Twilight blinked her eyes open and sat up, stretching and yawning. She saw the clock above the dorm room door and smiled; ten after eight, a far more reasonable waking hour.
Twinkleshine lounged on the foot of the other bed, a towel wrapped around her mane. Her student guidebook floated in front of her as she flipped through it. “Morning.”
“Good morning.” Twilight climbed out of bed and headed for the kitchen. “Ready for our first day as third years?”
“I hope so.” Twinkleshine raised her head. “Shower’s all yours if you want it.”
“Thank you.” Twilight poured herself a glass of water from the sink and frowned as she considered Twinkleshine’s words. “You were up early, then.”
“Woke up around seven and couldn’t get back to sleep. I decided to own it.” Twinkleshine shrugged. “It happens.”
“Anxious?”
“A little.” Twinkleshine sighed and set her guide on the bed. “I’m blanking on what to research for my thesis. I know, there’s no rush, it doesn’t need to be submitted until the end of the year. Still, I’d at least like an idea of what to look into.”
“Understandable.” Twilight sat next to her, her water floating beside her. “You were looking at jobs in magical engineering after graduation, right? Could think of something in that field.”
“I’ve been trying.” Twinkleshine laid back on the bed and huffed, pursing her lip. “I’ve talked to a few ponies who work in those fields, got some ideas about jobs and what my research could be. But they usually don’t have time to talk to every SGU student who just drops by their office, you know? They’re busy designing airships and improving the energy and plumbing networks and all that stuff. Any idea I might have to research, odds are some engineer out there is already researching it themselves.”
Twilight nodded. “Maybe you could see if any of your professors know ponies who could be helpful. They have to be able to give you some leads, or they may have ideas themselves if they came out of the industry to teach.”
Twinkleshine nodded. “That’s my shortlist of things to do these first couple weeks.” She sat up and shook her head. “But, I’ll worry about it later. Today, we have things to do!”
“Indeed we do!” Twilight hugged her briefly. She then downed her water and skipped to the bathroom door. “I’m going to wash up now so I can dry properly.” She paused in the doorway and turned to point a hoof at Twinkleshine. “And I want us out of this room no later than quarter-to-nine!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Twinkleshine rolled her eyes.
“We’ll be ahead of schedule and ready to learn!” Twilight clapped her hooves. “Today is going to be perfect!”
A shower, a mane brushing, and a bowl of cereal later, Twilight double-checked her supplies for the day as she laid them out on her bed. “Sectioned binder, check. Pens and pencils, check. Student guidebook, check. Bits, check.”
“Hernia, check.”
“What?” Twilight looked up to her roommate by her own bed. Twinkleshine was more casual as she lifted items from her saddlebags to confirm their presence and then dropped them back in.
“If you get stressed like that, you’ll get a hernia.”
“I am not stressed, I am prepared, and I prepare thoroughly so that I don’t get stressed.” Twilight finished her supply check, floated all the items into the air, and slid into the pair of saddlebags on her bed. She lifted the bags onto her back and looked at the clock: nine forty-three. They were two minutes ahead of schedule. “Ready to go?”
“Yup.” Twinkleshine put her bags on and followed Twilight out the door into the hall. The mass of students moving about were more organized than yesterday, none carrying anything bigger than an extra-large saddle bag and all moving in the same direction. Twilight and Twinkleshine joined the mass and followed it into the main hall and the stairs to the second and first floors.
“At least it’s easier to get out today,” Twilight mused as the crowd filtered down the steps. She saw the line ahead shift to allow students coming from the second floor into the mass. I wonder if this is how driving works in Manehattan. Thank goodness Canterlot doesn’t allow carts in the city.
The two got out into the concourse and circled around the fountain. The wide walkway that connected to Canterlot bustled with students coming in from housing in the city. Twilight looked up at an elevated platform adjacent the path – a team of pegasi were landing a chariot with a dozen unicorns on it, and another chariot was circling above waiting to descend. The out-of-town student shuttles. I hear some of the chariots leave their towns by seven-thirty. I can’t imagine having to get up that early every day.
