//------------------------------// // First Day // Story: My Little Transition // by Sprocket Watchclock //------------------------------// “Come along Cogsworth Clockwork” Lilly Blossom says as she hurries her little colt along. “We're going to be late if we don't get going.” “You know I hate that name mother.” the little orange colt says giving his mother a disgruntled look. “Well I'll use whatever name I want when you're not doing what you're supposed to. See look at your sister, she's already packed and waiting on you, now come on the cart is leaving. You don't want to be late on your first day of school.” Lilly replied. Lilly was a cyan mare with a blue mane and was of average height and a slightly naive disposition. Her cutie mark was of two daisies and symbolized her affinity for gardening, something she rarely got to enjoy since the family’s settling in Appleloosa. The dusty ground made it difficult to grow anything and so she the only gardening she really got to enjoy was that which made use of the flower box along the windowsill in the front of the home. She didn’t mind though, since she had foals she hadn’t had much time for anything else anyway. She was rarely seen without her bright white stetson which she wore largely to keep her mane from blowing around too much. “...because that would just be a tragedy, I would have to stay home and enjoy myself...” Cogsworth muttered under his breath. “What did you say?” Lilly said giving her child a look of disapproval. “I'm ready.” Cogsworth said, hurrying along, his long blue mane waving in the wind. “About time Cog” Flutterblossom said nuzzling her mother, their blue coats meshing together in such a way that it was hard to tell where one began and the other came to an end. Cogsworth just looked at her and blew a raspberry to which she did the same back. “Now you two, stop fighting.” Lilly scolded. “You know what happens if you're fighting when your father gets home. Now go get on the cart.” She pushed the orange colt and blue filly out the door and closed it behind them. They walked down the small dirt path in front of their small ranch home and climbed into the school cart which was waiting. The cart was a battered old thing consisting of a boxy hull, four large wagon wheels, a collapsible ladder in the back and four wooden benches in rows along the interior which had been nailed down to the floor so as to prevent jostling. Cogsworth took as seat on the second bench and his sister sat adjacent to him. She was always following him around and annoying him so it was unsurprising to have her doing the same here. He loved his little sister, but sometimes she could just get on his nerves. The bus driver was a somewhat mangy looking goat with a number of his front teeth missing. He wore a rustic derby hat and his coat looked like it hadn’t been given a proper cut in decades. Cogsworth couldn’t remember where he had heard it, but somehow he knew that the goat’s wife had died a number of years back leaving him largely alone in the world except for his friendship with the local school teacher, who offered him the job as bus driver as something to do to keep himself occupied. When he heard the children sit down, he turned around and said “Now settle in you two, we have a long ride ahead of us. We've gotta go around every ranch in all of the Appleloosan territory who's got young'ns and gather 'em up. This ought'ta take awhile. Ya'll better get used ta this, yer gonna be on this route every day of school. Welp, ough'ta get a move on.” After he finished, he started trotting down the dusty trail that marked the way around to the other farms. He had a slight wobble to his trot and so every few moments the rickety cart would make a slight lurch which was just enough to keep anypony from sleeping. Before long, they had gathered a few more kids into the cart and Cogsworth began to become exceedingly bored and began to let his mind wander. It traveled first to the realm of storybooks where he imagined he was the magical princess in a faraway castle who saved a town from an angry dragon. Then on past into the happy ending where he imagined marrying a prince. Just then the cart ran over a rather large rock and made a lurch that was quite bigger than the others. “I do!” Cogsworth blurted as he was knocked into his sister's lap. “You do what?” she snapped as she pushed him away. Cogsworth blushed, and looked at the ground. “Nothin'.” He tried to distract himself from having that fantasy again. He began imagining joining the royal guard in Canterlot and being put in charge of fighting a platoon of changelings. He imagined charging one of them with a lance and chasing them away from a wedding...wedding where he was marrying the captain of the guard wearing the prettiest white dress in all of Equestria. He shook himself in an effort of avoiding that digression. He would not let himself go down that road again. Just as he began to think the trip would never come to a close, they arrived. “We're here! All ya'll get a hurry now, teacher's waitin'.” The bus driver said as the foals hopped down off the cart and made their way in toward the little schoolhouse. The schoolhouse was a dingy little dilapidated building with windows lining the sides. It had only one room sans the two bathrooms that sat opposite one another by the front door. One marked for fillies and the other for colts. Inside there were rows of desks, each had a triangle-folded page of paper with the name of a student on them. Cogsworth's sat directly adjacent to his sister. Great, I have to sit next to her all year Cogsworth thought to himself eying the arrangement. This is going to be just great I can see already. “Welcome to school fillies and colts! Everypony find your seat and then we'll go around the room and