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// A Much Different Lesson 
// Story: Different Teacher, Different Lesson 
// by StormLuna 
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It was right around 8:30 when the students began to arrive and the first ones to enter were the Cutie Mark Crusaders.  Immediately Scootaloo heard the music and exclaimed, "Steel Stallion?  Miss Cheerilee never plays anything like that!" 

Apple Bloom added, "Uh Scootaloo, she never listens to music at all!" 

White Board gave the students a smile and as more of them arrived, they were all shocked by the fact that their substitute was listening to music, especially heavy metal.  Once all the seats were filled he turned his music off and began, "Good morning class.  I'm sad to report that Miss Cheerilee is ill today but I'm your substitute.  My name is White Board but feel free to just call me Teach, alright?"

The class gasped when he said this.  None of them had ever imagined that a teacher would allow them to call them by anything other than Mr. or Miss anything, much less using such an informal and actually fun name.  He saw their shocked faces and continued, "Alright, I went over what your teacher wanted me to teach today and it looks like she wants you to learn how ponies come to be." 

A pony with a mismatched mane and tail raised her hoof and exclaimed, "That's right, she does." 

He gave the filly a smile and replied, "That is correct and actually you are going to be a perfect example for today's lesson given your unique mane and tail." 

She smiled and he began, "Alright class, how many of you understand how ponies come to be and why they look like they do?"

Nopony in the class knew and this is what White Board was expecting so he began, "Alright, each pony has biological processes that work differently with in them.  The first kind is known as mitosis.  This is the process that occurs when blood cells replicate as you grow.  In this process, every single cell is an exact duplicate of the one that split.  The process for reproductive cells is known as meiosis, those are the cells that are involved in where baby ponies come from." 

Sweetie Belle would raise her hoof and ask, "So about these cells and mei...whatever you call it, are they different from one another?"

White Board replied, "They are.  If they were not, there would be very little in the way of genetic diversity.  When the cells replicate, they are not carbon copies of one another, they are different.  Now about the reproductive process, for a new pony to be created, the reproductive materials inside of a stallion must be combined with those inside a mare."  

Diamond Tiara asked, "So Mr. White Board, how does that happen?  How are they combined?"

White Board could tell that the filly was likely higher class and would be less likely to be informal with him but he let it go in stride.  He replied, "Well in some instances, the stallion provides his reproductive material to a lab and then it is injected into an organ known as a womb that stores the females reproductive material." 

The students eyes grew wide when he brought up injecting something into a mare, especially with the fillies.  Coconut Cream asked, "But wouldn't that hurt, having something injected into you?"

White Board replied, "Being a stallion I would not know but I would imagine it would.  If a couple wishes to create a pony, that is one way that it could happen." 

Scootaloo then raised her hoof and asked, "Can you do it without being injected?  Is there a less painful way to do it?" 

White Board nodded, "There is.  The female can also provide her material to a lab, it will be put into an incubator and then the stallion's material she wishes to have fertilize it will be injected into it and then it will begin to grow into a pony using mitosis."

The terms were still a bit confusing for the students but one wanted to know.  Apple Bloom asked, "So what ya are sayin' is that with that mitosis thing that the cells are the same with meiosis that the cells are different?"

White Board replied, "I am and now on to the next subject.  The characteristics of a pony and why they look the way they do."  She then pointed towards Toolaroola and stated, "With your mane and tail, I will go more in depth with that later but for now, we will start with what type of pony you are." 

One student felt like not everything had been explained.  Silver Spoon asked, "You bring up ponies and incubators, when does the pony get removed from them?"

White Board replied, "Once it has reached a certain size and has fully developed.  That is when it is removed from the incubator in the lab and as far as the pony being in a mare's womb, once it is ready to come out there are two options.  The first being the mother being cut open and the pony being removed." 

The entire class's eyes grew wide in shock and in the case of the fillies,' fear?  Diamond Tiara gagged while Silver Spoon fainted.  White Board saw this and said, "Yeah, that does sound rather scary but luckily, the mother is sedated for this but the other option involves the mother having to be awake for the pony's removal." 

None of the students except one knew exactly what he meant by that but some of the fillies did know one thing, that such a thing would be horrifically painful.  Toolaroola raised her hoof and asked, "My mom told me one time that I came out of her vagim...vaga....the place where she pees!"

This was something that not only shocked the class but horrified them.  Diamond Tiara asked, "Is that true, can baby ponies be born that way?"

When White board nodded his head, some of the fillies screamed in horror and once again Silver Spoon fainted.  White Board was kind of concerned about how the topic was affecting the female students so he stated, "Alright, I think we've covered that topic well enough so now on to the next thing, how ponies come to be and why we look like we do."

