The Ponyville high school was something of an old building compared to the others in the town. It was very small, usually having an annual class of twenty or thirty students between the four grade levels. It was bigger than the elementary school, as well as more equipped. The students at the high school, at least those that didn’t go on to pursue their special talents straight out of elementary, had access to all sorts of scientific instruments that weren’t usually expected of such a small town.
The incoming freshman class of Ponyville this year consisted of only six students. Their names were Lyra Heartstrings, Bonbon Candystring, Vinyl Scratch, Octavia Von Clef, Derpy Hooves, and The Doctor. This was a diverse group of students to say the very least, but they were all connected before they even started school, and none of them knew it.
Except two that is, and on the first autumn school day the brown earth pony stallion and the gray pegasus mare had walked to school together. As a matter of fact, they were old friends. The Doctor had met Derpy when he had lost his memory and she had been generous enough to bring him home. Since then he had earned room and board at the antique store, and they had been great friends ever since.
“I honestly had something of a rough summer,” The Doctor said as they walked along the path “Time Turner has been running me completely ragged… I’ve hauled more wagons over the past month than I have any other time in my life!”
Derpy giggled slightly “I still think I had it worse,” she said “I was helping my dad all summer. Mail Doctor! I had to memorize addresses and roadways and who knows what else…”
“Well you should,” said The Doctor “It was your job to memorize it after all, not mine.”
The familiar wall-eyed smile he received always managed to lift the Doctor’s spirits “Talking to you is like what I always thought talking to a shrink would be like,” said Derpy “I still don’t understand why you’ve stuck with that silly name after all these years.”
“It’s not that simple…” said The Doctor “It’s the only thing I remember from before you found me in that field…”
“That isn’t true!” said Derpy “You keep drawing those tanks with the plungers on them. And that blue box, you draw that box over and over.”
“Those are all from my imagination and you know that,” said The Doctor, though he sounded somehow unsure of himself “I’ve written some stories about them too remember? I like to think about our worlds beyond the sky…”
Derpy rolled her eyes, though that may have been them going even more omnidirectional. “I still think that’s silly,” she said “Only the princesses have the power to go further than the sky.”
“I don’t think that will always be true,” said The Doctor “Equestria is plagued by meteors all the time, where do you suppose those come from if not the sky?”
“That doesn’t mean we can do the same thing,” said Derpy indignantly “We pegasi can fly Doctor, but beyond the sky? Really?”
“I know pegasi wing power isn’t nearly enough,” said The Doctor “But I’m sure with enough imagination we’ll figure out some way to do it. There’s no limit to pony ingenuity, you and I both know that.”
The argument of these two continued for quite some time, during which many of their classmates started to arrive. It was a fairly well known habit for the students to mill around the courtyard until the classes actually started, and no one wanted to be late for the first day of school, particularly not the pony in the carriage that rolled up to the school.
Octavia was embarrassed that she had come to school by such a flashy transport. She had wanted to walk but her mother, of course, would have nothing of it. Now Octavia found herself in the most uncomfortable position of worrying what the other ponies would think of her now. She had painted herself out so clearly as the rich kid; her greatest, and unfortunately most likely fear, was that she would be thought of as a snob.
As Octavia stepped out of the carriage, her school supplies in a deep purple saddlebag and a most unnerved expression on her face, she was much disappointed to discover she was already receiving some harsh looks from her new classmates. Judging her already? Now that just wasn’t at all fair… Of course now all she could do was accept her fate until some pony would ignore their preconceptions and just say…
“Hello!” came an overly loud voice on her immediate right. She leapt almost a foot in the air as she was greeted with the sight of the wide beaming grin and opaque violet shades of a certain white coated pony.
“Um…hello…” she said uncertainly, not entirely sure yet whether this pony would be friend or foe. Judging by the alarming hairstyle she was guessing the worse.
“My name’s Vinyl,” said the white unicorn “Sweet ride! There’s only a few ponies in Ponyville who can afford a carriage, that’s really neat!”
