//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: First Day // Story: Daughters of the Purge // by Nebula Star //------------------------------// Chapter 10: First Day *** Walking side by side with her sister and Twilight, Winter looked up at the Schoolhouse as Twilight had called it. It was a friendly looking place, with bright colors, and large windows, and the foals in the yard laughing and playing before class was to start added to that image. Still, she was nervous. She and her sister hadn’t really interacted much with other foals. Mother hadn’t wanted them interacting with mortal foals at all, and she definitely hadn’t approved of any of the other alicorns. Before waking in this time, she’d only ever had one friend… that is until mother found out. Dawn hadn’t ever had a real friend before now. She took a deep breath. That could change here. Mother wasn’t around to stop them, and Princess Twilight encouraged them to make friends. Apple Bloom and the crusaders as they liked to call themselves had been nothing but welcoming to the alicorn sisters, eager to be their friends, despite Winter being a couple years older than them. Even Diamond Tiara, who she knew was a recent addition to the group. She hadn’t caught the full story yet; just that they’d been far from friends until recently. The crusaders had seemed almost surprised each time she’d shown up asking if she could join them. Still, she was nervous. Though things were different, they still had very little experience with other foals. It helped knowing that the Crusaders would be in their class. Twilight stopped at the fence along the road, turning toward them with a smile. “Alright, so I already explained the basics of where you’re from to Miss Cheerilee. It’s up to you how much you want to tell the other foals. Though I’m sure you understand, it would be best not to mention your mother by name for now.” Winter and Dawn both nodded. They both knew all too well that mentioning their mother’s name never did them any favors. “You both have your lunches, your school books, and quills. Was there anything else…” Twilight went on seeming almost as nervous as she was, though Winter knew it was for an entirely different reason. Rainbow Dash and Daring Do were searching for the second of the alicorn prisons today. And even after they’d found the first prison and made it past all the traps to find the prison still holding, she was still worried that something would go wrong. She suspected the princess would be just as worried every time they found one of the prisons; at least so long as her marefriend was one of the ponies exploring them. “I think we doth have everything.” Winter assured her. “We didst double check before we left.” “Right.” She sighed. “Alright then; I hope you have a good first day! I’ll come and get you once school is out.” Winter nodded. Twilight had already told them as much. “We will see thee then,” she said and with Dawn by her side, started across the lawn toward the schoolhouse. Their arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed however and three fillies galloped across the lawn to meet them halfway. “Ania! Adikia! You’re coming to school with us!?” Apple Bloom asked excitedly. “Uh yes…” Winter said, realizing that with the trip to Canterlot, they hadn’t seen any of the crusaders since they’d decided on their new names. “But, uh, we didst decide to change our names.” Apple Bloom blinked. “You did? Why?” “Dost thou know where our old names didst come from?” “Nope.” Apple Bloom said shaking her head and the other two fillies shook their heads as well. The sisters exchanged glances. “Twas old beleifs, even in our time.” Dawn said with a shrug. “Well our old names… they were from old beleifs, the names of spirits…” “Bad spirits.” Dawn added. “Really? Why’d your mom give you names of bad spirits?” Scootaloo asked. “She was not a good pony…” Winter said, hoping they’d catch from her tone that she didn’t want to say more about it. Sweetie Belle seemed to understand. “So what’s your new names?” She asked to change the subject. “I’m Dawn Melody!” Dawn said, happy to share her new name. “That’s a nice name.” Apple Bloom said smiling. “Yeah, it really suits you.” Sweetie said and Scootaloo nodded in agreement. Then they all looked at Winter expectantly. “And I…” Winter blushed, wondering how Sweetie Belle would react. “Well I didst decide on… Winter Belle.” Sweetie’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as both the other crusaders looked over at her. Slowly she grinned. “That’s a great name!” She exclaimed, her voice squeaking. Winter smiled hesitantly. “Thou art not worried ponies might think us related?” “Nah, my family doesn’t really have a family name tradition; not like the Apples.” Sweetie told her dismissively. “Besides we’re friends so it wouldn’t matter even if ponies did think we’re related.” Just then the school bell rang signaling all the colts and fillies that it was time for class. “Better head in!” Scootaloo said. “Miss Cheerilee will probably want to have you introduce yourselves.” Winter and Dawn followed as the three crusaders led the way into class. Already there were a few looking toward them curiously, though Winter was glad to see there was no fear nor hostility. Just foals curious about their new classmates. When they reached the door they found a magenta earth pony mare with a two tone pink mane greeting the students as they arrived. She smiled warmly when she spotted