The class nodded and he continued, "Alright, there are different genes for earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns.  Now when both parents are unicorns, chances are their offspring will be unicorns because they will pass down dominant unicorn genes." 

This completely confused the class because they had no clue what he meant by dominant genes.  Sweetie Belle asked, "This dominant gene thing, does it mean that I'm all unicorn?"

White Board replied, "Good guess Sweetie Belle but no, no pony is exactly 100% of one kind of pony.  All of us have genetics of each tribe inside of us, with some of us it is just a matter of us being a majority of what kind of pony we are." 

One pony was curious about something though.  Apple Bloom asked, "Alright but the local bakers are earth ponies but their son is a pegasus and their daughter is a unicorn.  How can that be?"

White Board replied, "Excellent question Apple Bloom.  Chances are both of them have the genetics of both tribes flowing through their veins.  This is where the meiosis comes into play, the genetic material provided had to have recessive genes flip to being dominant which is something that happens with meiosis." 

Apple Bloom again raised her hoof and stated, "But they are fraternal twins, there had to be two bits of genetic material fertilized at the same time!" 

This was something that White Board had heard of happening before so it wasn't overly hard to explain, "Well what happened is that the mare had to have released two bits of genetic material at the same time and the stallion's genetic material was injected and fertilized them.  I'm guessing that she carried those in her womb because a lab would never allow that to happen." 

Apple Bloom nodded and he continued, "Ok, on next to how we become either male or female.  Ok, the mare's genetic reproductive material always has the X chromosome, always.  The stallion's reproductive material can either carry the X chromosome or the Y chromosome."

One student in the class finally raised his hoof, Snails.  "Uh, so you're saying my dad gave a Y chromo....kimon...you know the Y." 

White Board was a bit frustrated by the colt's way of answering it and began to wonder if Cheerilee was even a decent teacher for not correcting such a thing but figured he could deal with that later.  He replied, "Correct Snails, correct."  He paused before asking, "Ok class, Snails was created because he provided the Y chromosome.  Can anypony tell me what chromosome the father must provide to create a filly." 

Apple Bloom immediately raised her hoof and exclaimed, "The X chromosome!" 

White Board replied, "Correct.  Now on to odd characteristics.  Now as everypony knows Toolaroola has something that most ponies don't have, a mismatched mane and tail and this is where we go into the affects that things such as radiation."  He then called on Toolaroola, "Toolaroola, what kinds of jobs to your parents have?"

Toola replied, "Both of them have worked as radiologists in the hospital since before I was born." 

White Board gave her a smile and commented, "Alright, I have a feeling that happened because the radiation involved in their line of work caused the genetics in either one of their reproductive materials to become altered or perhaps even both of them."  He paused before adding, "And it isn't just radiation in hospitals that can do that, sometimes a rogue gamma ray can penetrate the atmosphere and do the same thing, alter the DNA in your reproductive material." 

The term "gamma ray" was something that nopony had ever heard of.  Apple Bloom raised her hoof and asked, "What is a gamma ray?  Ah've never heard of it."

White Board replied, "A gamma ray is a high energy form of radiation that is created in distant exploding stars.  Now most of that radiation is weak enough by the time it gets here that it won't do much damage but sometimes, a gamma ray will make its way through and do damage to your reproductive material."

The lesson had been going the way White Board had been hoping for and the day was nearing a close.  He was hoping that the students wouldn't bring up what else Cheerilee had on her plans.  Those hopes would be dashed when Toolaroola asked, "Miss Cheerilee said something about pony sezzzua or something like that."

Coconut added, "I think it might be like why ponies like one another." 

This was something that White Board really hoped that nopony would bring up because it was one of those things that he also believed should be taught at home rather than in the public education system.  He was trying to think of a good response and then it hit him, he'd let them out early.  He replied, "That is something that would be better talked about with a psychologist but anyway, how about all of you go home early today.  Today's lesson had to have been tough on you." 

The whole class cheered as they left the schoolhouse.  As they were heading home Toolaroola exclaimed, "Wow, can you believe it Coconut, baby ponies can be born in labs!  Mommy and Daddy always said that parents have to do weird stuff for it to happen but now we know we don't need to mess with icky boys if we ever want any of our own." 

Coconut gave a sigh of relief, "That is good because I don't like boys like that!" 

Toolaroola gave her a smile and a wink, "Me neither but I do like you though!" 

The two giggled as they decided to head for home.  While Coconut thought the comment was simply funny, Toolaroola was really hoping that she'd catch onto the statement sooner or later and know that she really liked her.