//------------------------------//
// Flappy Learns What's Up 
// Story: Sparkling Storytime 
// by Captain_Cosmos 
//------------------------------//

“Squawk! Ah this takes me back. Squawk!” Flappy commented.

“What does?” Maddy asked.

“Squawk! Sparkler, Twilight, and their son Kicker sitting at a table, reading and learning about stuff. In a way, it reminds me of early on in my friendship with Sparkler. Squawk!” Flappy explained.

“I bet it was just as cute.” Maddy commented.

“Squawk! Eh…you could say that.”

“What was it like early on? For you and Sparkler to be friends?” Maddy asked.





Squawk! Here’s a tale from those days. It all started the day after she fixed me up…Squawk!

Six year old Sparkler was busy running around her room, gathering her books and stuffing them in her saddlebag.

Flappy, her new parrot, watched his new owner scurried around the room. “Squeak! What’re you doing Sparkler? Squeak!” He asked curiously.

“I’m getting ready for school, Flappy.” Sparkler said.

“Squeak! School? What’s that? Squeak!” Flappy asked, intrigued.

“It’s where foals like me learn things. Math, Science, English, that kind of thing.” Sparkler explained. “And my favorite subject, Music.”

“Squeak! Sounds fun! Squeak!” Flappy said, flapping his good wing. “Squeak! Can I come? Squeak!”

Sparkler’s smile faded at that. “Uhm…” Sparkler hesitated. She knew full well the school’s rules about pets, they weren’t allowed. But at the same time, for the first time ever, she could say that she had a friend in school, something that had never, ever happened before.

“Sparky! Y’all ready in there? Come on, you gotta leave for school.” They heard Sparkler’s dad call in.

Sparkler glanced at the door, and then back to Flappy. After second’s thought, she made her choice. He’s small enough to fit in my saddlebag, I just need to make sure none of those stupid idiots take my bag.

“Sure. You can come along.” Sparkler said. She lit her horn and encased Flappy in her magic. With as much care as she could possibly muster, she moved him from his place on her desk and settled him into the saddlebag. “Just make sure to not make too much noise.”

When Flappy was safe in her bag, Sparkler trotted out of her room where her mom and dad were waiting by the front door.

“Got everything Sparks?” Aurora asked.

“Yep.” Sparkler replied. “Homework, lunch, books, all ready for another day at school.” She rolled her eyes at that.

Thundercracker smiled and ruffled his daughter’s mane. “Hey, don’t worry about those featherbrains. Don’t let them get to you.” He said.

“Ok.” Sparkler replied.

Her parents smiled and both kissed her horn. “Have a good day sweetie.” Aurora said.

“I’ll try.” Today should be better since I’m now gonna have an actual friend in that joint. With that thought in mind, Sparkler smiled and trotted out the door. “Bye mom! Bye dad!”

“See you when you get home sweetie!” Thundercracker replied.

When their daughter turned off their property, Aurora and Thundercracker turned into the house. “Hey Flappy! You here?” Aurora called out.

There was no response. Thundercracker smiled and shook his head, knowing Flappy would’ve responded. “I called it last night, she took him to school with her.” He said.

“We’ll let her have this one. Leave it to the school to handle if they catch her.” Aurora replied giggling.

They both knew full well the situation with school and their daughter, the other students straight up hated her guts. So they weren’t surprised in the slightest that Sparkler would take a risk and bring her first ever friend, their new pet parrot, to school, so that she could finally feel like she did have a friend in that place.

“Now I’m glad I added an extra little piece of watermelon.” Aurora commented.





“Wait wait wait, I’m confused. Sparkler didn’t have ANY friends before you came along?” Maddy asked.

“Squawk! That’s right. Squawk!” Flappy replied.

“And from the sound of it, she was desperate enough to break the rules just so she could finally feel like she had a friend there…I’m almost afraid to ask how she came to that decision.” Maddy commented.

“Squawk! I didn’t understand it at first either. But when we went to the library during her lunch, THAT’S when I understood exactly what was going on. And it was nothing pretty. Squawk!” Flappy explained.





Squawk! We had just gotten to the library and sat down. At a table isolated from everypony. Squawk!

Sparkler set her saddlebag on a table in the library, as well as the few books she retrieved from bookshelves around the place. She glanced back at the rest of the room to make sure nopony was watching, then carefully opened her bag to let Flappy walk out.