the sisters. “You must be our new students!” She said sounding excited that her class was growing. “Please stay up here at the front so you can introduce yourselves.” Winter glanced at Dawn and with a shrug went to stand at the front of the class while the crusaders went to their desks with the rest of the class. It wasn’t long before they had the attention of nearly the entire class. Winter saw Diamond Tiara, but other than her and the crusaders, there wasn’t anypony else they knew in the class. Which wasn’t really a surprise, but it did make her a little nervous, even if there wasn’t any obvious hostility from any of them. “Welcome back everypony, I hope you all had a great weekend!” Miss Cheerilee said as the last of the students took their seat. “Before we get started today, we have a couple new students joining our class, so I’d like you all to give them a very warm welcome.” She turned and gestured Winter and Dawn forward. “Go ahead and introduce yourselves.” Winter nervously stepped forward aware of Dawn following at her side. “Hello… My name is Winter Belle and this is my sister…” “My name is Dawn Melody!” Dawn said, eager to give her new name. Winter noticed Diamond Tiara looked surprised at their new names but didn’t say anything. “Are you princesses!?” One of the fillies asked excitedly. Winter blinked. “No.” “But you’re alicorns! Doesn’t that mean you’re princesses?” “No we art simply alicorns.” She replied. She supposed it was understandable; all the alicorns they knew of were the princesses. “Where are you from?” One of the other fillies asked. “Oh, uh.” Winter glanced at Miss Cheerilee and got an encouraging smile in return. “We art from a long time ago. We were um… imprisoned…” She trailed off unsure how much she should say. Fortunately, Miss Cheerilee saved her. “Princess Twilight explained to me that Winter and Dawn were wrongfully imprisoned almost three thousand years ago. And that our very own Apple Bloom helped to find and rescue them.” The entire class looked at Apple Bloom who blushed at the attention. “Wait, you’re three thousand years old!?” A colt exclaimed looking back at them. “Well yes, sort of… The prison didst keep us asleep and didst prevent us from aging.” Winter tried to explain. “They didst put us in and the next we didst know, the prison was opening again and Apple Bloom was there with the others.” Dawn said. “And twas three thousand years later.” Winter finished. “Wow, that must have been crazy!” “Twas unsettling.” She agreed. “Well, I hope you’ll all make Winter Belle and Dawn Melody feel welcome in our class.” Miss Cheerilee said, deciding that was enough introductions. She turned to them with a warm smile. “You can go ahead and take your seats,” she said, gesturing to a pair of empty desks next to each other near the back of the classroom. Winter watched the rest of the students as she and Dawn made their way back to their desks. They were all watching with curiosity more than anything else, and there wasn’t even a hint of fear or hatred. She couldn’t help smiling as she took her seat with Dawn next to her. “Now, first off today we will be continuing learning about the collapse of the griffon kingdom and the decline of Griffonstone…” Miss Cheerilee began and the rest of the class returned their attention to the teacher, and before long, both alicorn sisters were listening intently as well. ~~~ Twilight looked around the room at the numerous boxes stacked full of books. Having lived in the library for so long, she hadn’t realized how few of the book were actually hers. Most of her collection was either back in her old room in Canterlot, or her parents house. She’d have to make arrangements to get them all moved to her castle once it was ready… Even so, they’d probably only fill a quarter of the new castle’s library. She smiled; that just meant she’d have an extra reason to add to her collection. After all, it wouldn’t do for her to have empty shelves in her library. Scanning the room once more, she tried to think of anything else she could start packing up. She had less than two weeks after all. A chime from her bracelet almost made her jump. She’d hoped working on packing would help distract her and keep her from getting too tense, but clearly it wasn’t working. She tapped the gem on her bracelet to answer. “Hello?” “Hey, Twi.” Rainbow’s voice came through the bracelet, and immediately she felt a wave of relief wash over her at hearing her voice. “So looks like this one is going to be a no go.” “What do you mean?” Twilight asked. “Well we’re pretty sure we found it; but when we got to what should be the first trap, the entire room was collapsed. What we can see looks just like it sounded in the notes though; so we’re almost certain it’s the prison. Daring is looking to see if there’s a sinkhole visible from the surface that we might be able to get down through, but otherwise we’ll need a whole crew to dig this out; or an alicorn I guess; Achlys sure had no trouble melting a path out of hers.” “Alright, well I’ll put a note on the map and unless Daring finds another way in, just move on to the next one.” Twilight told her trying not to sound too happy that they wouldn’t be risking their lives with any of the traps this time. “Yeah, we’ll probably have to.” She groaned. “Well at least it’s only a couple hours flight to the next prison; we might be able to get there tonight and get to searching right away tomorrow.” “Sounds good, and that will