Octavia felt her heart sink. Yes, this pony did want to be her friend, but it was only because she was rich. “Well thank you Vinyl,” she said snappishly “But I’m not offering any handouts or free rides so I recommend you occupy your time with some pony else…”
“Well jeez, don’t get all snarky with me,” said Vinyl sounding offended “Your acting like I’m some sort of panhandler. Trust me, I don’t do that crap, way too much pride in this pony! What’s your name?”
“Octavia…” she said, deciding to humor this pony for now “I suppose you’re one of the older students?”
“No way, I thought you were!” said Vinyl “Yeah, this is my first day here, you?”
“Same,” said Octavia flatly “I guess that means you wouldn’t be much help getting settled into this school.”
“I’m just trying to make some friends,” said Vinyl, not even rising to anger “All the ponies who were in my eighth grade class went into apprenticeships, so I’ve kind of gotta start fresh.”
“Please,” said Octavia “I hardly believe you were the only one from your entire school to move on to this level.”
“I meant in my in-group,” said Vinyl “I thought you might’ve guessed that since there’s only two other schools in Ponyville.”
“I’ve been homeschooled up to this point,” said Octavia “Of course I wouldn’t know such a thing!”
Vinyl held back a snicker “So why aren’t you still in home-school? I bet you’d like it better than dealing with us common ponies with all our impertinent questions.”
Octavia blushed wildly as Vinyl voiced her fears perfectly “I cannot receive a diploma from the home program,” she said, carefully maintaining her composure “Besides, the Ponyville High School is impeccably funded with only the finest teachers and equipment, it would’ve been a shame if I were to not utilize such an advantage.”
This time Vinyl couldn’t help but laugh “You are so serious!” she said between snickers “I’m sorry but you sound like some pony that just has to loosen up!” she lowered her shades just a little, aggravatingly still not showing her eyes “I think I know just the pony to help you with that.”
Octavia was totally unsure how to respond to this, so she just nodded and followed Vinyl toward the courtyard where most of the ponies were already gathered. Including a certain cream colored earth pony sitting across one of the few park benches available, reading a cooking magazine and waiting for the bell to ring. While she wasn’t particularly the most excited pony to be at high school, she was at least motivated more than the dropouts.
Bonbon took a moment to look up from the magazine and look around at the gathered crowd. It seemed like every pony had already sorted themselves into groups of friends. She cursed mentally, she had been expecting that not to have happened at least until they entered the building. Now it was looking like sitting here and reading had squarely secured her a spot in the loner zone. Oh well, it wasn’t like she hadn’t been through worse.
“Hey, do you mind if I sit here?” came a voice from somewhere nearby. Bonbon looked up to see a pale green unicorn standing over her, a schoolbag held in a magical aura of the same color.
“Um, there’s really only room for one,” said Bonbon sheepishly “I’m sorry though.”
The green unicorn flashed a grin and proceeded to sit squarely on her rump in the space next to Bonbon, back legs hanging down off the bench. “I sit kind of differently than a lot of other ponies,” she said “I wouldn’t have asked if it was impossible.”
Bonbon stared, hoping she wasn’t being rude “Well that is an um… unique talent,” she said cautiously.
“This isn’t talent…” said the unicorn, eyes flashing angry for barely a moment “Anyway, I never did get your name, I’m Lyra, musician.”
“I’m Bonbon, confectioner,” said Bonbon, smiling now that she appeared to be on friendly terms with some pony “What do you play?”
“Lyre, kind of a namesake I suppose,” said Lyra “Not to sound stupid or anything… But I don’t actually know what a confectioner is…”
“Candy maker,” said Bonbon, not offended in the slightest “I’m especially good with colored chocolates. That’s a namesake too I suppose.”
They laughed together a moment, but quickly stopped as the bell rang to begin class “Oh shoot, we’d better go.” Said Lyra, “Come on! Don’t want to make a bad impression on the first day do we?”