Flappy happily walked out of the bag and smiled up at Sparkler. “Squeak! So. What’s for lunch? SqueaK!” He asked in a hushed voice.

“Let’s see.” Sparkler extracted her lunch box from her bag and opened it up. Inside she found a sandwich, and a small piece of watermelon. She smiled as she extracted both food and set the watermelon down for Flappy. “A sandwich for me, and a piece of watermelon for you.” She said.

“Squeak! Awesome. Squeak!” Flappy replied as he started eating the watermelon.

While that was going on, and while she ate her sandwich, Sparkler took one of the books she got and started to read it. Flappy became curious after a moment. “Squeak! Whatcha reading? Squeak!” He asked.

“Basically how to take care of a parrot. Now that I have you to take care of I have to learn how I can best care for you—“

“Hey! Horned Chicken!” They heard a colt call out from another table.

Sparkler resisted the urge to answer. Just ignore them.

Flappy noticed his owner’s mood drop, but he also noticed a foal from another table frowning when they didn’t get an answer. He watched curiously as the colt took out an egg, and was surprised when the colt threw it at Sparkler, landing it’s target.

Sparkler felt that and winced at the impact. Almost immediately she heard the colt again. “Hey! I’m talking to you.” They said.

Sparkler gritted her teeth before deciding just to get it over with. “What do you want Galvin?” She asked.

“Oh, I was just wondering where your friends were, but then I remembered that you couldn’t make friends to save your life.” That caused everypony who heard it to erupt in a bout of snickering.

Flappy raised an eyebrow. What the heck was going on? Why was this colt being mean to his new friend?

The colt named Galvin calmed down from his snickering, and whispered something to his table mates. After which they all started pulling out eggs from their bags.

“Squeak! Sparkler? What’s going on? Squeak!” He whispered.

“Just some foals being idiots. Ignore them.” Sparkler whispered back.

Flappy glanced back to the table and saw the foals there clearly lining up their shots. “Squeak! Sparkler, you might want to—“

Too late, Flappy watched as those foals swung their hooves and the eggs went flying. All of them hitting Sparkler. The foals started chuckling.

“What? You’re not even gonna try to make it hard?” A colt asked.

“Yeah. Don’t you know how this game works you featherhorn?” A filly asked.

To Flappy’s surprise, the bombardment continued. He stood there, shocked. What the flap is going on here? Clearly whatever was going on wasn’t good, but he couldn’t understand WHY it was happening. From what he’d seen Sparkler had done nothing wrong.

Sparkler meanwhile was trying to keep it together. To not give her assailants the satisfaction of seeing her break down in tears, but it was really hard when the eggs just kept on hitting her.

“Hey!” A new voice suddenly called out very sternly.

Everycreature turned their attention to the source and saw a mare standing in the middle of the room, sending glares to a certain table.

Ms. Nook walked over to the table full of assailants. “What is going on here?” She asked the foals.

“Nothing Ms. Nook.” All the foals said, which was an obvious lie.

“Pelting one of your fellow students with eggs is NOT nothing. Neither is calling them names for no reason. I have told you this before, have I not?” Ms. Nook asked.

“Yes Ms. Nook.” The foals replied, realizing they were caught.

“And now you all can go to the principal's office…again.” Ms. Nook told them.

The foals just nodded and left the library. Ms. Nook watched them go as she lit her horn. Sending a horn pulse along to let the principal know they were gonna get visitors. After that was done, Ms. Nook turned back to where Sparkler was.

Flappy saw her coming and immediately moved towards the backpack, he didn’t know if she had seen him yet but—

“It’s ok little fella.” He heard Ms. Nook said. “You don’t need to hide.”

Sparkler tensed up a little as Ms. Nook arrived at her table, and she turned her head to see a concerned and caring face. “M-Ms. Nook…” She trailed off, her eyes watering.

Ms. Nook sat down and embraced Sparkler in a comforting hug. “Shh. It’s ok.” She cooed, soothing the distraught filly. “We’ll talk about the parrot later. Right now, do you want to go to the nurse and get cleaned up?” She asked.

Sparkler could only nod, not trusting her words right now.





“Ok, now this is getting ridiculous. I mean, name calling is one thing, but pelting her with eggs? Are you serious right now?” Maddy asked, appalled.