be the last one for this trip, right?” “Yep. Then we’ll head back, pick a new group of prisons and head out again.” Twilight winced, she hadn’t gotten around to telling Rainbow. “Actually, I was hoping you’d stay here and just let Daring handle the next set of prisons. I’m probably going to need your help for the next couple weeks.” “With what?” “Well Celestia hadn’t told me, but apparently she accelerated the work on the castle, and it’s going to be ready for me to move in less than two weeks from now.” “What, really? It’s only been under construction a couple months!” “Yeah, and it’s not going to be complete; there will be a lot of interior work left in some parts that will take another couple months, but the residence wing will be finished.” Twilight told her. “So we’ll be moving you in?” Rainbow asked. “Yep, preferably before the running of the leaves and Nightmare Night.” “Heh, yeah that’s coming up isn’t it. Well alright then. Daring gets pretty good range with the amp so she should be fine on her own.” Rainbow said, and Twilight was glad that she didn’t sound disappointed at all. “Yep, and really she probably will get even better range contacting you.” Twilight told her. “Oh yeah… probably huh? Alright; I’ll plan on sticking around Ponyville then. The weather team will probably need my help with winter prep anyway.” “That too.” Twilight agreed. “There’s Daring now. Looks like it’s a bust. Guess we’ll be heading to the last prison then. My wings are going to be so stiff when we get back. I’m really not used to cross country flying.” Twilight smiled. “Well how about when you get back, I’ll treat you to a spa day.” “I wouldn’t complain; especially if it’s just the two of us.” “I’ll plan on it then.” “Alright, we’re going to go break camp and see if we can get to the last prison before nightfall; Talk to you later Twi!” “Bye, Dashie; be safe!” Twilight heard Daring giggle softly in the background just before the chime of the call ending and couldn’t help giggling a bit herself. She could just imagine Rainbow blushing adorably while trying to play it cool. Smiling at the thought, she decided to get started on dismantling some of the equipment she had in the basement. Everything needed to be packed up eventually and she didn’t think she’d be using any of it in the next couple weeks anyway. ~~~ After the morning lessons, recess had been interesting for Winter and Dawn. At first they’d been practically surrounded by the other foals all asking questions. It had taken Miss Cheerilee telling everypony to stop pestering them and go play to disperse them. Then not knowing what else to do, the Crusaders had pulled them into a game they’d called hoofball. They’d never really had any experience with team sports before other than the keep away game they’d played with the Crusaders, and hoofball was definitely more complex. But it was fun once they’d explained the rules. It had been nice really, to have a short break from the lessons of the day. Once they’d gone back inside, Miss Cheerilee had begun a lesson on geometry; which fortunately hadn’t really changed too much in three thousand years. That had lasted until lunch where they’d once again joined the Crusaders at one of the tables out in the yard. “So how was your trip to Canterlot?” Sweetie Belle asked as they were all getting into their lunch bags. “Twas good.” Winter told her. “We didst meet Twilight’s family and the princesses.” Dawn told them happily, making Winter smile. It had been some time since she’d seen her sister so happy. “Oh, hey! Did you tell the princesses that you’re older than they are?” Scootaloo asked with a grin. Winter groaned. “Dawn didst make a joke about it… then Princess Celestia didst keep calling me grandma!” The crusaders laughed while Dawn giggled behind a hoof. “See, I told you, the princesses have a great sense of humor!” Apple Bloom said with a grin. “They doth seem to be very kind and friendly ponies.” Winter agreed. “Um, is it alright if we sit with you?” Winter looked to see Diamond Tiara standing nearby with another filly they hadn’t met. “Of course! Thou art welcome!” Winter told her gesturing to the bench next to them. Diamond smiled and gladly took the seat next to her, the other filly following her lead. “So, did you change your names, or something?” She asked once she was seated. “Uh, yes.” Winter told her. “Our old names didst come from beliefs that were old even when we were born, and were not good names. Princess Twilight suggested we could change our names when she didst register us as citizens, and we didst decide we wanted to.” “Oh, okay. So Winter Belle, huh?” She looked past her to her sister. “And Dawn Melody?” Dawn nodded. “Yep! Who is thy friend?” Diamond’s eyes widened. “Oh my! I’m so sorry, I didn’t introduce you! This is my good friend Silver Spoon.” She turned to Silver. “They introduced themselves this morning but this is Winter Belle and Dawn Melody. We met last week while you were away on your trip.” “Pleased to meet you.” Silver Spoon said politely, clearly a little off balance. If what Winter had heard about Diamond Tiara’s past concerning the crusaders was true, she was likely a little confused that her friend was suddenly a part of their group. “Pleased to meet thee as well!” Dawn said cheerfully while Winter smiled and nodded in agreement. “So did you go someplace fun?