The six ponies had gone shopping. Thankfully the market place hadn't change and they could find everything easily. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were on there leashes again and Applejack was looking uncomfortable. Pinkie, on the other hoof, didn't seem like it was bothering her at all. She was bouncing around like nothing on earth was wrong. The bouncing pink pony earned them a lot of stares, but they tried not to take notice.
When they were done, the six ponies started heading back to the library. They reached the door, but before Twilight could push it open, Pinkie Pie let out a friendly cry. "Hi Galaxy, Candle Light, and Tinker." she called.
Sure enough those three ponies were walking directly towards the group, along with two other earth ponies. The first one was a chocolate stallion with bright yellow hair and an ice cream sundae cutie mark. His collar had Galaxy's swirl of the galaxy cutie mark on it. The other pony was a light tan mare with strawberry red hair and a strawberry shortcake cutie mark. Her collar had the hammer and pliers cross of Tinker's cutie mark.
They all came towards the group at a rapid pace, too fast for Twilight to consider why they were walking towards the group of mares. "Hello," Galaxy said, bowing slightly. "I would like you to meet my earth pony, his name is Chocolate Sundae. Say hello Chocolate."
Chocolate bowed deeply and greeted, "Hello there."
"And this," Tinker spoke up, gesturing towards the mare. "is Strawberry Shortcake. I'm sorry she couldn't help when I was getting you collars, she was asleep you see."
The earth pony bowed like Chocolate.
"Hi!" Pinkie Pie said grabbing the Earth ponies' hooves and shaking. "I'm Pinkie Pie and I'm super exited to meet you!"
"Pinkie." Twilight groaned, pulling on the leash just enough to make the pink mare sit down. "I'm sorry, uh...did you want to talk to us about something?"
"Actually yes." Galaxy replied. "Your Earth pony is what we wanted to talk to you about actually."
"Oh, OK." Twilight said, wondering if Pinkie had gotten them into any trouble.
"You see," Galaxy continued, "me and Tinker have both noticed that your earth pony is a little bit, ah, untrained." He gave Twilight a reassuring smile when she looked a little worried. "This has nothing to do with you of course but because you are new to Ponyville, me and Tinker have decided to treat you to something." He pointed in the direction of what, in the mares reality, was Rarity's boutique.
What was there instead was a large, almost tent like structure. It had red and white stripes and a banner hanging over it that nopony could read at this distance. Rarity let out a gasp.
"Yes, it is quite a sight isn't it." Galaxy misinterpreted her gasp. "Anyway, that is the 'Academy for Earth Ponies.' It's taught by Lady Smart, the best unicorn in teaching and training Earth Ponies. We have decided to treat you to her because your new in Ponyville and your Earth pony isn't trained. We'll pay and everything so there is no need to worry."
Twilight hesitated for a moment, she would prefer not to go anywhere that wasn't absolutely necessary. She also realized it would be strange for her to deny the offer. "I don't want to be any trouble..." she started.
"No trouble at all." Tinker replied happily, "We like helping new ponies."
"Well....I guess we could." Twilight said.
"May I tag along?" Rarity asked.
"Of course, your earth pony can get some training too." Galaxy said, he turned around and led the way towards the 'Earth Pony Academy.'
-----
It was an amazing place inside, It wasn't necessarily crowded but there were a lot of ponies about. Many unicorns were training earth ponies. It was all together very pleasant despite the ponies getting treated like animals.
"We register over there." Tinker said pointing towards a desk.
They all walked over and saw a ginger Pegasus typing something. "Yes?" she asked as they approached.
"Hello!" Galaxy said cheerfully. "My friends would like to get there earth ponies trained." he gestured towards Twilight and Rarity.
The pony behind the desk nodded and then stood up saying, "Fallow me please." She led them around a little before stopping at a yellow unicorn. "This is Butter." The desk pony said, "She will train your earth ponies for today." Then she bowed towards the yellow unicorn. When Butter nodded the Pegasus walked away.
"I thought Lady Smart taught." Rarity asked Galaxy.
"Oh she does." He said. "But she can't do everyone, these unicorns here are just as good though, don't worry."
"Hi, I'm Butter." Butter greeted. "Which Earth ponies am I training?"
"The orange and pink ones." Galaxy said pointing.
"What is the mane thing you would like me to focus on?"
"The pink one has an incredible talking problem." Tinker told her.
"Alright I'll take them for a while then, you can all go to the 'waiting room' if you like, it's very cozy." Butter said happily.
The 4 ponies looked reluctant to leave their friends, but with engorgement form Galaxy, Tinker and Butter, they finally left, promising to be back soon.
"Shall we get started?" Butter said tuning to the earth ponies. "Let's see what you already know, Sit Down."
Applejack and Pinkie sat down, if for nothing other then being perplexed at being ordered something so trivial.
"Good." Butter approved nodding. "Now stand back up."
Applejack stood up and Pinkie jumped into a standing position.
"No." The unicorn scolded, "Stand, not jump. Sit down again."
They both sat down again, thinking how weird this was. "Now STAND up."
Pinkie tried not to hop but it didn't really work and she bounced up like always.
"NO." Butter said approaching Pinkie. "STAND."
Pinkie nodded, sat down, and bounced back up.
"No, no, no." Butter scolded getting really close to Pinkie "STAND! Only hop when told to."
Pinkie nodded again. She tried really, really, really hard to just stand but it just wasn't in her and she bounced up. "I can't stand up without hopping." She tried to explain.
Butter glared at her. "Don't speak unless I tell you to either."
Pinkie cocked her head. Don't speak? That wasn't going to be easy. Pinkie Pie always spoke.
Butter backed away from the pink earth pony. "Lets try this then, speak."
"Um....what do ya want us to say?" Applejack asked.
"So we can talk now? Right? I love to talk, there are so many things to talk about, like new ponies and how funny things are, soooo many things are funny and if we couldn't talk about them then how could we show others the funny stuff? How can anyone not talk, Fluttershy doesn't talk a lot and I don't know how she lives with out talking. I......"
'WACK!' Something hit Pinkie, hard. She looked around but couldn't see anything that could have hit her. "What was tha...." Pinkie started to ask before she got hit again. 'WACK!' Pinkie then noticed that Butter's horn was glowing. "Did you hit me?" 'WACK!' "Owww. I'll take that as a yes."
"Only talk when I tell you to talk and don't talk so much. Or there will be consequences. Understand?"
Pinkie stared at her with round eyes before nodding.
"Good, I was starting to think you didn't understand anything."
"That wasn't very nice." Pinkie pointed out. 'WACK!' "OK. I get it. No more talking. Stop hitting me, it hurts!"
"It's supposed to." Butter told her. "Let's try something else, follow me." She started walking, but then stopped and turned back. "And NO bouncing." She glared at Pinkie before continuing.
It was easy for Pinkie not to bounce now. She was aching. Applejack was a little worried about her but didn't say anything.
"Now." Butter said stopping. "Let's try being introduced to new ponies." she approached a group of ponies and nodded to them.
Pinkie couldn't contain herself, "Hi!" She said, "I'm Pinkie Pie and...." 'WACK' Pinkie stopped talking and whimpered slightly when she felt the sharp pain.
"No." Butter scolded. "Don't speak until spoken to."
"Ya, don't have ta keep hittin' her." Applejack said automatically. 'Wack' AJ felt a light smack.
"Now, you don't start talking too." Butter scolded.