Work. Lunch. More work.
That was the everyday schedule in the School of Gifted Unicorns. Calamity was the only draconequus who attended -let alone the only non-unicorn- so she didn't have many friends there. Thankfully, she also attended the School of Friendship, which was still being run by Twilight, so she had something to look forward to after every slow-moving morning. She was considered the top of her class and was one of Twilight's favorite students. Discord didn't trust letting her enroll at first, as he knew he wasn't exactly the best when it came to influencing others, but Calamity promised to never use her magic to cause chaos. She believed there was more to magic than causing trouble or fixing things. She believed magic was the life source of everything in Equestria, not just for power.
She hadn't realized she had dozed off until the bell startled her out of her trance. Magic lessons were over and it was time for her to get to the School of Friendship before classes started. She only had a few friends, two of whom were twins. They all went to school for separate reasons, but they all shared the same one; to fit in somewhere.
First off, there was Nautilus. He was a sand-colored hippogriff who loved entertaining others. He was usually considered the class clown due to his tendency to shout out jokes in the middle of a lesson.
Breeze Gust and Mint Flash were twin pegasi sisters. Of course, they looked extremely identical, with their mint-colored coats and pale pink manes, but their tail styles were the main difference. They usually bickered over the small things like anypony would expect siblings to, but they still cared about each other. Calamity had ended up creating a club with them after she had first enrolled, which gave them both the title of co-founder. They didn't fit exactly fit in where they were from, so they enrolled in the School of Friendship to find other ponies like them. They were born and raised in Yakistan, which isn't known for being a pegasi-friendly region, but their family managed.
Snowbank, another member of the group, was a coal-color coated kirin who enrolled in the school to learn friendship specifically. She was born not being able to perform magic, and she was considered different by the other kirin due to it and was always left out. Calamity had invited her into their friend group after seeing how kind Snowbank was to everypony, even if they didn't exactly treat her the same way. She always believed that nopony deserved to be treated horribly based on what they looked like or couldn't do.
Lastly, there was Shallow, a seafoam-colored changeling. They enrolled in the school to get away from their family, as they didn't exactly feel like they fit in. They loved making others happy, even if they didn't exactly have much to give. Calamity decided to ask them if they'd like to join the club, making them co-leader, in case she missed a day.
Their club was called Mismatched Society, and it was a club where each one of them felt as if they didn't fit anywhere else. Their symbol was a dragon with wings protruding out of its back and had multiple legs, a few of them being hooved.
Calamity had hurried across the bridge, lost in thought, and not paying attention to where she was heading.
"Eugh! Will you please watch where you're going next time? You always somehow happen to run into me, Calamity." Raion, one of the members on the Board of Magic and Friendship, was one of the staff at the School for Friendship. He was obsessed with organization and keeping everything spotless, to the point some students have joked about making him the janitor. He was given the position after looking for a career in education. He was born in Canterlot, his mother being a Kirin and his father being a Pega. He always greeted the students in the morning, but nopony knew where he went after doing so.
"Sorry, Mr. Rai! I promise it won't happen again."
"You always say that and it never fails to amuse me, considering how you always manage to do it." Raion had started walking off.
Calamity had rushed off to get where she was going. Her club had always managed to meet a few minutes before the bell rang for class, but she didn't realize how late she was this time. The bell had already rung to signal the short amount of time there was to get there.
"You do realize you're late, right?" Nautilus was also making his way to class. He and Calamity shared their first class together, which was learning about the history of friendship in Equestria. It was a core class that every new student was supposed to take, as ordered by Princess Twilight, who had been watching over Equestria for a few decades now.
"Yeah, I know," Calamity matched his pace. "Why aren't you in class then?"
"Well, the club didn't have time to meet today, according to Snowbank," Nautilus held the door of the east wing open for her. "As a matter of fact, there wasn't enough time to do anything. Classes started early today for no reason."
"Oh, I'm sure there's a reason. Princess Twilight probably hasn't addressed it yet. You know how busy she is, grading everything and watching over Equestria at the same time. I'm shocked she hasn't allowed the teachers to grade our stuff."
"Well, there's probably a reason for that, too. I mean, considering she's the Princess of Friendship, she probably grades everything on a more personal level?" Nautilus and Calamity made their presence known in the classroom. Everyone's gaze had swung around to focus on the duo.
"Mind explaining why you two were late?" Morning Star, the teacher who taught the History of Friendship class, had stopped her instruction to address the two students at the door.
"I ran into Mr. Janitor earlier." Calamity joked, taking a seat at one of the empty desks.
"We were going to meet up with our club, but we didn't know classes were starting early. It's quite new, not to mention sort of odd for this school." Nautilus took the remaining seat.
"Well, I will admit even we teachers weren't expecting such an early change to the schedule. However, you two will spend a few extra minutes after class working on the assignment." Morning Star had returned back to teaching her lesson, which this time, was on the Six Pillars.
The Mismatched Society wasn't quite sure what to expect of this change. They didn't know that they were about to be sent on a journey that would change their lives and their perspective of the world around them.