introduce ourselves.” The teacher pony said. She was an earth pony, had a purple mane and a lavender coat. Her cutie mark was of three smiling faces. She wore big hoop earrings that dangled halfway down her face and looked quite garish. She picked up a piece of chalk in her mouth and began writing on the blackboard in the front of the classroom. Cogsworth trotted up to his desk and sat down, placing his saddlebag next to the desk. The desk was built out of a sturdy, gnarled wood, likely one of the trees that had been cut down at the edge of the Everfree forest to build the town back when Appleloosa was first settled. Everypony in northern Equestria said it was a bad idea trying to build a town in buffalo territory, but so far there had been no incidents. The place was settled before Cogsworth was born, though his parents were some of the first ponies to build a life here. His desk was scratched with partial outlines of letters, likely from a student who sat here before he did and pressed a bit too hard when writing. The seat was also made of the same sort of Everfree wood and was somewhat uncomfortable to sit in. The room smelled of wood, chalk, foals and pencil shavings. Occasionally some wind would blow through some unseen crack in the window and bring with it a whiff of the outside desert air. “How about you little colt?” The teacher said, pointing with her front hoof directly at Cogsworth. He immediately blushed and began stuttering “Wh...wh...wha?” “Introduce yourself to the class and share with us something you hope to learn about this year.” The teacher said, stress clearly peaking through her voice. “I'm...Cogs...” Cogsworth said, voice trailing off at the end of his name. “And I hope to learn...I hope to learn...” “You hope to learn?” prodded one of the students. “I hope to learn anything a filly ought to learn I suppose.” Cogsworth said. As he spoke his classmates began giggling. He stared at them blankly for a moment and then the realization hit at what he had just said. He said filly instead of colt. His cheeks immediately burst to a bright red color and he sat back down. He began trying to hide behind his front hooves in an effort to avoid making eye contact with anypony. To his relief the teacher moved on and called on another student. Cogsworth felt relieved. He had never felt so embarrassed before in his life. “He’s a filly!” said one of the other students. The teacher looked away to stifle a giggle and then moved on to another student. Cogsworth felt awful. As he slumped back into his chair, a single tear rolled down the side of his face. The rest of the morning went by rather uneventfully and soon it was time for lunch. Cogsworth reached into his saddlebags with his nose and pulled out the brown paper bag his mother had packed him with his teeth and set it on his desk. He dumped out the contents onto his desk. Inside was two apples, a small bundle of hay tied together with a string, a small carton of apple juice and a lettuce, hay, and mushroom sandwich. He began nibbling at part of his sandwich. Before he got very far he heard a whining sound come from his right side. “No fair! Momma gave him two apples and she only gave me one!” Flutterblossom whined. The teacher heard the noise and trotted over to Cogsworth. Looking down at him she said nicely “Cogsworth, would it be ok if your sister had part of your second apple?” “I'd rather not, I'm pretty hungry,” Cogsworth retorted. “It would be the nice thing to do,” The teacher said back, placing extra stress on the word nice so as to drill the point home. “I guess...” Cogsworth sighed. His sister pulled these games all the time. She would insist he gave her part of whatever it was he had but no matter what happened if there was inequality in the opposite direction and he dared mention it, he would get scolded for being too greedy. The teacher picked up the apple and trotted over to her big oak desk. She set it down, reached into a drawer and pulled out a knife. She then carefully sliced the apple in two. After she had done this, she put the knife back into the drawer and trotted back, giving Cogsworth one half and Flutterblossom the other. Cogsworth sighed. After Cogsworth had finished his meal and lunchtime started coming to a close he looked over at his sister and caught her throwing her apple away. She had eaten his half and never even touched her own. Typical Cogsworth thought to himself. The rest of the school day went by slowly and Cogsworth found himself looking outside to see how far the sun had fallen more times than he could count. Before long he had drifted back into a daydream, this time he had built an army of robots and was taking over the world. He sent robots to topple the government, robots to subdue the masses, and robots to make him an entire wardrobe of pretty dresses. Nope! Ew! Cogsworth thought to himself when he caught his mind going back down that road. We are not doing that today. No sir. He tried to focus back on the teacher but found everything she was saying entirely uninteresting. This was going to be a quite monotonous school year if this is how she talked every single day. After school was over they all boarded the bus cart home. Luckily since the bus rout formed a large circle around the center of town and the bus driver liked to reverse the route in the evening, Cogsworth was the first stop on the way home. However, this also meant that anything that happened immediately when they arrived would be a spectacle for the entire school. I hope my parents don’t do anything embarrassing. Cogsworth thought as the cart rounded the bend towards their home. It was a small house, just big enough for the family and not much else. It was built in a backwards L shape with the kitchen in the part jutting out to the right in the