yet so he just sits dejectedly by the door.
“Mrs. Valley, Thank you.”
“You are welcome, we are glad to have you.” She goes to shoo him off as well. “Now why don’t you find your friends? I bet they miss you after these last few days.”
“Mrs. Valley, only have one.”
“Oh and where are they?”
Chitter perks up after hearing the familiar voice, “Silk?” He looks toward the source of the voices. “Silk!” He stands and trots over to his friend.
Slick likewise perks up, “ChItter?”
“Hi Silk.”
“Hi.”
“Where you go?”
Mrs. Lily sits there wide eyed.
“I gots adopted!”
“Adoted?”
“Have family now.”
“Oh.” The changeling does in fact notice that he’s much happier than before.
“Your friend is the changeling?”
“ChItter.” He nods and smiles.
“So this is the little changeling around town the last couple of years?”
“Hi! I here for school!”
“You are, are you? Well I hope our colt is excited about going to school again.” She seemed a bit hesitant about leaving the colt around the changeling. Unfortunately for her the bell rang, letting all the students and parents know that it was time. “Well you two have a good time at school.”
Slick waves bye, “Bye Mrs. Lily.”
The foals line up by the door waiting for the teacher to bring them inside. “Alright everypony! Who is ready to have fun today?” Mr. Blackboard was almost more excited about school than they were. They all walk to their seats after being lead inside. “Sit down and let’s take attendance.” He grabs a clipboard and starts reading down the list of names.
Chitter sits patiently for his time to call out.
“Chitter?”
“Here!” He sits back now that his part is done. That is, until he hears one particular name.
“Ruby Bliss?”
“He~re.” The burgundy unicorn filly sings out.
Something about the way she is towards anyone just made Chitter upset. She was full of that spicy emotion dad calls overconfidence. She wasn't mean per say, it was just that she thinks she’s somewhat better than others.
“Slick Brush?”
“Here sir.”
“Oh, welcome back.”
“Silent Stack?”
“Here.”
Chit looks over to Slick and sees him scribbling on the page left there before. He is adding a yellow colored pony with orange hair. He then works on another pony but this one was pink with straw colored hair.
“Who they?”
Slick moves his paper closer to Chitter and points to the pink pony, “This one Mrs. Lily.” He points to the yellow pony, “This one Mrs. Carrot. They my new moms.”
“You have family now.” Slick Brush simply nods.
“Chitter, Slick, I know both of you are excited to see each other but pay attention.” Mr. Blackboard turns his attention back to the class collectively. “Now, today we’re going to make a BIG mess. How does that sound?” Most of the class went nuts besides Slick Brush and Midnight Moon. Even Chitter cheered at being able to make an authorized mess. “Well today we are going to cast our hoofprints.”
“What that?” Asks a colt towards the front.
Mr. Blackboard picks up this white stone with a hoofprint in it. “See the hoof? Now we are all going to make one of these. Then you can bring these home for everyone to see.”
The teacher starts grabbing materials out of the supply closet. “Spring Fever can you pass out one of these cloths to everyone?”
“Okay!” The purple filly agrees.
Chitter sits with baited breath to make a mess. But something is off about Slick Brush, emotionally. He watches his friend return to drawing his name plate picture. Slick was happy but not excited. As he watched there was a faint flicker of love amongst the admiration.
“Love family?”
Slick looks up from his drawing, “Love having family, I not alones no more.”
Chitter doesn’t quite understand but gets interrupted again. A large cardboard ring and some wax paper are placed on his desk.
“So we are going to do this one group at a time. When I get to your group we will start. Do not do anything with till I get there, ok?”
“Ok.” The class echoed.
Chitter stayed silent for a while just watching Slick color. Before long though he grew bored and picked up the cardboard ring. He rolled it back and forth, twirled it around a hoof, then picked it up after dropping it. Chitter the tried to see how many hooves it could fit in it. His forehooves both fit with room left but there was space needed to fill.
“Silk help me please?’
