A/N: This is actually chapter 4, but meh. I got this out when I could. ENJOY!
Two weeks. Two weeks, no bacon. No meat for that matter. It was like a curfew. Actually, it was worse trying to not let my mouth run. I was successful so far. Not a word out of place, except the occasional stopping halfway through a word, then correcting myself. You know, like this: wo-mare. Annoying, it was.
Here’s a recap of the past couple of weeks. After I woke up on the first morning, I gracefully stepped out of bed. By ‘gracefully’, I meant I fell out of bed and was tangled in the sheets. Colgate had to help me out of my mess. There was a repeat of this the next morning, until I found a trick that got me out. First, I’d lean up; next I would swivel to the side on my flank slowly, pull the blanket off me, and then lean forward until I fell on my forehooves and land with some sort of grace.
I was happy when I learnt that ponies had cereal. Basically, living with a dentist meant you don’t get all those sugary cereals, but I got Cheerios! Well, they were called Hay-O’s but I wasn’t going to complain. They were basically the same thing, and they were good too. Colgate would help me make them, because pegasus and earth ponies have a little trouble with getting the milk and cereal in the bowl. Colgate, being a unicorn, had no trouble at all.
Toilets. Toilets, they were weird to say the least. There was porcelain, there was a roll of toilet paper. It was built into the ground, the bowl and seat. Basically, you’d sit on the ground and do your business. Then you’d wipe. That was the hard part, wiping. The really hard part, because getting a piece of flat paper between your hind legs is hard. But enough on toilets, you probably don’t want details on how to get something between your hind legs.
Brushing your teeth, flossing and anything else tooth-related happened three times a day in Colgate’s home. Wake up, breakfast, brush and floss. That was my morning routine. It was also Colgate’s morning routine. Then, on weekdays, Colgate would go to work. I however, would be left with the creepiest foalsitter ever. Her name was Sparkling Skies, and she had a smile that defies physics. I swear it stretches past her orange coated face, above her curly green mane and through the time-space continuum.
Besides the baby- I mean foalsitter, and toilets, everything was fine. Until school which was starting tomorrow. First Monday in February was the start of the school year, and I wasn’t very keen on doing eighty percent of school all over again. Colgate told me I the orphanage said I was built and looked around the age of six which was the age fillies and colts start school. I’d go to school for six years, and on my twelfth birthday I’d be counted as an adult. I’d be of age and probably be able to do all the things any human adult could do.
I woke up, knowing well what was happening today. Today was the first day of the Equestrian school year, and very possibly the very start of my Equestrian life proper. There was not a doubt in my mind that I would get into a fight. I was not what you could call a social butterfly. I would most definitely get beaten up, probably sometime in the next three days.
I swiveled out of bed and pretty much fell flat on my face. Brushing the small amount of pain aside, I began to trot down the kitchen. On the way down the hall I eyed the white door. I still didn’t know what was in there. I assured myself it was probably Colgate’s private study or something.
Entering the kitchen I saw Colgate. She was making something for breakfast. I heard an egg timer ticking. She turned around in a pink frilly apron and greeted me.
“Morning, Storm. Excited about your first day of school?” BAM! She hit me with the question that I had expected for the past four days now. My answer was a big fat lie.
“Of course! It’s gonna be sooooo cool!” I replied with fake enthusiasm. I’m glad she didn’t notice.
“Well, I just know you’re going to have lots of fun. I did on my first day of school.” Please don’t tell me a story, because that would really, really make me nervous. “In fact there was this one time…”
It took all my willpower not to yell at her, sigh or yawn. As the egg timer slowly ticked, she told me a story about her school days as a little filly. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually loved Colgate, but her stories were boring. They made time slow, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted right now. It gave me more time to be nervous about my first day at a pony school.
As she reached the climax of her story, that being some random filly tripping over and spilling her drink or something, the egg timer sounded. It was loud, and it scared me so much I almost wet my (metaphoric) pants. I used jumping as a much cleaner alternative.
“Oh good, the pie’s ready!” Colgate didn’t even blink at the sound of the timer. It was deafening, to me at least.
“So that’s what you were making!” I had no idea what she was cooking, or now I knew, baking before she had said the word ‘pie’.
“I thought you should have a special breakfast on the first day of school, so you can do your best!” she said as she spread her pale blue aura around to remove the pie from the oven. Damn I wish I could do that.
We sat and we shared a really nice pie. I had absolutely NO idea what was in it, but geez it was good. It was sweet and moist, the two things I like in pie. Suddenly, waiting an eternity for breakfast didn’t seem that bad.
School was bad. Or it was so far. Canterlot Public School, you’d think it’d be a friendly place. It wasn’t at all. The second I lay hoof in the door, I was assaulted by a barrage of spitballs. My first job at school was to find the library, so I get… well I’m not sure yet. By the looks of pale yellow hallways, ponies didn’t get primary school. They go straight to junior high. I was guessing I’d have a locker next to two ponies I’d never want to be next to anywhere.
