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// School Days! 
// Story: A New Arrival! 
// by BlackSpire 
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"Hello." - actual speech
'What am I thinking?' - thoughts




At Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns the new school year was beginning. All 30 of the second year students had taken their seats as they were ready to take their first lesson of the academic year...Maths.

In the front row of the class sat a much younger version of Sunny who was busy writing a new song in his scrap book. The colt had always wanted to make music ever since he found out he had a gift for it.

Despite his obvious talent in playing and writing his own pieces he was still the only pony in the school without a cutie mark. Many ponies wondered how such a gifted prodigy could not have gotten his cutie mark. Even if it wasn't a music related cutie mark, most ponies could actually see him doing anything he wanted in his life. Being good enough in his academics to be offered to skip a couple of years ahead along with being a member of various sports teams. No pony ever bullied him about being a 'blank flank' purely because they all knew he was already talented and didn't need a cutie mark to prove it.

But, he was never confident in his own abilities. Partially, because being in a school full of other talented unicorns can put you down as 'nothing special'. But mostly, because of his background. He came from a poor working class family from Manehattan and had only gotten in due to his high marks in his entrance exam earning him a scholarship at the school. Most of the unicorns at the school were from rich families who could afford the expensive school fees and extra tuition. He couldn't relate to any of the ponies at the school as he had never lived in similar lifestyles to them. He felt that his grades being significantly higher than the rest of his classmates also further drove him apart from his classmates. So he began to look at his academic brilliance as a curse that segregated him from other ponies rather than a gift to be shown off. So hid his academic genius, mainly by purposely dropping marks in test to ensure he got only slightly above the class average mark, in a hope to be more accepted by his fellow classmates.

Suddenly, the whole class went quiet as the Maths teacher walked into the classroom. He was a blue stallion with white hair combed either side of his horn and had piercing yellow eyes that would unnerve most students. He wore a white shirt with a brown sweater on top along with a brown tie.

"Good morning class." he said.

"Good morning Mr. Hunter!" said all of the students in chorus.

"I hope you enjoyed the Summer Holidays because I'm getting the new school year started with a surprise test on everything we did last year."

"Why do we have to do a test on the first day of school?!" a few ponies moaned out loud.

"Because, they ensure that you have a good foundation in which to learn new things this year!" he replied as he handed out the paper to all of the ponies.

Just then a knock on the door was heard before it opened to reveal two

ponies. One of which was a yellow mare wearing glasses who also had frizzy white hair all around her horn. She had lilac coloured eyes and also wore a White shirt. However, she wore it with a grey sweater on top and had the top button undone. The other was Twilight as a filly.

"How may I help you Ms. Darling?" Mr. Hunter asked.

"Well I'm here to bring you your new student. You remember Miss Sparkle don't you?"

"Oh yes I do indeed." he said recalling examining her entrance examination before her magical outburst.

He then turned to the class and began to speak, "Right class this is Miss Twilight Sparkle and she will be joining you in your classes from now on. So I hope you will all make her feel very welcome in this school."

Turning around to face Twilight he said "Right now we're about to do a Maths test. So if you want I could set you some questions to do whilst they all do the test?"

"Uhm...actually I don't mind doing the test Mr..." said Twilight rather timidly at this many of the ponies in the classroom looked at her as if she were mad.

"Hunter" he finished off, "Very well now where to put you..." he said as he looked around the class "...ah yes please sit next to Mr. Sunrise over there please." he said pointing at Sunny before adding, "Also, Starbuck I'm assigning you the task of showing Miss Sparkle around our school."

"Yes Mr. Hunter." he said as he looked towards Twilight with a welcoming smile which made the nervous Twilight feel completely at ease and even give him a small smile back as she sat next to him.

"Very well now that Miss Sparkle has settled in, I'll be off." said Ms. Darling as she left and closed the door behind her.

Finally, all the papers were handed out and Mr. Hunter called out to everypony in the class, "You all have till the end of the lesson to finish the test. So that's an hour and a half to answer all 30 questions. Any questions before we start?"

There was utter silence in the classroom.

Mr. Hunter smiled and then said, "In that case your time starts now. You can start the paper."