“No, I suppose not,” said Bonbon, putting her magazine back into her bag and following Lyra into the building.
The school building’s interior was all one room, wide with about seven round wooden tables that could seat six to eight ponies each. There was a podium at the front of the room with a full wall chalkboard behind it. The infamous high tech supplies were all in the back of the room where there were roughly ten computers, as well as cabinets that housed the library equipment. Wide windows were on either side of the room, providing the harrowing temptation to spend the class merely gazing out at the freedom and open air.
Entirely by coincidence the six ponies that made up the freshman class all sat at the same table. While as a group they traded a hasty hello they mostly kept the conversation in groups of two. It seemed, for now, that nothing of consequence would come from this seating arrangement.
The teacher entered the room through a side door, which very well might have been the supply closet, and stood at the podium. He was a middle aged unicorn stallion with a shock of white hair and a matted blue coat. A piece of chalk levitated up to the board, surrounded by a purple magic as he took his place at the front of the class.
“Well hello class!” he said enthusiastically “You may call me Professor Splice Bolt. To our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back!”
Octavia frowned as the teacher as the chalk drew a picture of a lightning bolt crossed by two double helix DNA strands. She thought this unicorn seemed just a tad pompous to be teaching a high school class. He was even bordering on eccentric…
“As you can see,” Splice continued “My special talent is the tutelage of science, and by extension, everything else! After all science really is whatever we want it to be, so long as we find a way to manipulate it!”
The Doctor’s ear twitched at this “That’s my line…” he said grumpily. Derpy giggled at this, the culmination of the silly teacher and The Doctor’s mirroring him was making it hard to hold back.
“But science and other fantastic things aside,” said Splice “I think that both for the benefit of our new students and as a reminder to the old we should have a getting to know each other assignment!”
There was an audible groan at this, “As if it wasn’t something we weren’t going to have to do anyway…” Vinyl grumbled, adjusting her shades.
Splice lifted up a pile of papers with magic and sent them floating out to each pony “just a basic fill-out form,” he said “I want each of you to put your name, talent, race, gender, and a rendition of your cutie mark to the best of your ability. I also left some extra space for you to add anything else you’d like me to know.”
Lyra levitated a pencil out of her bad and got to work quickly, it would be awful if she were to do poorly on her first assignment, no matter how obvious or silly it was. It was clear that Splice was going to be judging them on this paper and it would be best to make a good impression.
“Alright then class!” said Splice, the papers suddenly shooting away from each pony to another random recipient at the same table “I want you to read over each other’s papers and discuss what you think of each other. Now be honest, better to know you hate some pony from the beginning than get bogged down by pleasantries in a poor attempt to be friends!”
“Raced motorbikes with a laser shooting, robotic, Princess Luna?” asked Bonbon incredulously, looking up to the white unicorn who’s paper she had received “He’s never going to buy that you know, what do you think you’re doing?”
“I was thinking it was a better story than working with chocolate,” said Vinyl “You really should’ve been more interested in the theatrics than telling the actual facts.”
“I’m not sure whether that proves or disproves the whole DJ thing…” said Bonbon with a sigh.
“So you play the lyre?” asked Octavia with a smile “What a coincidence, I’m something of an accomplished cellist myself.”
“That’s pretty cool,” said Lyra “I’m guessing that ‘accomplished’ is a bit higher of a level than I’m at.”
“Not at all!” said Octavia quickly, worried she was coming off as a prude “I’ve just been playing for awhile and I’ve written a decent amount of music.”
Lyra’s ears drooped “I’ve only ever written one piece…” she said, sounding ashamed “I guess you are a lot better than me…”
“No, no, no, no, not at all!” said Octavia, now scared she had offended her “Composition ability isn’t at all proportional to actual musical talent! Some of the greatest musicians ever never wrote a thing in their lives!”