“Squawk! I’m dead serious. Squawk!” Flappy replied. “Squawk! And to say I was more than a little mad would be an understatement. Squawk!”





”It wasn’t til we got to the nurse where I learned EXACTLY what was going on. Squawk!”

“There ya go kiddo.” The nurse said as she helped Sparkler out of the large sink in the nurse's office and set her down on the floor, all cleaned up. “All nice and clean.”

“Thank you Mrs. Joy.” Sparkler replied.

“No prob. Just stop by anytime you need something.” Mrs. Joy said.

Sparkler nodded and walked out into the waiting room, where Ms. Nook and Flappy were waiting. She gulped. Knowing that she had some explaining to do.

Ms. Nook saw Sparkler come out and smiled. “There we are.” She said, getting out of her seat. “All nice and cleaned up. Sure beats the eggs doesn’t it.”

“Yeah.” Sparkler replied.

“Now. About the parrot…” Ms. Nook said, glancing at Flappy.

Sparkler gulped. “I…I’m sorry. I know the school doesn’t allow pets.” She said. “But…I just…” She trailed off, too scared to explain what she was thinking.

Ms. Nook saw the fear in the little girl’s eyes and smiled warmly. “Hey.” She cooed as she knelt down to Sparkler’s eye level and offered a smile. “I think I know why you did it. Flappy here said how you found him yesterday and patched him up, and then offered him a home with you.” She said.

“Yeah.” Sparkler replied. “I did.”

“Squeak! And we’ve become fast friends. Squeak!” Flappy commented. “Squeak! We had a blast last night. Squeak!”

“Wait.” Mrs. Joy chimed in, she had just connected the dots. “If I’m hearing this right, Sparkler here made a friend yesterday.”

“She did.” Ms. Nook said. “She finally made a friend.” She happily proclaimed.

The nurse smiled and ruffled Sparkler’s mane. “Ha ha! Way to go kiddo!” She exclaimed.

“T-Thanks.” Sparkler replied, smiling sheepishly.

“Squeak! It doesn’t SOUND like that big a deal, does it? Squeak!” Flappy asked. “Squeak! Doesn’t Sparkler have other friends? Squeak!” He asked.

Much to his horror, all three ponies shook their heads. “You’re her first ever friend, little fella.” Mrs. Joy said.

“Squeak! Seriously? Why? Does it have to do with what happened in the Library? Squeak!” He asked.

“It does.” Ms. Nook said. “And it’s been going on from day one.”





“Squawk! And that’s when I was told everything. How all the other students hated her guts, how they never wanted her around, and how they all put her down by calling her names and throwing eggs at her. Squawk!” Flappy finished his story.

“Sweet biscuits.” Maddy responded. “They put her through Tartarus and she didn’t do anything to deserve it?!” She asked. Her anger boiling hot by this point.

“Squawk! Exactly. Squawk!” Flappy replied. “Squawk! All she ever did was try to be their friend, and she got egged for her trouble. Squawk!”

“Grrr. If I ever meet ANY of those pinbrains, I’ll show them how much of an attack dog I can be!” Maddy declared.

“Squawk! Ooh. Please do! Those featherbrains are long overdue to get their just desserts. Squawk!” Flappy responded.

Maddy took a deep breath. “So. Sparkler broke the rules when she took you to school, what happened on that front?” She asked.

“Squawk! The teachers understood that she brought me so she could feel like she finally had a friend in that Tartarus hole and they just let her off with a warning. Because rules are still rules. Squawk!” Flappy explained. “Squawk! Speaking of, I heard there was a celebration in the teacher’s lounge when word spread that Sparkler had finally made a friend, even though I was only a parrot. Squawk!” He added.

“I don’t blame them.” Maddy responded. “I would too in their position.”

“Squawk! Me too. Squawk!” Flappy replied. “Squawk! But believe it or not, this isn’t the worst of it. Squawk!”

“You’re kidding.” Maddy replied. “It got WORSE?”

“Squawk! Not necessarily. Squawk?” Flappy replied. “Squawk! What I mean is, those idiots actually did something far worse. Something that haunts Sparkler to this day. Squawk!” He explained.

“Do I even want to know?” Maddy asked.

“Squawk! No. You don’t. Believe me. Squawk!” Flappy said.

“Duly noted.” Maddy replied. “Let’s just see what Kicker’s learning.”

“Squawk! Sure. Squawk!” Flappy replied.

To be continued…