“You! Yes, You!” the teacher screamed as he called on an unsuspecting student.
It is now 3rd or 4th grade. I am still relatively young, and I’ve been in school for around 5 years. The things I’ve been learning were nothing new, and I was used to the work by now. I was also used to how harsh the teachers can be sometimes. If you said anything they didn’t like, you would be met with one of many different types of punishments they’d give out. The schoolmaster looked like he fought in a war, and he acted like he was in the military, and he let it all out on the students. He’d take any chance he was given to brainwash you with his… “unusual” methods. Once, a colt who stepped out of line was used to test some of the new defense mechanisms. His personality completely changed afterwards, and I believe even today, he acts like he has PTSD. From day one, I worked hard not to do anything that would result in a “meeting” with the schoolmaster, and I ended up doing a pretty decent job. However, some weren’t as lucky.
One filly ended up getting sent to the schoolmaster’s office after falling behind in class, and they returned wet and ice cold. Another asked a question in class and ended up getting sent to a dark room for three hours. Apparently, he developed nyctophobia afterwards, and even became scared of the night time in general. It took him about 10 years to recover, and he is still pretty shaky in some dark areas. However, one student stood out from all the others, although she never got punished, she always looked at the staff with confusion and sometimes even anger. It felt as though she was planning to make a run for it any moment. However, she never did. That was none other than Sunny Starscout. Teachers always seemed disappointed in her, yet they couldn’t find a reason to really punish her. Sometimes, I feel like the only reason she’s alive is because she’s friends with Hitch, who is friends with both the sheriff and my mom. Technically, the school isn’t legally allowed to do some of these things, but everyone was too afraid to speak out against it. Sunny wasn’t, though. Sometimes, it felt like the staff were scared of her. Sometimes. It always looked like they wanted to just grab her and drag her to the schoolmaster’s office for punishment, but they could never trace anything back to her. They couldn’t blame her for anything.
One day, I was beginning to notice Sunny gained a few friends. I thought that was odd, since it was hard for her to become friends with anypony because of her… doctrine. She then didn’t show up to class. My first thought was what she was up to, but it was immediately interrupted by me remembering to remain at work. About an hour went by, and a few students were able to excuse themselves. They never returned. It began to feel like there was no one there after a while, but we were finally excused to recess. I went to find Hitch, who was missing as well. I then sat down, unsure of what to do. My friend was missing and there wasn’t much to do besides just sit there. Occasionally, I’d show off some of my “sheriff skills” and try to enforce some of the school’s rules, but all I could do is wonder where everyone went, and count. I counted: 1 minute… 2 minutes…. 5 minutes… on and on and on. This got extremely boring, so I eventually just used my instinct and decided to disregard school rules, heading back inside to find where everyone went. I went through one hallway: no one. Another hallway: no one. I went towards a third hallway, but by that time, our school’s intercom turned on.
“All staff, stay alert. Requesting backup in the-”
The intercom went silent for a moment.
“-MAKE PEACE WITH PEGASI AND UNICORNS. CHOOSE FRIENDSHIP!”
Within seconds, the hallway was crowded.