front and the bedrooms and all else down the hallway to the left. It was made of the same wood the rest of Appleloosa was largely built out of and had been painted a drab dusty brown color. When the cart finally came in view of their house, they were greeted by a unflattering sight visible through the front window of their ranch home; their mother who was caught in an argument with their father. She was insisting he was just being stubborn and he was insisting that there was no reason he should have to try something new when he already knew the things he liked to eat and they were feeding him just fine. Cogsworth's nose was hit with a distinct smell that made him wrinkle his nose. Whatever it was his mother had made for dinner, it wasn't food. The bus pulled to a halt and the bus driver climbed out of the reins. He trotted over and lowered the ladder so Cogsworth and Flutterblossom could get down out of the cart. They climbed out and made their way inside. “Mmmm!” Flutterblossom said as she burst through the front door. “That smells good!” “I made a casserole for dinner.” Lilly replied. She glared over at Sawtooth and whispered “we mustn't fight in front of the children.” Cogsworth frowned. “Smells gross. Can't I just have a hay and bean burrito instead?” “You haven't even tried it! You can't make up your mind on something before you've even tried it.” Lilly retorted. “But dad's getting one!” Cogsworth said as he spotted his father putting hay in a burrito in the kitchen. Cogsworth’s father was a large, earthy draft horse with an orange coat the same shade as Cogsworth’s and a bright red mane. His cutie mark was of a saw and hammer crossing one another symbolising his work in construction. His green eyes would twinkle when he was in a good mood, or burn when he was angry. Cogsworth knew his father to be a kind soul, but a stubborn one and often would be quick to assume the worst. “He's an adult, he can do what he wants. You're the child and I said you have to at least try it first.” Lilly replied as she sat Cogsworth down in front of the dinner table. She hovered a plate of casserole in front of him and set it down with her telekinesis. It smelled dreadful. “But mom!” Cogsworth tried. “No butts! Eat it. I made it specially for you and your sister. I don't know why I bother doing anything for you, all you do is complain! You're just like your father.” Lilly said. Dead silence came from the kitchen for a moment and then unexpectedly the sound of flatulence followed by Sawtooth sighing erupted. “Eeww!” Flutterblossom said. “Sawtooth!” Lilly shouted. “What?” Sawtooth replied innocently. Lilly merely shook her head. “Now you have to at least try it, and if you don't like it, you can join your father in the kitchen and he can make you a burrito.” Lilly said to Cogsworth “Fine.” Cogsworth replied and took a small nibble of the casserole. It was everything he had feared it would be. A bland mishmash of flavors all melded together as one. It was like somebody had taken a rainbow of flavor and stirred the pot until all that was left was an ugly brown. “GROSS!” Cogsworth said as he spat it out. “You didn't give it a chance. You just decided you didn't like it before you even tried it so of course you don't like it.” Cogsworth's mother spat back. “Nuh-uh! That's not how it works!” Cogsworth said. “Now I'm gonna go get a burrito from daddy!” He then hopped down and trotted out of the dining room and into the kitchen. He went up to his father, looked up and asked curtly “can I get a burrito too daddy?” “Not until you apologies to your mother for being so rude,” Sawtooth replied. “SORRY!” Cogsworth shouted. “No, say it like you mean it.” “Sorry!” “Now you'll have to wait awhile. I already put everything away,” Sawtooth said while rummaging around in the cabinet. After dinner, Lilly turned to Cogsworth and asked “So are you going to tell me how your first day went?” “Fine.” Cogsworth replied. “Just fine?” She asked back. “He was being totally weird and kept making funny faces at the teacher!” Flutterblossom piped up. “Did not!” Cogsworth retorted. “Did too!” “Did not!” “Did too!” “ALRIGHT ENOUGH YOU TWO!” Sawtooth shouted from the other room. “I'm trying to read this technical manual for work and you two are making too much noise!” “You'd better leave your father alone, his job is really important.” Lilly scolded. Cogsworth excused himself from the table and trotted down the hallway toward the bedrooms to play. As he passed by his sister's room, he paused. She had left her dolls out on the floor. The alicorn princess doll seemed to stare at him from across the room. He checked down the hallway to be sure nobody was watching and he snuck inside. Something about that doll seemed to call to him but he couldn't seem to figure out what. He trotted up and picked it up, checking over his shoulder as he did to make sure nopony was watching. He played with the doll for a few moments, then began turning it over and over, taking in every detail, removing and replacing her dress, wiggling every leg joint, rotating the neck and even brushing the mane a little. Then he heard his sister start walking toward the bedroom. He quickly put the doll back and dashed into his own room, carefully closing the door so as to keep her from hearing him shut it. Close one he thought to himself. That night, Cogsworth dreamed of being the princess from the storybook and wearing the pretty purple dress the doll had on. He dreamed of marrying a prince and moving into a fantastic castle. He dreamed of getting pregnant and having a foal. Before long, his pleasant dream was interrupted by his mother shouting at him to wake up and eat his breakfast. Another day was to begin and likely go much like the first. This was going to be one grueling, disappointing year.