I took a moment to compose myself before I went back into the classroom. Not that it mattered anymore. Maybe I could just pretend that they all didn’t exist? It had never worked before, but who knows. Maybe this time they actually would leave me alone if I ignored them.
I took my seat at the desk and kept my focus on the blackboard. Cheerilee had drawn out a calendar on the board, and it was complicated. After I’d heard that there were one thousand days in a year I’d expected that the lengths of months would be similarly round numbers. Perhaps ten months of a hundred days each? That would have made sense. Instead, there were twenty four months in a year, each with either fourty one or fourty two days, plus another seven days at the end of the year that weren’t part of any month at all.
Rather than being ahead of other ponies my age, I found myself unable to even remember the months of the year. I really hoped I wasn’t going to be called on again to answer a question, since I would certainly make an even greater fool of myself.
This lesson was about how to calculate the number of days between two dates on the calendar. The example was calculating Twist’s age in days. She was eight thousand three hundred and fifty three days old.
Wait a minute.
If I’m eight or nine years old here, and a year is a thousand days, that means a year here is worth like... three earth years. A bit less, since it was three six five rather than three three three on Earth.
I lamented that I didn’t have the dexterity with this body to write out the math, but I could still estimate easily enough. Three eights were twenty four. Three nines were twenty seven. A bit less because slightly more than a third, although if I was eight or nine I could still be nine and a half.
My age hadn’t changed. It wasn’t that this body was younger than my body as a human, it was just that ponies aged painfully slow.
Though it hardly mattered, I realised that I actually could figure out when my birthday was in this world by calculating the number of days I was alive as a human, and adjusting it to this world’s calendar.
I was making a number of assumptions here. I knew they used twenty four hour days here, and sixty minutes in an hour, sixty seconds in a minute. I could tell that by looking at the helpfully labeled clock which had both minutes and hours labeled (no doubt to teach foals how to read an analog clock). How long was a second? Was it the same as earth? How could I tell how long a second was? They felt the same subjectively. If acceleration due to gravity-
“Pssst.”
My eyes were closed in concentration so I didn’t see who was trying to get my attention. I ignored it.
“Psssst.”
I was suddenly reminded of the episode where Diamond Tiara tricked Applebloom into getting caught passing notes, and a flare of anger rose inside of me.
Snapping my eyes open I turned to face the direction of the sound, only to find myself glaring at... Applebloom.
“Green, you can’t sleep in class,” Applebloom whispered, “You’ll get in trouble.”
I swallowed and nodded, feeling guilty for the look I’d just given her.
At the end of class Cheerilee motioned to me with her head like she wanted to speak with me again, but I pretended not to see it. I didn’t want to talk to her.
The Crusaders were taking their assignment of guarding me perhaps a little too seriously. As we left the schoolhouse they made sure I was at the center of their little herd. It made me feel awkward to have one of them walking behind me, but whenever I lagged too much, Scootaloo would circle around behind me again. Her face was still bruised, and I wanted to keep her where I could see her.
“What are you doing here?” Applebloom accused.
Somehow Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had managed to sneak up on us without me noticing. Diamond ignored Applebloom and spoke directly to me. I felt my temper flare again.
“Mrs Cheerilee says I have to apologize to you.” Said Diamond Tiara.
“Ok.” I tried to keep my voice neutral.
“Aren’t you going to accept my apology?” She asked
“Please never speak to me again.” I said
Diamond Tiara huffed.
“Wow, I thought maybe you were cool but-”
I wanted to break her stupid face. In that moment, she was every bully I'd faced in my life.
“Fall down a well, Diamond Tiara.” I interrupted
She smirked.
My chest felt like it was going to burst if I didn’t scream. My coat stood on end. My eyes stung, and I felt like I was going to cry.
A painful spark arced from the tip to the base of my horn, and a pulse of air blew back Diamond’s mane for a moment.
My body felt numb. I was going to pass out.
Breathe. Don’t lock your knees. Focus.
Okay, kneel then, but don’t -
The grass was so soft.
Just don’t close your-
“Green,” said Applebloom, “Are ya alright?”
Why was I on the ground? Oh right. I fainted.
Embarrassed, I quickly got up. The world was spinning a bit and I felt nauseous.
“I’m fine.” I said. “What happened to Diamond Tiara?”
“She, uh,” Said Scootaloo, “She kinda called you a blank flank loser and went to tell Ms Cheerilee that you attacked her with magic.”
My horn hurt.
“Great.” I said.
“That was so cool,” Said Scootaloo, “Your eyes were all glowing and then it was like wumf and everything got blown away from you and even I could feel the magic and I’m a pegasus! I think Diamond was scared there for a moment.”
I sighed.
“All I’ve done is show her that she can make me so upset that I faint.” I grumbled.
“Why do ya hate Diamond Tiara so much?” Asked Applebloom. “Ah mean, ya’ve only just met her.”
“I don’t like bullies.” I said. “I thought maybe I was over it, but whenever I see a bully, it just comes back.”
I wanted to cry again.
“Don’t worry Green!” Said Sweetie Belle, “We’ll help you find your cutiemark and you won’t have to worry about getting bullied anymore.”
“Were it so easy.”