I looked up and saw that the roof was, not to my surprise, covered in spitballs. And somehow, what seemed to be chewing gum. I wondered how that’d get up there, but then I remembered. Pegasi. Ponies with wings.
The place smelled the way I expected it to. Sweaty socks and curry, but add one hundred percent more horse. As I walked through the halls, I thought I’d have an epileptic seizure. I was painted rainbows, but with more colors. Ponies had such a range of possible colors. The carpet did match the drapes, in all cases here. Maybe they did have mane dye, but you wouldn’t notice it here.
After wandering through halls with literal hundreds of fillies and colts, I found the library. To my surprise, it was actually quiet. Another surprise. More books than I had ever thought could be in one place. My jaw was agape.
“This surprises you? Then you should see the Royal Canterlot Archives. They’re around twenty times as big.” I jumped. I swear half these voices were in my head, they surprised me that often.
I turned around to see a stallion wearing black framed square glasses. He had a short cropped mane in the color of purple, and a mint green coat. I swear, Equestria has ALL the color combinations. His cutie mark was a hardcover book. Better say something quick, he’s staring into my soul.
“Uhhhhhh… hi.” I said just above a whisper. First friendly pony I meet, I’m too scared to talk to. Damnations.
“Hello there, I’m Mr. Books,” no surprise there “ Sorted Books, to be precise.” Equestria also has all the names.
“Um, I’m Storm Cloud. I’m new here, I guess.” Wow, I am the best at introductions, aren’t I.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place. I’m guessing you’re in 1st Grade?”
“Yeah, you guessed right.” Finally, a reply with some wit.
“Then you most definitely have come to the right place. Please be seated over there, in the middle of the library, somepony will be here to make some long, boring speech soon.” He pointed a hoof in the direction of where I was meant to go.
“Thank you, sir.” I said as I trotted off, more confident than five minutes ago.
I saw a large group of foals where Mr. Books had specified. Blues, reds, greens, purples, yellows and all the other colors you could image were seated in a large clearing in between the bookshelves. There were blacks, whites, fluorescents and I could swear a few transparents. Wait, that’s just my imagination.
I sat myself to the side a little, about thirty centimeters away from the nearest pony. I admit, my stomach was full of butterflies. When I said that in front of Sparkling Skies she said that it must be good. To all my knowledge, I think saying ‘I feel like there’s parasprites in my stomach’ would be the right thing to say, but hey, I was sticking to what I knew.
Then another pony struck up a conversation with me. Not just conversation, but the back of my head too. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! Are you ok?! I tripped, sorry, sorry!”
The yellow colt in front of me was panicking. As I lifted my dazed form up from the ground I saw his fluorescent green mane, styled in a spiky fashion, and the most panicked look on his face.
“I’m ok, it’s ok. I’m not hurt. Hopefully…” I muttered the last word under my breath so he didn’t hear. I could tell he was a guy because, well… let’s just put it this way. Ponies don’t wear clothes. Hey, I wasn’t trying to look, he just tripped over my head and was now half-sprawled in front of me.
“Oh thank Celestia. I thought I really hurt you there. Sorry again, the name’s Flickers.” He held out a hoof.
“Storm Cloud, and it’s fine. I’m not hurt.” Queue headache. Maybe he did hurt me. I groggily shook his hoof. I dunno how it works, but with hooves, you can actually grip things. Like GRIP grip. Not the same as hands, much more clumsy, but they get the job done in most cases.
He gasped “Storm Cloud? As in the one my dentist was talking about the other day? She talked about you half my appointment. I was getting fillings you see…” and once again, intermission. It seemed Colgate had given me a reputation, and hopefully a good one at that. Getting fillings seemed to be a very boring experience, so as Flickers sat next to me and told me the WHOLE story, I just nodded and made some ‘ooh’s and ‘mmhhm’s.
As he finished up his story, a snobby looking grey unicorn stood up the front of the crowd and yelled “Silence!” The floor would have been graced with a foul smelling liquid if my bladder wasn’t empty.
“Ahem, thank you. Welcome, fillies and colts. This is undoubtedly your first day ever at Canterlot Public School. Here you will learn tools that will help you in your life, things such as mathematics, literature, history, for unicorns, magic, and for pegasi, flying. I am your principal, Mrs. Days, and I oversee the curriculum and basically, the entire school facility.” She neatened her impeccably straight maroon mane. Her pink eyes seemed to sneer. I had a feeling me and Mrs. Days would know each other quite well by the end of the year.