“Any sign of the others?” Twinkleshine asked.
Twilight scanned the crowds around them with new intent. “Hard to tell. Knowing Minuette, she’s already in the classroom at a table with five chairs.”
“Of course, she is.”
Within the main SGU building, the two mares split off into a line of students heading into the stairwell by the doors. They exited on the second floor and headed to Room 206.
The classroom for Basic Alchemic Theory was not quite half full when Twilight and Twinkleshine entered. The various tables of the room had been staked out by a couple pairs or trios of friends, and the instructor wasn’t yet present. Sure enough, Twilight found Minuette and Moondancer at a table with several empty chairs tucked under it.
“Hey, you guys!” Minuette waved a hoof at them. “Come on over.”
The two removed their bags and set them on the table, then sat down, Twilight next to Moondancer and Twinkleshine next to Minuette. Twilight noticed the other two empty chairs left. Six of us?
“Lemon’s late,” Twinkleshine noted.
“She said she was making a stop at the campus store for an extra pack of pens,” Minuette explained. “She wants to be prepared to lend them out and not get them back.”
“Monsters,” Twinkleshine hissed. “What kind of pony doesn’t give back something they borrowed?”
“I lent Twilight my copy of Principles of Magic in first year and never got it back,” Moondancer said evenly. Twilight’s eyes bulged as she continued. “But I don’t worry about it. I just grumble her name under my breath every time I have to borrow a copy from the campus library, and then I move on with my life.”
Twilight winced. “You’re joking, right?”
“Slightly.” Moondancer wrinkled her nose. “Tell me you at least still have it.”
“I do, I’m fairly sure. I might have taken it home with me over summer break and left it with my parents.” Moondancer’s eyes narrowed and Twilight winced in response. “Sorry. It’s in good condition, though!”
Before Moondancer could respond, Minuette cut in by lifting up from her seat and waving a hoof. “Hey, Dawny!”
The ground turned their heads to the doorway, where Luster Dawn was standing in place staring at Minuette with a stunned expression. With Minuette’s outburst, everyone else in the room had begun paying attention to her or Luster. Luster kept her eyes forward and quickly approached the table.
“Was that necessary?” she hissed. “Everypony is staring at us!”
“Do you want me to introduce you?”
“No!”
Twinkleshine rolled her eyes and swiveled her head around the room. “Okay everypony, show’s over, back to the chatter.” At her words most of the students listened and resumed whatever conversation Minuette had interrupted.
Luster took a breath. “Thank you. Also – ‘Dawny’?” She sat down in the empty chair next to Twilight.
Twilight watched her sit and turned away to hide her slight scowl. That’s why there are six chairs. Of course Minuette made room for Luster to join us, I told them we have almost identical schedules. Why didn’t I think of that?
“We all have nicknames,” Minuette replied to Luster. “I’m Minnie, then there’s Moony, Twinkles, Lemmy, and Twi. And Dawny.”
“No one calls us those names except you,” Twinkleshine said. “And only Lemon calls you Minnie.”
“It’s a term of endearment.”
“Just ‘Luster’ is fine, thank you,” Luster said softly. “At least don’t make a habit of a nickname.”
“I’m here!” Lemon Hearts came up from behind Twilight and sat down in the last empty chair on the other side of Minuette. “I am not late!” Twilight glanced at the clock – 8:59.
“Barely, Ms. Hearts.”
The class fell silent and turned their heads to the door. A unicorn stallion gently shut it and approached the front of the room. He had a dark green coat and a dull orange mane with a few specks of grey trying to sneak into view, cut short and neatly combed. His horn lit up orange as he picked up a marker from the tray below the large whiteboard and wrote on it ‘Welcome to Basic Alchemic Theory’. He capped the marker and turned around.
“I am Professor Copper Crucible.” He stood in place and looked over the room as he spoke. “I will be blunt – this course is not highly demanding. If you’ve passed Alchemy in your first two years, and especially if you took an Advanced Alchemy course last year, then there is no reason you cannot pass my course as well. Show up on time, pay attention, and complete the work provided, and you’ll pass just fine. If those expectations are too demanding for you, talk to Princess Celestia.”