Thirty minutes later...

Sunny laid his head on the desk as he finished his paper. There was still an hour to go and so he would go to sleep till the lesson ended. It was only ten minutes into his nap when he was woken up by the sound of a voice next to him:

"Sir, what do we do when we've finished?" asked Twilight with her hoof up.

"Have you checked your work through?"

"Three times, sir."

"Oh...well in that case bring your paper here and you can leave the lesson early." in answered beaming at Twilight as she made her way down to the teacher's desk to hand in her paper.

At this Sunny's head came off the desk as he called out with his hoof in the air, "Mr. Hunter I've also finished. Can I leave the lesson early as well?"

"Why most certainly Mr. Sunrise. You can use the extra time to give Miss Sparkle here a tour of the school!"

"Okay then," he said happy that he didn't have to stay in lesson doing nothing for another hour.

They both left the classroom in silence leaving all the other ponies to finish the test.

Once, outside of the classroom Sunny breathed out a sigh of relief before starting to talk, "So I should probably introduce myself first. If you may or may not already know the name's Starbuck Sunrise but everyone that knows me calls me Sunny."

"Oh well my name's Twilight Sparkle!"

"Twilight hmm...that's a beautiful name." he said as he smiled at her and causing her to blush at the compliment.

"Now let's get this tour started!"

"Alright then!"

"So this corridor we're standing in is home to all the graphical functions and algebra in Equestria!" he said rather dramatically, "But most other ponies call it the Maths Corridor: where all Maths lessons take place. To be honest I like the previous description better." he said in a joking tone to which Twilight couldn't help but giggle.

"Now if we walk down this way we can make it to the science building! Meanwhile, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" asked Sunny.

Half an hour later...

The tour continued like this with both ponies talking about one another to better get to know one another. They both were now walking in the massive school courtyard. It was basically the school's private park measuring at 50 hectares, where there were many tall trees, bushes along with other facilities like courts for different sports to be played on. As well as benches and tables for private study outside of lessons.

Sunny had learnt she was in fact a local to Canterlot and that she had caused the big hole in the roof of the English block during her entrance exam due to her raw magical power. By that point he was already in awe of her talents and abilities. But was gob smacked by what she said next:

"At the end of it all I got my cutie mark and I was offered by Princess Celestia herself to become her protégé."

"Woah Princess Celestia herself offered you that position! Wow you must be packing quite a bit of magic if the ruler of Equestria wants you to become her apprentice!" said Sunny rather excitedly.

"Well...I guess you're right!" she said with a smile of her own as she blushed at the praises she got from him.

Twilight had also learnt a lot about Sunny. She learnt that the entrance exam was different for every pony. Depending on your talent you would be given a test to judge just how good you were at that talent. So Sunny's entrance exam was to play his own musical piece. Instead what he actually did was use a spell to get a number of instruments to play themselves and then made them perform as an orchestra whilst he played the piano for a solo. It had impressed them so greatly that he was given a scholarship to the school.

"Wow! What I did in my examination practice was purely luck if it weren't for the rainbow-coloured explosion happening I would've most likely failed! For you to do something like that through pure skill, just shows how talented you are."

"I'm not that talented! There are many other ponies that can do what I did!" he said with whilst looking down at the floor.

"Yes! But none of them are as young as you! You mustn't keep putting yourself down Sunny! You're an amazing colt who should be proud of what he's achieved already, as well as what he's going to achieve in the future!" she said raising her voice as she defended him.

He was shocked at what she was saying. No one had ever tried to support him when he felt bad about himself, and for a unicorn who he had only just met an hour ago to defend him like that really gave him an urge...and he went with it. Walking up to Twilight he wrapped his fore hooves around her neck and hugged her. Realising what he had done he was about to move away from her when he felt her hooves wrap around him as well hugging him back.

Tears began to form around his eyes as he whispered into Twilight's ear, "Thank you Twilight. No pony has ever stood up for me even when I'm the pony putting myself down. And for you to defend me, a colt who you've only known for an hour! Just makes me so happy!" he finished now choking on sobs.