Slick Brush looked up curiously from his paper. “Help what?”
“Need hoof to see if fit.”
“Oh.” Slick scoots his chair closer and the participates in the small experiment. The pair find out that the ring is just large enough to fit three hooves, but only just.
“Itter?”
He looks up from his musings, “Midi?”
“Can I sit?”
“Uh huh.”
“What you doin'?”
“See how many hooves go in.”
“Why?”
Chitter just stares blankly, “Dunno.”
“All do it?”
Chit gasps, “Yeah, friend do together!”
“And just what are you three planning, hm?” Mr. Blackboard asks behind them.
“We do it as friends!”
“So you three want to do yours together?”
“No Mr. B, We do one.”
“Oh! Well I suppose friends should have a keepsake. So let’s grab your material and I’ll show you how.”
……
By the end of the day there was plaster on everything and everyone. The once nice clean desks are now covered in a white chalk like dust. There are hoofprints across the floor and a few on the walls.
Out of everyone, only one was almost completely spotless. Somehow, Midnight Moon was clean.
On the flipside however, was Chitter; he had a casting upended over him. Now he was actually having a hard time moving as a bunch of the slurry made it into his joints.
The class cleaned up under the guise of winner gets two pieces of candy. Meanwhile Chitter was being looked over by Mr. Blackboard, who was helping him get the crud out.
“ChItter you ok?”
“I is sticking."
“I am stuck.” The teacher corrected.
“Oh.”
“I can help.” Midnight grabs a cloth too and helps clean Chitter’s carapace.
“Thank you.” The small changeling is motionless as Teacher and friend try to make him functional again. “Oww!”
“Sorry Chitter but that had to come off or it would hurt a lot worse later.” Mr. Blackboard assures. “But that should be better. Clay Cutter, come here.”
A light brown unicorn wanders over. “Yes, Mr. B?”
“You need to apologize for dumping plaster on Chitter here.”
“But he scary.”
“He is still a pony and you will treat others as you want to be. You wouldn’t like it if he did that to you, right?”
“No.”
“Then say your sorry and don’t do it again.”
He didn’t even really look at the changeling as he said his sorry. Then he ran off before a response could be given. ‘It was bound to happen.’ Blackboard muttered internally. “Ok everypony, let’s go get washed up.”
The teacher pushes out a wash bin so all the fillies and colts could wash their hooves.
“Can I have Slick Brush and Midnight Moon to my desk once clean?”
Everyone finishes washing up and the two called out approached Mr. Blackboard’s desk. “We have our winners; Midnight and Slick. Slick washed seven desks and some of the wall. Midnight, was the only pony willing to help a classmate in need." He pulled out a jar labeled “Rewards”, “Go ahead and pick two you guys.”
Chitter sat as his desk as he watched his friends pick candy. He felt funny inside, he wasn't getting any candy why do they? He wasn’t sure why he was feeling like this but he couldn’t really control it, especially with so many ponies having the same emotion.
Things started to change however when the teacher walked around to each desk and let everyone pick one. Chitter felt his mood change drastically for the better. He popped the piece of hard candy into his maw, ‘Mmmm, Butterscotch!’
Slick pushed the drawing he had been working on before towards Chitter. “Look my family and friend.”
The image showed a red house with four figures in front. There was Slick Brush himself, a small grey stick pony in the middle. Behind and to both sides were two bigger ponies, one pink and yellow the other yellow and orange. Standing just off to the side of the family was a black figure with green on its back.
“I got family like you now.”
“You no sad no more!”
“Uh huh.”
The bell rang signifying lunch.
…….
Lunch was a standard affair, then recess, learning, and end of day. Every pony got their castings and was released to their families.
“Daddy!”
“Hi there Chit! Have fun?”
“Uh huh, we made hoofprints.”
“Well let’s go home and when Mom gets home you can show us together.”
“Ok daddy, can Stripe play?”
“If he wants to.”
“Let’s go!” Shield chuckled and leads him home.