There were three dorm buildings, each supervised by a different groundskeeper. One dorm building had the third and fourth-year students, one had all the second-year students, and then there was mine, which had all the first-year students. Each dorm building had three floors, and my class was on the third floor. That meant lots of stairs to climb because elevators were rare in Canterlot. Luckily, I was an earth pony who grew up on a farm, so a little extra workout running up the stairs didn’t bother me.
As I reached the landing, I saw someone was in the way, and I tripped and collided with them as I tried to stop.
“AHHKK! This is why there’s no running allowed on the stairs!” the pony I collided with hollered.
“Sor-” I started to say but stopped to gape.
In front of me, lying on the floor, was a creature wholly engulfed in black and pink flames.
“Someone get the kitten!” a student yelled.
Huh?
A unicorn filly walked over with a tiny tabby kitten held out in front of them using their magic. She held the kitten out towards the flames. Oh no! Was she going to toss it in?
“Awww, so cute!” the flaming monster said, and its flames suddenly went out, leaving behind what looked like a brownish-green mare, but she had scales in some places, along with what looked like a ruddy-brown lion’s mane and a single jagged antler.
The strange mare grabbed the kitten and rocked it like a baby. “You are so cute! I can’t stay mad while looking at you!”
“Mew!” the kitten happily meowed.
The creature set the kitten down and turned, and looked at me. “Okay, I’m calm again. No running on the stairs. Someone can get hurt.”
I was still staring. “Um…who are you?”
The creature stood up. “I’m Groundskeeper Spring Fling, but you can just call me Spring. I’m in charge of supervising and maintaining this dorm building. I’m guessing you’ve never seen a kirin. Are you one of our students? I thought they were all unicorns.”
I blinked. Kirin…right. “Yes, I’m a student. I’m Turnip Jones; I’m supposed to be in room 4J.”
She nodded. "Just down the hall on the right. Your luggage should already be there. Let me go over the house rules. You already heard no running on the stairs. There’s also no running in the halls, no running in your room, no jumping on the beds, no stomping, no staying out after nine, lights out by midnight, no loud music, no physical fighting, no dogs, no birds, no hammering nails into the walls, no level four or higher spells, no hazing, keep your room clean, do not leave any clutter in the halls or stairs, and find Miss Pretty Purrface or a fire extinguisher if I get angry–preferably Miss Pretty Purrface; I don’t like fire extinguishers and they leave such a mess.”
“Mew!” said the kitten, who I assumed was Miss Pretty Purrface.
“Oh! Don’t let Miss Pretty Purrface into your room. She’s supposed to be out patrolling the halls. Don’t let her get outside the building, either; she’s an indoor sweetie kitty,” Spring concluded. “If you have any problems, my room is room 1A.”
“Got it!” I said.
Spring Fling picked the kitten up, who quickly lodged itself in her mane, and the kirin and the kitten took off down the hall.
I looked at the filly who had brought the kitten over. She was gray-furred with an orange mane; her mark looked like a wrench and a hammer. “Hi, I’m Turnip! Nice to meet you. Thanks for saving me from the angry kirin.”
She chuckled. “I think the building catching fire would require us all to be saved. I’m Hannah.”
I blinked. “Hannah? Are you from Earth?”
“Yep! I’m from good old Mississippi,” she said with a smile. “Never thought I would get admitted here. Taking that test for that scholarship felt like a super-longshot, but here I am! Oh…and don’t mention angry kirins. My roommate is a kirin, and she gets kinda stressed if you mention angry kirins. I think living in kirin villages must be pretty traumatic.”
“There’s a kirin student?” I asked. “I didn’t see her during the orientation. Where was she?”
“Oh, Summer was in the restroom the entire time. I had to take a quick tinkle after the presentation and found her hiding in a stall,” Hannah answered. “She was terrified the faculty would notice that they’d admitted a kirin, and they’d say it was a mistake and send her home. If only she’d come to the orientation, she’d have seen you and felt more secure about being here. I mean, she’s at least got a horn…well…antler, but it does the same thing.”
I looked down the hall where Spring had her face up to a door and was talking to it. “Come on out, Summer Wummer! Miss Pretty Purrface wants to see the bestest new student at the school of magic!”
