Leo didn't sleep much the night before. He was too excited. He’d been in Equestria for weeks now, and finally, he was going to see the place he wanted to see. Two places actually. While most of the trip would take place in Canterlot, they would stop in Ponyville briefly to meet up the class there and travel together. He’d get to see two of the most important cities in all of Equestria, and maybe even get to meet some of the ponies there, too.
He was already awake when Herbal Essence and Thundetail came to get him out of bed, and smiled brightly at the couple when he saw them. “I am so excited!” he called to her before she could greet him.
“Are you?” Thundetail asked as the two smiled back at him. “I couldn’t tell.”
“It’s going to be amazing!” he told them. “We’re going to see the princess, and the castle, and Rarity’s boutique, and-”
“I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic,” Herbal Essence interrupted with a chuckle. “But we have to leave now. Mrs. Leap wants you there early.”
“I’m ready to leave!” he said excitedly as he was taken out of bed.
He was absolutely ready. While he might not have watched the show for years like Mandy had, he was just as excited as she would have been to see Canterlot, maybe more so. As bad as he felt over the last few weeks, he was happy, ecstatic even, that he would finally see what he had been wanting to see since he first came to Equestria.
“Well, why don’t we get going then?” Thundertail suggested.
With that, the three set off on the familiar journey to the schoolhouse. It was still dark outside, with the first light of dawn just starting to break in. While Leo hadn’t gotten much sleep, he was still wide awake as they got to Cheery Leap’s classroom. Normally, he was the first pony there, or one of the first at least, but as he made his way in, there were already several students waiting in the room with the teacher. The colt wasn’t surprised, though. Everypony was excited to go to Canterlot. Of course, though, they weren’t anywhere near as excited as he was.
“Good morning, Leo” Cheery Leap greeted with a smile. “Are you excited about today?”
He couldn’t stop grinning, and hadn’t let down his smile since he woke up. “Absolutely! It’s going to be the best day ever!” He quickly took a seat at his desk, asking, "When are we going to leave?"
"In a little while," she explained. "We just need to wait for the rest of your classmates to show up, okay?"
“Okay!” he said excitedly, suppressing his urge to jump around. While there were many times recently that he felt like a child, for the first time, he felt like a kid again. He was excited, as excited as he was when he first found himself a pony. It was the first genuine excitement he’d had in quite a long time, and couldn’t remember when in his old life he’d felt that way. As well, although he was still having a little bit of trouble connecting with his classmates, he did realize he had more to care about than just visiting Canterlot, Herbal Essence, Thundertail, and, to an extent, Ivory Spark, coming to mind. He couldn’t help but feel happy to look forward to telling them about his visit.
He was glad, so glad, that his wish was granted. While it was difficult at first, he felt better about his situation with each passing day. His itching had long since passed, as well as that old voice that told him to do what was wrong for him. And while he still felt as though it was his fault he felt the way he did about this body's mother, and about how he had ruined his life, he was very slowly working on building up his self confidence, as well as stopping himself from bullying himself.
“Have fun, Leo!” Herbal Essence called as she and Thundertail left the schoolhouse. “We’ll come to pick you up when you get back, okay?”
He didn’t speak, but he did give them a wide smile and waved a hoof goodbye at them. They returned his gesture, smiling, almost beaming, as they exited, happy to see him happy. Leo sat waiting for a few minutes for the rest of his classmates to make their way to the school. Once they did, Cheery Leap got their attention.
“Now class,” she started once they’d all taken their seats, stopping their chattering, “as you all know, today we’re visiting Canterlot. What’s going to happen is we’ll take a train to Ponyville and meet up with the class from there. Then we’ll travel to Canterlot with them as one big group. We should get there around ten, and we’ll leave from there around four so we can be back here by eight for your parents to pick you up. Does anypony have any questions?”
Leo immediately shot his hoof in the air, asking, “Are we going to see the princess?”
“Maybe,” Cheery Leap answered with a smile. “If we’re lucky. Anypony else?” Nopony else raised their hoof, so she asked, “Is everypony ready to go?”
The train ride to Ponyville was longer than Leo expected, and with every minute, his anticipation built. During the ride, Cheery Leap explained that they would walk to the schoolhouse to meet the other class, although she hadn’t mentioned who the teacher of the class was. The colt briefly wondered who it could be, and tried to think back to see if he could remember if they mentioned it in the finale, but, coming up empty, decided to be patient. Excited to the point where he wanted to yell and run and jump around, but patient. He’d find out in a little while, and settled himself with staring out the window, taking in the rest of Equestria.
It was around a couple of hours later when the colt started to see Ponyville in the distance. It felt like deja vu as it came into view, almost surreal. It was like stepping straight into the tv show. He knew where he was, but seeing Ponyville reconfirmed for him that he was in Equestria. It was a reminder that he had a new opportunity to take advantage of, and that, as bad as he felt about himself, he was getting better, slowly but surely.
The train slowly came to a halt in the station, and Cheery Leap’s class stepped out in an orderly fashion, taking a second to stand quietly and view their surroundings while they waited for their teacher to give them direction. Leo shivered with a big smile on his face, almost unable to believe where he was. This was Ponyville. He was in Ponyville. He’d just stepped off the train onto the platform he watched the heroes of Equestria stand on many times before. It was unbelievable, and he enjoyed every second of it.
It was a direct trip from Baltimare to Ponyville, so this was the first time he was seeing ponies from outside the city. He stood with the rest of his classmates, staring wide eyed as other ponies started to board the train, trying to see if he recognized any of the ponies nearby. However, it was just a few seconds before Cheery Leap interrupted him.
