//------------------------------// // Year One: Chapter 3 // Story: Equestrian Education: Year One // by ChaoticHarmony //------------------------------// ----Equestrian Education---- Year One: Chapter 3 – The Office Twilight Sparkle sat in the vacant classroom, her watery eyes tracing over the different objects that stood out from the cheerfully-plastered walls. The bell had long since sent its pealing cry throughout the school building, signaling absolute chaos in the form of a thousand or more students standing up and exiting their classes, but still she sat in silence. Multiple times her small legs had tried to lift her from the seat only to fail and cause her to do a strange rocking motion in the chair that would have been comical in any other situation. Fear rolled through her body unbridled, sending small tremors down her hooves and her back to shiver occasionally. Her brother was suddenly right next to her, his face stern like a brother who was chastising his sister. “Twili, what do you think you’re doing here still?” She looked up into his eyes and sniffed loudly. The imagined-Shining Armor recoiled, seemingly unsuspecting of her sadness. “Woah, what’s wrong, Twili?” She brushed away a tear that had managed to escape her attempts to contain it, sending the drop of liquid sadness to soak into the carpet. “Shiny, it’s terrible! My day has been nothing but bad!” She ran into her brother’s open hooves and returned his embrace. “First Daddy embarrasses me in front of all the other kids, and then I have to sit through a boring class that I already know everything and more about, and then Miss Spark tells me to pay attention, and then… and t-then…” The distraught filly’s speech had descended into incoherency as sobs wracked her small body. Her brother’s warm body was a comforting presence, his large hoof stroking her mane as she cried into his mane. “It’s all ri—“ “No, Shiny, it’s not!” She pulled away and looked pleadingly into his eyes. “After all that other bad stuff, Miss Spark told me that I have to go to the office after school!” She hated how childish she sounded but there was no stopping the flood after the gates in her heart had opened. “I can’t just go home but I can’t go to the office!” She buried her muzzle into the messy blue mane again, hiding away from her problems. “What am I supposed to do?” He pushed her slightly away from him, a stern and brotherly light in his sapphire eyes. “Sis, remember when you wanted to go buy some candy from that store, but were too scared to ask the mean-looking stallion who worked at the counter?” She searched through her mind for a moment before finding the correct memory and nodding. “Well, remember how I went to go get you that candy?” She nodded again, her mouth watering at the remembered taste that the Flower Pop had had. “Well, that stallion was actually very nice. He only charged me half-price because ‘it was for such a cute little filly’. Those were his exact words.” Shining smiled down at her, a distant smile that told her he was still deep inside the past. She pulled away from him angrily, walking over to the window and looking out at the nearly-deserted courtyard. “But what does that have to do with having to go to the office?” She looked back at her brother innocently, her mind, so apt to solving equations most grown ponies couldn’t solve, working to understand what her brother was trying to say. She could tell that her brother was resisting the urge to sigh as he stepped over to her and rubbed a hoof through her mane. “What I meant is that if you weren’t so scared, you could have met a really nice pony! Twilight,” Her brother’s hoof turned her cheek up to look at him. “If you run away from the things that scare you, you won’t find the nicer things that are hidden inside the bad. You don’t know that what Miss Spark wants with you is bad, do you?” She shook her head slightly. “But—“ Her brother held up a hoof to her protesting mouth, stifling the words of argument before they could begin. “But you don’t know what you’re going there for, Twili. You have to conquer your fear and go into that office with your head held high. Do you understand what I mean?” Suddenly the world seemed to flow back into her, the white form of her brother fading into nothingness as the gears inside her mind clicked. His voice seemed to float from nowhere, filling the room but meant only for her ears. Go get them, Twili, show them who’s the smartest pony around! Through the window a wind filtered into the room, lightly brushing Twilight’s mane as she looked at the spot where her brother had last occupied. She nodded. “All right, Shiny.” After taking a deep breath, the purple unicorn filly walked to and out of the door. After navigating the now-familiar halls of the school, she found herself standing outside of the glass-walled office where a secretary pony was busy typing away at her typewriter. She walked through the doorway and looked