“Mew!” the kitten echoed.
“Oh, and Spring is Summer’s mom,” Hannah added in. “I think Summer is hiding out until her mom goes away.” She jumped. “This is my chance to tell you about the rest of our class! I’ve already learned everyone’s names and which rooms they are in!”
“Oh, that sounds-” I started but got cut off as she grabbed me with her magic and dragged me to the first door of the hall.
“This is the room for Twilight Glow and Lunar Light. I think Professor Newman put them together because of thematic naming,” Hannah said as she pointed to the door. “They’re out right now looking for the library, so you’ll meet them later. They’re both stallions. This class is a little stallion-heavy, which doesn’t bother me. Supply and demand, baby!”
“What?” I asked but didn’t get an answer as she hauled me across the hall.
“This is the room for Red Tape and Prim Tape. They’re twins, but brother and sister, and I don’t think they like rooming together. They haven’t said anything about what they want to specialize in. Maybe they don’t know,” Hannah said thoughtfully. “They’re also stinking rich! You know what that means? Networking! Investing! Great ponies to know. We are so lucky to have them in our class.”
“Oh, that sounds-” I started, but she was already moving to the next room, taking me with her to the open door.
“This is your room!” Hannah announced.
Bright waved at me from inside the room, which had beds on either side of it. “Howdy, roommate. See ya met Hannah. She’s got some spunk!"
“Yeah, she’s-” I started, but Hannah was already off to the next room, and I had no choice in following her since she still hadn’t released me.
Bright stepped out of our room behind us. “Ah’m goin’ to go explorin’. Talk to ya later!” I watched him head for the stairs and leave me to deal with the terror of Hannah.
The next room had two colts sitting outside it, trying to contain smirks as they watched me get literally dragged along the floor.
“This is Onyx Swirl and Rocky Road,” Hannah introduced. Onyx had pitch-black fur with a white mane, and Rocky had brown fur and a white mane; both looked pretty muscular. “They’re training in combat magic to join the guard, like your roommate. Have any plans for dinner, Onyx? We could share a dish.”
Rocky snickered as Onyx looked away and rubbed the back of his head.
“I…uh…Rocky and I were going to get s-something small and go for a j-jog,” Onyx stuttered.
I decided to come to his rescue. “And what are you intending to specialize in, Hannah?”
She released me at last. “I’m going to become an artificer! I had to come to Equestria to learn how because thaumically active materials are obscenely expensive back on Earth. How am I supposed to practice my work if the practice materials cost millions of dollars?! That’s just not practical or cost-effective! I’d never be able to master artifacts on Earth. But here, materials are just lying around all over the place. People toss them in the trash like junk and use them as currency. From a financial perspective, this was the only choice I could make for my future.” She batted her eyes at Onyx. “A future we could have together.”
Onyx pushed Rocky and pulled his door shut. “Sorry! Rocky and I have to do that thing at that place before it gets too late. You know, curfew! We’ll see you around, Turnip, and uh…Hannah.” The two of them quickly ran towards the staircase.
“Hey! No running in the halls!” Spring shouted as she walked briskly after the pair.
“Mew!”
I didn’t know if Onyx was interested in Hannah as well and was too insecure to deal with her coming onto him or if she was sexually harassing someone who wasn’t interested. She should probably tone it down in any case.
“So, that just leaves Summer, right?” I asked her.
I was hoisted back into the air by her magic. “Yes!” she exclaimed and carried me to the last door of the hall.
She dropped me on the ground outside the room.
“Ow,” I whimpered
Hannah knocked softly on the door. “Summer, I distracted your mom, and she’s gone chasing after Onyx and Rocky. I’m coming in.”
Okay, that put the whole coming onto Onyx thing in a different light. However, it might be a worse light now. Hannah might be a teeny bit crazy.
She opened the door to reveal a similar-looking room to mine and Bright’s, except this one had a kirin filly the color of spicy brown mustard with a bright red mane.
“Look, Summer, this is Turnip! You aren’t the only non-unicorn here,” Hannah announced proudly, pulling me into view. “Turnip, this is Summer Blaze, my awesome roommate.”
I was still on the ground, and I might have had some splinters in my rump from being repeatedly dragged along hardwood floors, but I still raised a hoof to greet her. “Hi, I'm Turnip, Turnip Jones.”