Lyra didn’t say anything, she just looked back to splice, waiting for something else to happen. Octavia looked down in shame, she really was terrible at this whole friend making thing wasn’t she?
“Excuse me,” said the Doctor to Vinyl “Would you mind trading papers? Derpy and I already know each other quite well.”
“Yeah, no problem man,” said Vinyl, sliding her own paper out of Bonbon’s hooves toward Derpy, giving Bonbon’s to the Doctor, and taking Derpy’s all in one quick flick of magic. The Doctor passed his to Bonbon quickly with an awkward smile.
“Is your name seriously The Doctor?” asked Bonbon incredulously “Gosh, your parents must have been insane…”
The Doctor shrugged “They may have been, never met them myself.”
“Oh…” said Bonbon “Sorry… I didn’t mean…”
“No apology necessary,” said The Doctor with a smile “I know what you meant. But hey, can’t miss what you never had after all.”
Before Bonbon could reply Vinyl let out a little laugh that brought the attention of everyone at the table toward her. “I’m sorry…” she said “But bubbles? That’s your special talent? Does it have something to do with your eyes?”
Derpy looked down mostly in embarrassment “I don’t know…” she said shyly.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” said Vinyl quickly “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything. Hey, get a load of this.” She slid out of her chair and walked over to Derpy. She slid her shades upward for a barely visible moment during which Derpy gasped. Octavia tried to get a look at the eyes under the shades, but was too slow.
“Pretty wild huh?” said Vinyl with a smirk “Your eyes are cooler though. I’ve never seen eyes like that before.”
Derpy smiled “Thanks…” she said sheepishly.
“No problem,” said Vinyl, reaching out for a hoof bump which Derpy returned.
“Alright class, it’s time to get serious!” said Splice, lifting up the papers with magic and stacking them together on the podium “We’re going to start work today with some logarithms!”
And so the next several long hours passed with a wave of numbers, equations, and other such chronic devices of torture. When the sound of freedom finally chimed overhead the class was more than eager to escape and find some lunch.
“What do you think about the Hay Loft?” asked Vinyl as she exited with Octavia “Ever been there? They have the best onion rings!”
“No I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it,” said Octavia “Do you think we’ll have enough time to get out there and eat before class starts again?”
“Plenty,” said The Doctor, catching up to them with Derpy close by “We were just going there ourselves, care to walk with us?”
“Totally!” said Vinyl, smiling widely “Get this, Tavi here’s never heard of the place!”
“Don’t call me that…” said Octavia, reddening slightly “We only just met today; I don’t think nicknames are entirely inappropriate.”
“Oh come on, Tavi!” said Vinyl, putting huge emphasis on the nickname “Friends are friends, don’t get so touchy.”
“Fast friends I can see,” said The Doctor with a grin “It makes sense I suppose, just look at your cutie marks. Put your flanks together and you would make a piece of music!”
Vinyl and Octavia quickly looked at each other’s flanks, laughing as they realized the connection. “Okay, you and I have to get together some time and make some music, and I mean soon.”
“Oh I don’t know…” said Octavia “I’ve never played with any pony else before. I think I would have trouble figuring out the nuance.”
“Play?” asked Vinyl “As in like a real instrument?”
“Well, yes,” said Octavia “Don’t you?”
“I’m a DJ,” said Vinyl “Didn’t I ever say that? Cripes, Tavi, just when you think you know a gal.”
“Oh…” said Octavia slowly “I suppose we can’t work together then since it seems you and I are in very different parts of the musical industry.”
“Are you kidding?” said Vinyl excitedly “You make some real sounds for me to work with and I’ll mix them into something spectacular! Friday afternoon work for you?”
“Oh, yes,” said Octavia “I don’t have anything planned then.”
“Like two peas in a pod…” The Doctor muttered to Derpy, who let out a giggle.
“Hey,” said Vinyl “Aren’t those other two chicks the ones who were at our table?”