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking across at Silver Spoon. “My father had some business in Manehattan, so we made a vacation out of it.” She answered. “Oh, Manehattan! Rarity loves it there! I’ve only gotten to go once myself, but it would be fun to go back again!” Sweetie said, smiling. “Did you get to do anything fun or see any of the sights?” Silver Spoon glanced over at Diamond Tiara. She was definitely feeling a bit off-balance with the sudden change in what she’d known. Winter could definitely understand that feeling after the past week. “My father had to work a few of the days we were there, but my mother and I went to some of the famous boutiques on those days. We did go see a musical on Bridleway one night.” Silver Spoon told them. “Oh I love musicals!” Sweetie Exclaimed. “What is a musical?” Dawn asked curiously. “And what is Bridleway?” Winter added. Sweetie grinned. “Musicals are great! They’re like plays only most of the story is told in songs with the performers singing as they act out each scene!” “And Bridleway is the name of the road where the biggest and most famous theaters are; it’s where the musicals are performed.” Diamond answered Winter’s question. “A play with singing? That doth sound fun.” “I would like to see one sometime!” Dawn agreed, and took a big bite of her own sandwich. “I’m sure Princess Twilight would be glad to take you to one, if you asked her.” Apple Bloom suggested. “You’d have to take a trip to the city though; the only stage around here is the amphitheater at the park and it’s definitely not big enough for that kind of musical.” “Maybe in the future then.” Winter said, and Dawn nodded eagerly. “So how are you liking your first day of school?” Sweetie Belle asked before taking a bite of her daffodil sandwich. Winter shrugged. “Tis different. In our time, there were places of learning, colleges and such. But they were mostly only for the very wealthy,” she told them, leaving out that the very wealthy usually only included alicorns in those times. “They were usually not for young fillies and colts. Twas up to the parents to teach their foals basic knowledge like history and mathematics.” “I like it. Tis fun learning new things with friends!” Dawn said, while Winter tried her own sandwich. It was something Spike had called Peanut butter and jelly. The jelly she was familiar with; but the peanut butter, that surprised her with its smooth savory flavor that went quite well with the sweet strawberry jelly. “You say that now, but after a few weeks, you’ll be looking forward to the end of class right along with the rest of us.” Scootaloo told Dawn. “Oh don’t be like that Scoot, some ponies actually enjoy learning.” Sweetie scolded with a roll of her eyes. “It doth depend on what you are learning.” Winter said with a smile. She couldn’t help feeling at ease with the other fillies, they’d all been so welcoming. Though she’d been a little worried at first, she was quickly warming up to the idea of this school. And though some of the lessons might get boring if they were things she already knew, most were interesting as she did enjoy learning new things. Really it was the social aspects that she found most appealing, especially for Dawn’s sake. It was becoming abundantly clear that the ponies in this time really didn’t harbor any hatred of alicorns anymore, and she couldn’t help thinking that such a social learning environment could be good for Dawn. Her as well, if she were to be honest. If every day was like this, she didn’t think school would be too bad. ~~~ Afternoon recess saw the sisters again pulled into a hoofball game with the crusaders, though this time Diamond Tiara decided to participate as well, running, laughing, and playing with the other school foals. Partway through the game though, Winter noticed Diamond Tiara’s friend standing on her own, looking toward the game seeming conflicted. As if she wanted to join as well, but didn’t think she should. She frowned reminded of a filly she’d known long ago who’d been afraid to try and be her friend… of course she probably would have been better off if she hadn’t, but that was beside the point. Silver Spoon seemed to want to join the game, but something was stopping her. Stepping away from the game, Winter decided to go talk to her. Silver Spoon saw her as she headed her way and seemed surprised, but didn’t say anything. “Thou could join, if thou want,” Winter told her. “I do not think anypony would object.” She almost stepped forward, but then hesitated. “It isn’t an activity appropriate for a proper young mare.” Winter raised a brow at that. “That is silly. Thou dost look like thou doth want to play. What is the harm in having fun?” “My parents would not approve,” she said with a hint of sadness. Winter frowned. “Hast thou asked?” “No…” “Then how dost thou know?” Silver Spoon looked down not knowing how to answer. “Silver Spoon, my mother also would not have approved of this; she didst expect Dawn and I to learn and train with our magic almost every hour of the day. But she was not a good pony,” Winter said softly. “She did not care about our happiness.” “I’m sorry… That sounds awful.” Winter nodded sadly, then looked her in the eye. “Dost thou believe thy parents to be good ponies?” “Of course!” She exclaimed. “Then they would want thee to be happy.” Winter said with a smile, then turned to head back to the game. “There is still time, if thou dost want to join.” She said looking back over her shoulder. Silver Spoon hesitated a moment more, but then, with a smile galloped after her.