Twilight just continued to console him whilst shocked that he really was all alone with no other pony to help him through his problems. She then started to say with a smile, "Don't worry I'll make sure you'll never feel alone ever again...you can always talk to me about your problems."

"Thanks Twi." he said weakly as he let go of her and wiped his eyes and face of any tears that were still there. "Listen Twilight I want to show you one more place before break starts, follow me!" he said before galloping off the path through some bushes. Twilight not wanting to be left behind galloped after him.

After a few minutes of galloping they reached one of the 100 foot high walls that surrounded the courtyard that was covered by dense trees and bushes at the foot of the wall.

"Sunny where are we going?" asked Twilight.

"Just trust me on this." as his horn began to glow a bright red colour. All of a sudden Twilight felt herself being lifted off the ground and looked at Sunny to see he was too as he carried on casting his Levitation spell.

"Sunny what are you doing?" she cried absolutely petrified as they continued to fly up the wall higher and higher.

"Like I said before trust me!" he yelled back with a chuckle.

At last, they had flown up to the top of the wall and had gone over it to land on a balcony that ran alongside the entire perimeter of the wall.

Once, they had landed Sunny began saying "So this is-OW! What was that for?" he cried rubbing the newly formed lump on his head that had been the result of Twilight's hoof smacking him hard on the head.

"You idiot! You could've at least told me what you were going to do! I'm absolutely terrified of heights!" she said rather angrily about to burst into tears.

"Ah I'm so sorry Twilight! I didn't know! Please forgive me! It'll be all worth it because you'll love what I'm about to show you! he said rather worried he might've just lost his only true friend.

"What can you show me that can justify putting me through that!" she yelled.

"Look behind you." he said secretly hoping it would work.

As she looked at what was behind her she couldn't help but gasp at what she saw. it was the most magnificent view of Canterlot her eyes had ever seen. The ever so distant mountainous landscape that surrounded the huge urban city were covered in wisps of cloud. The forest at the foot of them was like a faraway green sea, which could be seen moving to and fro, in time to the cool summer breeze. The call of the birds that flew high above them in the large expanses of the cerulean sky could be heard faintly enough to be noticed but not so loudly that it became a distraction. The air around them was a lot more crisp and fresh than the polluted air they were normally used to. The tall buildings of the city looked miniscule from where she stood behind the parapet of the wall. With the people of Canterlot looking like small specks moving about their daily lives. But the most impressive sight about the view was Celestia's very own creation: the Sun. The Sun standing proudly in the middle of the cerulean sky as it's shining rays covered the city of Canterlot in a bright, warm glow.

"It's...beautiful." sighed Twilight as she couldn't help but feel happy for some unknown reason as she stared out onto the view of her hometown.

"I say the same thing every time I come up here." said Sunny gently, "This is my secret hideaway that no other student knows about. I'd assume the caretakers and maybe the staff know about this place. But none of them ever come up here. This is where I go when I need some time to think to myself. To solve a problem I might be having. Or even just to enjoy the wonderful view of the city during the day. Sometimes, I sneak here at night to watch the city and the stars at night. The view then is, in my opinion even better than it is right now."

"Why?" asked Twilight.

"Why what?" said Sunny now confused.

"Why would you share such a secret place with me? Some filly you've only just met."

"Because, even though I may have just met you. You already know me more than anypony else in this school. You promised me that you would always be there for me. That's the most anypony has ever done for me since I left my home in Manehattan to come to this school. So the only way I could think of repaying you back for the kindness you've shown to me, is to show you my place of solace whenever life gets me down, so that you may use it someday in case you may need it-Woah!" he cried as he was hugged fiercely by Twilight who whispered in his ear:

"Thank you Sunny. This is probably one of the best gifts anyone has ever given me," before giving him a kiss on the cheek. His reaction was instantaneous as his face went from yellow to bright red at the realization of Twilight kissing him. As this happened the school bell rang for break.

"See you in class Sunny." Twilight whispered in his ear before letting go of him with a small blush on her face, before she was gone having teleported to her next lesson, leaving a still shocked Sunny holding the cheek Twilight had kissed him.

As his face began to return to its normal colour there was only one thought on his mind:

'This school year's going to be REALLY interesting.'