“Okay class,” she started, “I want us to stay together. Like I explained earlier, we’ll head over to the schoolhouse here in Ponyville to meet up with the other class, then head back here to the train station to go to Canterlot. We might even get to do some exploring along the way.”
“That won’t be necessary,” a smiling voice that Leo was familiar with said from behind his teacher. He quickly looked to see who it was, and got the shock of his life. Although Cheery Leap explained that it had been fifteen years since Princess Twilight’s coronation as ruler of Equestria, he was shocked to see Cheerilee standing leading a group of foals no older than the class he was in. He was expecting her to be retired, or at least older looking with gray hair, but she looked virtually unchanged now that she was when she was in the show. She was clearly a lot younger in the show than he had expected.
Although time’s passage was clearly evident to her left, being shown through Pipsqueak, who was standing next to her. Although Leo was quickly able to tell that he was no longer a pipsqueak. He was about as tall as Cheerlilee, a fully grown stallion now, and looking around at the class about him to make sure they were staying put. He looked like Cheerilee’s teacher helper, and Leo figured he was apprenticing under her. He wasn’t expecting it, but decided it made sense enough. He remembered in one episode the stallion, when he was a foal, running for and winning an election for class president. He could see him apprenticing under Cheerilee and being her teacher helper. Actually, he was seeing it.
“We didn’t want to rush your class's getting to us, so we decided to meet your class here instead,” Cheerilee explained to Cheery Leap.
Leo’s teacher gave her a questioning look. “Rush?” she asked. “The train for Canterlot doesn’t leave for another hour.”
“Your message said it leaves at eight-thirty.”
“I’m sorry. I must have written the number down wrong,” Cheery Leap apologized. “It leaves at nine-thirty. I was actually planning on taking my class on a quick little tour of Ponyville in the meantime.”
Leo’s eyes went wide at that. “Really?” he asked in disbelief. “We’re going to tour Ponyville?”
“Sure,” his teacher answered with a kind smile. “As long as it’s okay with Miss Cheerilee.” The colt turned her way, and saw her give a wide smile as well, indicating her answer. He couldn’t believe his luck.
Leo remembered the first time he saw Ponyville. Per Mandy’s request, he watched the first episode sober, and didn’t really know what he was expecting, but was glad that he listened to her. He didn’t know what it was about what he was seeing, but he instantly fell in love with it. He watched the entire first season in a day, and then the next day watched the entirety of seasons two and three. He knew there was something pulling him in as he watched and he didn’t know what it was. Regardless, the more he watched, the more he loved what he saw, and before he knew it, he could safely say that it was the greatest show he'd ever seen. There were times when he watched the show when he wished he could step right in and see Ponyville with his own eyes.
And now, he was standing in it. He was silent as he walked with his class, in complete disbelief that he was in Ponyville. He couldn’t believe he was here, that he was in Equestria at all. Walking through Ponyville and seeing some of the ponies he knew in it once again made it hard to grasp that he was truly here. That a genie gave him a wish and sent him to Equestria. It seemed impossible. And yet, there he was, walking through Ponyville.
He and the two classes visited many sights that he knew. The Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner, the town hall, Twilight Sparkle’s former castle, and they even managed to spot the School of Friendship. As well, he saw many ponies he knew, some of whom, like Cheerliee, seemed like they hadn’t aged a day, like Lyra and Bon Bon, others of whom looked much older, like Mayor Mare and Diamond Tiara. The colt wished he could have gone inside these places and talked to some of them, but decided it would be okay, since there would be another day to do these things. Today, they were going to visit Canterlot.
After the brief tour, the group headed back on the train and took a short trip to the capital of Equestria. He stepped into the city the princess ruled from with the same sense of wonder and awe he had while touring Ponyville. Even though it looked nearly exactly as he expected, with many pristine white building and fancily dressed unicorns trotting around, he thought it was still quite a sight to see, and tried to take in with his eyes every inch of the city he possibly could.
“Alright,” Cheery Leap turned and told the two classes of foals, “our first stop of the day is going to be the castle of Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Leo smiled at that thought. Seeing the castle was one of the first things he wanted to do since he got to Equestria, and as the group headed over, it did not disappoint. The colt grinned happily as he viewed the picturesque structure in front of him. It towered over the whole city, the sun glistening off of its white walls and golden ceiling. It was quite the sight, the view giving a question to Leo, one that the rest of the group was wondering as well.
“Do we get to go inside?” the colt asked his teacher hopefully.
“It wouldn’t be much of a tour if we didn’t,” Cheery Leap answered with a smile.
The group of foals let out a small cheer and followed the adults into the building, where they got the surprise of their lives. Even Cheery Leap was caught off guard seeing the pony in front of her standing near the entryway just inside, with only Cheerilee and Pipsqueak being unsurprised by her appearance. She was tall, as tall as Celestia, and had hair that flowed like the former ruler's did. She also had armor similar to the armor Celestia used to wear, armor that she started wearing after her coronation. Her coat was purple, just like everything else about her. If there was one word to describe her, it would have been the color purple. She was the element of magic, the Princess of Friendship, the ruler of Equestria, and Leo’s absolute favorite character in the whole show. He once called her a “dumb, purple horsie”, but he hadn’t realized at the time just how wrong he’d been.
The alicorn was never one to pass up the opportunity to appear before visiting classes of foals, and smiled down on the group before her. As she did, Leo felt as though she were looking directly at him. He was in complete awe of her, and stared back with a mouth hanging open in disbelief, taking in Princess Twilight Sparkle, forgetting about everything else he’d been feeling and everything else he had been through for just a moment.