“I will explain a basic day to you. When the first bell at the beginning of the day sounds you will go to your homeroom. There you will be briefed with any important information. After fifteen minutes, another bell will sound. This signifies the time to go to first period. Every period lasts one hour. Another bell will sound at the end of first period, signifying recess.” I’m guessing this is the time where shenanigans will begin. Mrs. Days adjusted her spectacles.
“Recess is a short, twenty-five minute break, in which you can eat, drink, use the bathroom, socialize and have some time to exercise. After recess is over, you will go to second period. After second period, you will go to third.” Two hours of learning. Great, just great.
“Then, a bell for lunch will sound. Lunch lasts an hour, and in essence, is an extended recess. If you have somehow earned a lunch-time detention, you will attend it.” Lots of emphasis on the word will, there Days. “Then you will go to fourth and fifth period, and after they are over, a bell for home time will sound. You will then leave the school premises, or if you have obtained one, attend an after school detention. These take place in room thirteen directly after the final bell.”
All I could say is it was going to be a long year.
After our little meeting with Mrs. Days, we were all given a sheet of paper and a combination lock. The sheet of paper was a timetable. On it were all of our classes for the week. It repeated every week. It seemed like an awful lot of information and responsibility for young ponies. We were told to go choose a locker, and that books and stationary would be contained in there. Flickers and I managed to snag lockers next to each other. I checked my timetable to see what class I had first. Mathematics in room thirty-two. I groaned. Maths, forever the bane of fun.
“What ya groaning about, Stormy?” asked Flickers, who already had a nickname for me.
“I have maths first period. What do you have?”
“History, in room forty. I guess I’ll see you at recess.” He began to walk off.
“Wait! What do you have second period?” I asked, maybe a little too desperately. I really wanted to be with somepony I could call a friend in at least one of my classes.
“Uhhhh, Equestrian. You?”
I checked my timetable “Same.”
We wouldn’t attend homeroom on the first day of school, but I sure as heck wish I wasn’t doing maths. I quickly found room thirty-two and opened the door to find I was one of the lucky first foals to arrive. There were only three other ponies in the pale blue room with the scratchy shag carpeting, two colts and the teacher. I sat down in the third row, put my saddle-bags on the floor, and waited a short while.
A few minutes later, fillies and colts began pouring in the room. I was lucky I didn’t have epilepsy, or I would have seizured all over the classroom. They filled the class quickly, from the first row to the fourth. The amount of noise was immense, like one hundred elephants trumpeting. A pale blue unicorn sat on my left, and a red earth pony on my right. Both had light blue manes.
The teacher was a light brown unicorn with an aqua mane styled in a bowl cut. He had a look about him, one that was shy. Quiet was possibly a better look.
“Uh, class, if you could be quiet and seated please…” he didn’t even make a dent in the loud chattering in the classroom. I could barely hear him.
“Quiet please!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. He obviously didn’t have very big lungs, but the unicorn managed to get the attention he sought. The class quieted down.
“Thank you. Ahem, good morning class, I am Mr. Decimal, your mathematics teacher.” He began to pace around the room, eyeing each and every one of the pupils with his own, including me.
“I have few expectations. One of them is simple, do not speak while I am speaking.” As he said this he put his hoof in between to talking fillies, who then fell silent.
“Another is that you respect me and your peers. No bullying or instant detention. The final is that you get you work done on time.” He put a lot of emphasis on the last two words. He seemed shy and quiet, but now I had seen the cold, serious side of him, I was going to try and live up to those expectations.
He suddenly lightened the mood. “Well, let’s get down to business, shall we?” He used his magic to put a sheet of paper on everypony’s desk. I looked at the one on front of me. It had numbers on it.
“You should all know some basic mathematic skills, all I ask is that this sheet be done by the end of the lesson.” He looked around the room. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get started!” he said enthusiastically.
I picked up my pencil in my mouth and began answering the questions. Fourteen plus six. Easy, twenty. My chicken scratch mouth writing was almost unintelligible scrawl. I just wish the teacher could read it.
When the bell for recess rang, the students piled out of room thirty-two. I trotted out after all the students, as I was keen not to be crushed. I was glad that first period was over. The red colt next to me kept asking me what the answers were, and it started to bug me after about five minutes. I’ll have to remember not to sit next to him again.
I went to my locker and dumped my stuff in there, then grabbed an apple out of my saddle bag. I stood there waiting for Flickers to get here. Flickers turned up after a couple of minutes waiting.
“Sorry I’m a little late, I got held up.” He patted down his mane a little.
“What happened?” I asked. Curious me was curious.
“Weeeellll, I just happened to make a mess in class. I knocked over all the books in the bookshelf, so I had to clean them up.” He said sheepishly. I didn’t even want to know how he managed that.
“Well, ok then. Grab your food and let’s find something fun to do.” As I said that, we were approached by the red earth pony from maths, and he had friends.