He paused and wrinkled his nose. “Are there any questions about these expectations?” Moondancer raised her hoof. “Yes, Ms. Dancer?”
Moondancer lowered her hoof. “You mentioned the second year Advanced Alchemy course. I had heard there is some overlap between them?”
“No.” Crucible shook his head, but then raised his eyes and thought. “Well, mostly no. The first week or two we’ll be covering the basics of the reagents you’ll be given access to for assignments in this year, and then we’ll move on to how one can use magic to affect the outcome of a brew. If you took Advanced Alchemy last year – or, now that I think of it, Magical Herbology – then some of what we’ll be using will already be known to you, but much of it will not be. Think of it as getting a small head start.”
Crucible’s horn glowed orange and he pulled down a rolled-up chart hanging above the whiteboard, revealing a grid of squares in different colors. He extended a pointer and gestured to the chart. “You’re all familiar with the basic types of reagent – Base, Reactionary, Accelerant, Inhibitor, and Catalyst. But—” he tapped the pointer at the end of a row of green boxes, where the last two were a deeper shade, “—what about these two here? Why are they colored differently? No need for hooves, just say it if you know.”
Before Twilight could give the answer, a voice came from the seat next to her. “They’re of the Endothaumic sub-type.” Twilight glanced over her shoulder at Luster; the other mare noticed her attention and gave a small smile.
“Correct, Ms. Dawn.” Crucible nodded. “That means these types of materials react to unicorn magic. Now, we know that all reagents react to unicorn magic in some manner or another, but typically not in a way that would be noticeable or that would affect the result of your brew. Endothaumic materials will react noticeably and your brew will be changed.” He gestured his pointer to other boxes with darker colors than the rest of the chart. “Take note of these darker boxes, those are Endothaumic materials, they exist in all reagent categories. You can find this chart in your copy of Amrita to Zelzist, Reagents of Equestria, Chapter 10.”
He took a breath. “Please be very aware that these reagents are quite dangerous if mishandled. Alkahest, for instance, if infused with even latent magics from levitating a beaker of it, will begin to rapidly dissolve anything it touches, including the beaker, the tabletop, and the floorboards of the classroom.” A couple of students snickered, and Crucible glared in their direction. “That’s not a joke, there’s a reason I call attention to alkahest in particular. Needless to say, that student did not pass this course.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she saw Twinkleshine react the same. A gasp came from somewhere else in the room. “Somepony really burned a hole through the floor?” a stallion asked. A couple students began scanning the floor for signs of repair.
More calmly, Moondancer raised her hoof and spoke when Crucible looked her way. “Does alkahest in such a reactive state pose a risk to ponies?”
“Yes. Fortunately, it is much less reactive with biological material than non-biological, but it would still burn severely and need immediate treatment.” Crucible held up a metal stand with flasks and beakers of various shapes held in it. “This is why, before any practical lessons are given, you will be instructed on how to magically insulate your equipment. This will be your first assignment, given the end of next week. But we will discuss that when we come to it, one thing at a time.”
Crucible set the stand on his desk and picked up his marker again. “For now, I want you all to begin taking notes. I will list the various Endothaumic reagents and briefly discuss them. You may open your textbooks to the chart in Chapter 10 to follow along, if you like.”
The students of the room began pulling out their books and lightly chattering. Twilight set her binder on the table and opened to the first tabbed section. She took a sheet of perforated paper from a pocket in the front of the binder, jotted ‘BAT’ on it, and tore it off and slid it in the plastic tab in the pages.
And now the learning begins.
She glanced at Luster beside her – the mare was mimicking her movements almost exactly with her own set of tabbed pages. She saw Twilight watching her, looked at her binder, and the two shared a smile.
“You’ll need a lab partner for some of these projects,” Twilight said.
Luster’s smile faded and she turned away, sweeping her eyes over the room. “There’s twenty-seven students. Somepony has to be alone.”
“Somepony else can manage it.”
“I can,” Moondancer said.