They took a collective look over to where Vinyl was pointing ahead. Lyra and Bonbon were a little ways ahead, seeming to be on the same path as them. Vinyl ran forward to catch up with them.
“Hey, Bonbon wasn’t it?” she asked, but continued before Bonbon could voice a response “You two wouldn’t be heading for the Hay Loft would you?”
“Um, yeah we were,” said Bonbon “Why do you ask?”
“Well my team and I were on our way there too!” said Vinyl excitedly “With you guys we could get the party bargain!”
“The party bargain…?” Bonbon asked slowly.
“You know,” said Vinyl “Groups of six or more get to knock off ten percent!”
“Because groups of seven take a fifteen percent gratuity…” said Lyra “How many do you have with you?”
“You guys make six!” said Vinyl “Come on, I think you all know the group already…”
“It’s like we’re fated to know each other,” said Bonbon with a smile as they slowed to let the others catch up “I don’t think I caught your name though.” She nodded at Derpy, who shied away at the question.
“She’s a little shy,” said The Doctor apologetically “this is Derpy Hooves; she’s a long time companion of mine.”
“And here was me thinking we’d all just met,” said Vinyl, her wide smile growing wider “I guess we need you two more socializing with us than each other, come on Derpy, tell me about yourself!”
Conducted by Vinyl the group continued on to the old bar and grill known as the Hay Loft. It had been built long before any of them had been born but it was still immensely popular. It was a brick building with old fashioned neon lights, demonstrating the entrance and the fact that they were indeed open. It wasn’t hard to tell that though, the panoramic screens were lit up in front of the windows, displaying the betting pool and the current races. The place had a lot of services minors weren’t allowed to use but it was still a good restaurant.
“Table for six!” Vinyl shouted, bursting through the door ahead of the rest of the group “And a double shot of hard cider!”
“Vinyl please…” said Octavia, following behind her “Let’s not make a scene now…”
“I don’t know,” said The Doctor with a smile “I really like that enthusiasm!”
Vinyl didn’t wait to be seated, but grabbed the first table she saw with six seats. “Come on gang!” she called “Let’s get seated fast so they can serve us faster!”
The Doctor and Derpy sat quickly as ushered while Octavia, Lyra, and Bonbon tried to look as natural as they possibly could. The situation was apparently far from salvaged as the waitress walked over with a clear expression of frustration.
“Well what can I get for this group today?” she drawled, clearly going through the motions.
“I’ll get the drinks,” said Vinyl “Hard cider for everyone here!”
“She’s not old enough to drink and neither are we,” said Lyra “But soft cider sounds delightful.”
“Aw…” Vinyl whined as the waitress walked off.
“You should hardly be disappointed,” said Octavia with a shrug “If you actually expected to get alcohol without a valid ID you’re delusional. You don’t even look the part.”
“I’ve got a fake…” Vinyl muttered.
“That still doesn’t cover the rest of us,” Bonbon pointed out “And that’s without the obvious moral standpoint.”
“I think we can tell pretty well that Vinyl has too much sense of adventure to care much about moral standards,” said The Doctor “And props for that, it’s a rare talent.”
“Thanks Doc,” said Vinyl with a smirk “I don’t suppose this is the start of some exciting school group like they have in the movies?”
“I always wanted one of those…” said Bonbon quietly.
“That actually doesn’t sound bad,” said The Doctor “Those groups usually find themselves in a great deal of adventures, and I must say there is nothing I enjoy better than a good adventure!”
“I um…” Octavia stammered, afraid of being caught in any sort of bandwagon.
“Count me in!” said Lyra, looking unusually determined given the lighthearted situation.
Derpy merely nodded as Vinyl put her hoof on the table “Friends forever,” she said, almost sounding like it was rehearsed “Agreed?”
“Agreed!” they said together, all in a different intonation, but all putting their hooves out to the center of the table.
And this motion, above any other strings of fate that connected them, was the seal that would begin indeed a very great adventure…