She blinked in confusion as she looked at me. “Hi, I’m Summer. Are you okay?”
I picked myself up off the floor. “Yeah, I might look scrawny, but earth ponies are tough.”
“You’re right about the scrawny part,” Hannah said. “Do you get enough to eat? You barely weigh much at all. I don’t think I’ve ever dragged a pony around as easily as I just did you. We need to get some food in you.”
Did she drag ponies around like that regularly?
Summer hurried over to a corner and grabbed a box with her horn…antler’s magic, and floated it over to me. “If you’re hungry, you can have these—they’re cookies. My mom made them for me, but she made way too many. Don’t worry about taking them all. She always makes more, lots and lots more. I’ll never run out. She’s been showering me with attention since I was hatched.”
Hannah nudged me while smiling. “Isn’t that cool? Did you know kirin hatched from eggs before today? Because I did not. Who knew Equestria had an intelligent monotreme species and that they’d be a close pony relative?”
A flick of flame appeared on Summer’s hooves. “Kirin are ponies, not a close pony relative.”
“Actually, kirin are fully ponies and fully dragons.”
We all turned to see a colt who looked like a male unicorn version of Twilight Sparkle; he even had the same stripe in his mane.
He coughed into his hoof and then raised it and raised his head. “During the Age of Grogar, a small part of what would eventually become the unicorn tribe and a now-extinct subset of dwarf dragons were melded together into one species by Grogar’s wild magic, so the kirin tribe was born. They are fully ponies and fully dragons, the only species capable of interbreeding successfully with both ponies and dragons. I read about it in Nomi Clature’s The Complete Evolutionary History of Ponies: Volume One. It’s a very fascinating read.”
Hannah hurried over to the colt and pointed at him. “And this is Twilight Glow! He’s a bit of a nerd, and he’s got a thing for Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
“Argh! Why must I be in the same class with all these freaks!”
We all turned to see Prim outside her room door, glaring at us. She then advanced towards us.
“Seriously, we have Hannah, the crazy Earthling mare. We have a filthy backwater kirin. We’ve got an apple farmer. We have an earth pony, and-” She sniffed Twilight Glow as she got close to him, then pointed a hoof at him in disbelief. “-and we have a nerdy Princess Twilight fancolt who creepily dyes his fur and mane to look like her!”
Twilight Glow backed up slowly. “N-no, I don’t.”
Prim smirked at him and touched a hoof to her nose. “The nose, knows, commoner. That’s high-quality dye, and I do have to compliment your stylist for their work. However, I recognize the brand by its smell. Those aren’t your natural colors. Judging by how much you must have on for me to still pick up on the smell after it has fully set, they aren’t even close to your natural colors.”
Twilight Glow looked like he was holding back tears now.
“Sister! Must you be so callous with your words!” Red Tape yelled as he stormed out of their room and towards them. “This brazen superiority complex and brutish behavior is exactly why our parents chose to send you here! Yet, you still fail to take corrective action. It is like you don’t want to have your inheritance! At least you prove me right. I told them that sending you here would solve nothing.”
Prim stomped as she turned to face her brother.
“Please, don’t stomp. You’ll bring my mom back,” Summer whimpered.
Prim didn’t seem to care. “Why did they have to room me with you?! There are plenty of other noble fillies in our year that they could have roomed me with, but instead, they put me in this freakish class with you here to constantly chastise me! This school is out to get me, and I want to go home!”
Red gave her a knowing smile. “You are free to go home anytime, dear sister, but you know what will happen if you do.”
Prim seethed. “No! I am not going to lose it all. I am Prim Tape of the Canterlot Prims, and I will get what is owed to me by birthright! I am not going to be disgraced!” She whipped her head around and glared at me for some reason. “And I will not end the year in the bottom third of the class. Watch out, dirt pony, you aren’t going to hold that first-place ranking for long!”
We all watched as she stormed away to the stairs and down them.
“Hey! No stomping!” Spring yelled from somewhere below.
“Well, my parents always said to try to say positive things about people. To say something positive, you have to admire her determination, and she has a very impressive sense of smell,” Hannah said.
Twilight Glow did break down crying at this point
This was going to be an interesting school year.