Luster gave her a slight glare before looking back at Twilight. “Fine.” She shuffled her chair closer and slid her binder over.
Crucible spoke from the front of the room. “Base materials have the second-fewest number of Endothaumic reagents among them, since the idea behind being classified as Base—"
Twilight put the header ‘Base’ at the top of her page and began jotting down Crucible’s listings. She took another look at Luster and saw her do the same. Twilight’s eyes fell on the textbook that Luster had moved, seemingly so that Twilight could see it if she wanted to.
She’s friendly enough once the ice is broken, but she bristles any time somepony approaches her about doing anything with her. It’s not that she’s anti-social. So what’s wrong?
Luster’s behavior in Basic Alchemy set a precedent for the rest of the day. She answered questions when asked, be they about class topics or friendly conversation, but didn’t add much herself when unprompted. Most of the casual chatter was between Minuette and Lemon, Twilight and Moondancer had always been the more studious of the group and Twinkleshine leaned in the same direction during classes. Luster, unsurprisingly, also preferred to focus on the class work. That was just fine for Twilight personally, but she kept wondering if she ought to be more talkative and get her to do the same.
Basic Spellcasting and Equestrian History were even more quiet. The two classrooms had rows of long tables facing the front of the room, which meant Minuette sat with Lemon and Twinkleshine, and Twilight sat behind them with Moondancer and Luster. Again, Twilight wondered if she should make more effort to get Luster talking, but was class really the time? She could confirm Luster was fully self-capable as expected, she didn’t have to ask for any help or even any supplies. Twilight had spied on her notes a couple times to be sure she wasn’t just being quiet, but no, she was following the lessons without issue.
The lunch period between Spellcasting and History was, expectedly, a repeat of Sunday but with the group together instead of meeting up. Minuette had led them into the cafeteria and inexplicably gravitated to a table close to the lines with six chairs already there. Luster had accompanied them and eaten with them and was a bit more talkative than the prior day. It was a relief to see she could be more friendly when she wasn’t concentrating on class. Twilight wondered if that was the explanation, that Luster was focused on her studies to the detriment of socialization.
Yet, that didn’t seem right. Moondancer was even more closed-off and focused than either of them, but she could participate in a conversation with friends and might chat in class if it didn’t distract her. Luster was different. Twilight just couldn’t figure out how, and why.
There was little reason to think Luster’s behavior might change its pattern in their last class of the day. It was a class that had virtually every student entering the door slump and sigh as they accepted their fate and filed down the rows of seats running down the semi-circular lecture hall. Even Minuette seemed a little less peppy as she sat down and looked at the bottom of the room.
“Oh, look,” she said. “The teacher left a welcoming message.”
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter?” Lemon Hearts muttered.
Twilight sat down next to Twinkleshine and saw the message.
‘MATH IS COOL!’
Twinkleshine rolled her eyes. “Oh good, it’s one of those teachers.”
“What kind?” Luster sat next to Twilight.
“I believe she means the ‘my class is the cool class’ kind,” Moondancer offered from the other side of her.
Luster frowned. “So? Math is cool.”
Twilight paused in the act of pulling her binder and pencils out of her bag. She likes math? Outside of classes focused on the study of some aspect of magic, math had always been Twilight’s best and most favorite subject.
“Math is a tool used by educators to make dumb students feel dumber and smart students feel smarter,” Twinkleshine replied.
“It’s a valuable skill that will be useful in all aspects of daily life for decades to come,” Luster countered. She flashed a small smirk. “And, I do feel smarter attending these classes, so they’re doing their job by your definition.”
Twilight snorted, happy not just to learn her new friend seemed to share her preference for numbers, but also at her comeback. She made a joke with Twinkleshine! Progress!
The conversation quickly came to a close as the door at the bottom of the hall opened. A pegasi mare with a blue coat and a green mane walked out, a large binder under her wing. The class fell silent as she set the binder on the table, then looked at the whiteboard. She turned back to the class and gestured her head towards it.
“It’s on a whiteboard in a classroom, so it must be true.”
A couple polite chuckles came from the hall.