up at the towering desk. “Um, excuse me?” The clicks of the typewriter didn’t slow in the slightest. “Excuse me?” She repeated a little louder, her voice cutting through the constant clicks of the device, which stopped after she spoke. “Hmm? Oh, it’s you, Miss Sparkle. Go right in, Miss Spark and the principal are waiting for you.” The light-pink pony waved a hoof towards an ominous door made of oak, its surface polished to a mirror-like quality. “Go on then. Don’t be scared.” The clicks of the typewriter filled the office once more as Twilight slowly walked towards the gateway into her future. She stopped just outside of the looming door, staring into her reflection’s nervous eyes. Taking a deep breath, she lifted a hoof and pushed the door open, which did so with a loud creak that made her jump. A deep voice reverberated from inside the room, coming from the pony sitting in the chair which was turned away from her. “Come in, Twilight, and shut the door behind you please.” In one of the chairs that sat in front of the desk sat Learning Spark, who was looking at Twilight with no expression. After the door clicked shut, the voice seemed to fill the space, vibrating her to the core. “Thank you, now please, sit.” The only available seat in the room was the chair next to the teacher, which she leapt onto and avoided her teacher’s stare, looking instead to the back of the large office chair. “Now, Miss Sparkle, Miss Spark here has told me certain things about you and, to be frank, I am astounded that a filly of your age and… background… would know such things.” She bowed her head, fighting back her tears and sobs. “I’m sorry, Mr. Principal.” The chair nearly turned around to show her the pony that was seated in it. “Sorry? Miss Sparkle, what in Equestria are you sorry for?” The words held a hint of incredulity that made blood rush to her face as she looked up confusedly and glanced to the teacher that sat beside her, who was returning her glace with a gaze full of confusion. “W-w-well… I thought going to the office was a bad thing and well, Miss Spark told me to start paying attention in class, and when I got in trouble for not listening in class, I thought she was telling me to come up here because I was in big trouble.” She smiled sheepishly at her teacher, whose confused face melted into a reassuring smile. “That’s also why I took so long to come here; I didn’t want to get here and be in trouble.” “Oh, Twilight, didn’t you see me smiling at you? I was happy about what you said! You spelled such a big word without so much as a pause!” Her teacher positively beamed at her as she leaned forward. “Why Twilight, you are the smartest kindergartener I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot, believe me.” The excited schoolteacher winked at Twilight, her eyes reflecting a kind of excitement that Twilight usually only saw in fillies and colts at her own age. “Um… Miss Spark, are you okay?” Her eyebrows lowered as she looked at her teacher with concern as Learning Spark began to bounce up and down. The principal, catching onto the contagious excitement that practically oozed from the mare, quickly interrupted whatever she was about to say. “Y-yes, Miss Sparkle. Everything is more than okay. Miss Spark here is just… excited.” He also glanced at the teacher and chuckled. “For a good reason as well.” The chair turned to reveal a tan pony with a slicked-back, black haircut and a kind-yet-stern face that most teachers wore. He stood and walked around his desk to place a hoof on her shoulder. “You see, every year we send off our smartest students to participate in the ‘Young Genius Competition” or, the Y.G.C. for short.” His smile faded a small amount as he took in her vacant expression. “Huh?” Her words only affirmed his suspicions of her cluelessness but in actuality, she was trying to understand what the pony in front of her was suggesting. “And for this year’s contestant, we would like to send you, Twilight!” Her teacher’s excited voice overpowered the stallion’s words, her smiling face so bright it would have put the sun to shame. “Huh?!” Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked back and forth between the mare and the stallion. “Of course, we would need your parent’s permission, but that is only if you want to do it, Twilight. Nopony here is forcing you to do this, it is an awful lot of stress to put on such a sma—“ “Of course I want to do it! Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!” She jumped from her chair and rocked back and forth on her hooves, laughing along with her teacher with the principal standing off to one side with a small smile on his own face. -------- “Oh, Twili, you're home!” Her brother waved to her and turned back into the house to shout. “She’s home guys, you can stop freaking.” He turned back to her and gave her a sympathetic pat on the head. “Good luck, kiddo. They are in full “parent freak out” mode.” He nodded sagely, eliciting a giggle from her as he quickly made his way back to his room. When she turned back from flashing another smile at her brother, who quickly popped his head out to wink at her, her parents practically towered over her, a foreboding expression on their faces. Her father cleared his throat and began the dreaded attack. “Young filly, go sit in the living room. Now.” He added when she looked at him with confusion, sending her scuttling down the hallway and plopping down onto the couch. Her parents slowly stepped into the room, moving at a steady pace that built up more tension as they slowly sat on the chairs on either side of her. Her father’s rough cough filled the silence again as he prepared to speak. “Now, Twili—“ “Where have you been, little filly?!” Her mother flew out of her chair and put her hooves on Twilight’s shoulders. “We have been worrying all night about you because you weren’t home at four!” Twilight couldn’t stop herself from glancing out to the window, through which she could see the sun shining brightly, and then to the clock that hung on the wall. It was five thirty. Twilight turned back to the angry mare before her, who had been following her gaze. “Don’t be a smartypants, little filly. You know what I meant.” Her mother shook a chastising hoof in her face. “Where have you been?” Twilight’s excitement couldn’t be contained any further, her hooves clopped together eagerly as she jumped up from the couch herself. “I’mgoingtobeinacompetitionforsmartpoines!” She blurted it out, her words mashing together and becoming nearly incomprehensible. Of course, her family had been more than accustomed to her excited outbursts. They both looked at her with faces that would otherwise come from a blow to the head. “Mommy? Daddy?” Her mother was the first to recover. “T-Twilight dear, d-did you say a competition?” She nodded eagerly. “Yes!” She bounced eagerly onto the couch, leaping in a circle on the cushion. “Yes yes yes yes yes yes!” A hoof landed on her back and pulled her back down to Equestria. “Woah there, little filly, we’ve got to talk about this.” Her father’s stern tone barely hid his own happiness at his daughter’s success. “Sit down and go ahead and tell us about it.” Twilight smiled widely at her parents, who returned the contagious smile, and began to tell her tale. “Well, when I was in class today…” -------- A light blue glow enveloped the purple blanket and drew it over the sleeping filly. A smile spread across her peaceful face as she sighed contentedly. Her father had to resist yawning as he watched her breathe lightly; stuffing a hoof against his mouth to muffle the inevitable reflex that soon came. He looked at her glowing clock, his sleepy mind working to figure out if he was surprised or not. Eventually it made up its mind and sent a jolt of shock through him. Oh my stars it’s late. As the thought of how late it was hit him again, his body forced out another yawn. He bent down to kiss the top of her head, murmuring her name softly and pulling away. As the door swung softly shut behind him, he turned to his wife. “She’s quite the special one isn’t she?” Star Sparkle blinked away tears as she nodded, rubbing away the ones that had escaped her efforts with a hoof. “Our little Sparkle, all ready being a smart pony like that. I just… can’t believe it.” Crescent Moon wrapped his hooves around her and kissed the top of her head like he did Twilight’s, making soft comforting noises in her ear as she nuzzled into his mane. “Don’t forget her new friend, Star. I think her name was Silver Streak?” A nod against the side of his head ruffled his mane into further disarray. “I would love to meet her. She sounds like quite the hero the way our little Sparkle described her.” At the thought of his daughter, he yawned again, bringing a small chuckle from the mare in his hooves. “I think that it’s a little late for that, don’t you, Star?” With a hoof over his wife’s shoulder, he walked towards the bedroom, which called his name with a song that increased in volume with every step. As he laid his head on the pillow with his love nestled against his side, he looked up at the dark ceiling and thought, like he often did at nights as he sometimes found the call of the stars to be too great to sleep through. Our little Sparkle, the pony that’s going to be the talk of her school, going into a competition of smarts. Why does that make me nervous? Her rolled over anxiously and set his muzzle on top of Star Sparkle’s mane, eventually stumbling into the realm of dreams. ------------ Author's Note: Now yes, I know that the updates have been coming in pretty regurarily. However, this is subject to change, and it most likely WILL change. Also, I apologize for a shorter chapter this go around, but this was going to be part of Chapter 2 until I thought that it deserved a separate chapter. So yeah, a little shorter perhaps, but still hopefully the same quality.