The mare walked back and forth as she spoke. “I am Professor Fallstreak. Sorry to disappoint you, those expecting Mr. Okta from the previous two years. Third year Mathematics belongs exclusively to me. The first two years are mathematical basics, comparable to what any pony would learn in a normal school. Third year, however, is when the class gets fun.” She smiled proudly, her wings fluttering.
“We will be learning what many in Equestria would consider more esoteric forms of mathematics. Primarily, we’ll concern ourselves with the units of measurement of a unicorn’s magic. I’m sure you all know about re’em and keras or at least have heard of the terms. In this class, we’ll explore what they really mean and how you can apply them to everyday life.”
As Fallstreak continued speaking, Twilight leaned over to Luster. “So, how has your first day been?” she whispered.
Luster kept her eyes on Fallstreak for a moment before turning to Twilight. “Fine, I guess. First week is always boring, handing out schedules of what we’ll cover each class and telling us what textbooks we’ll need and all that. I’d hoped third year might be a bit quicker to just cut to the chase.”
“I know.” Twilight nodded. “If you ask them, the instructors are usually open with what’s coming up next week and will tell you what to read to give you a head start.”
Luster smiled. “Oh, yeah. You said you’d introduce me to some of them?”
“Mhm. We can after class, if you want.”
“Sounds good.”
A shadow fell over the two of them and they whipped their heads around. Fallstreak was in the air above them, wings flapping, front hooves crossed. The ceiling lights shining behind her cast her in shadow as she looked down at the two unicorns.
“Ms. Sparkle. Ms. Dawn. Is there something so important that it could not be discussed outside of class time?”
Luster’s face was bright red as she tried to sink into her chair and bury her face in the desk. Twilight swallowed and shook her head. “No, Professor Fallstreak, we were just—"
“No? But surely it must be something relevant to the class, at least, if you felt the need to discuss it now.”
“Actually, yes.” Twilight brightened a bit. “Luster was interested in meeting with you outside of class. I usually do that with all my professors and know some of them already, so we were agreeing to stay after class and touch base with you.”
Twilight hoped she wasn’t deceiving herself in thinking she saw Fallstreak’s guard drop a bit at her claim. But the professor was not disarmed so easily. Fallstreak smiled and nodded. “That is excellent news, Ms. Sparkle. I was having the same thought myself that perhaps both of you should stay after class and the three of us can have a talk.”
“Exactly!” Twilight knew that wasn’t how she meant it, but she couldn’t back down now or Fallstreak would think she was lying. She noticed Twinkleshine facehoof out of the corner of her eye.
“Wonderful. I’ll even save the two of you some walking distance. The front rows are entirely empty, perhaps the two of you ought to come and sit down closer to me.”
That was a more disagreeable arrangement, but there was hardly any hope of getting out of it now. Twilight meekly nodded and lifted her books. Under Fallstreak’s watchful eye – and the watching eyes of the entire class, for that matter – Twilight and Luster stepped down to the front of the lecture hall. Fallstreak flew down to the front of the room and stood on the other side of the table as Luster approached the second seat. She set her books on the table and moved to sit down.
“Oh, no, each of you take an outside seat, there’s more legroom.” Fallstreak waved a hoof at the far end of the table. Luster nodded and quickly moved further, her books sliding with her. Twilight sat in the outside seat and looked down at Luster. The table was only so long to have three seats between them, but it may as well have been a mile.
“There we go.” Fallstreak flashed a smile. “Now, if there are no further interruptions?” Both mares shook their heads. “Excellent. As I was saying, we will touch briefly on non-unicorn mathematics in our second term. Pegasus wingpower could be seen as comparable to unicorn re’em…”
Getting detention together is a bonding thing friends do, right? Twilight’s eyes widened slightly. I don’t think I’ve had detention since Moondancer and I accidentally teleported that beaker on Lemon’s head back in kindergarten.
She glanced at Luster and saw her frowning at her textbook. She saw Twilight looking at her and Twilight shrugged and mouthed ‘Sorry’. Luster rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her book and the lesson, but Twilight noticed her frown was a bit softer than before.
I can live with it.