It had been years since the merging had occured--a little over ten, to be exact. Humans built homes in all the cities for not only themselves, but for everything else as well. Ponyville had become a trade center of sorts, dragons and Gryphons traded with the locals with little to no arguments arising. Undisguised Changelings buzzed to and fro from the town, some searching for food and others seeking jobs or a way to another town. Human homes were built much in the same way the ponies built theirs (depending on the town/city you happen to be standing in at the moment), only they built roofs that were not made of straw. The sun was shining very brightly now, the day was clear with no clouds save for Cloudsdale.

A door belonging to a house made of wood and iron next to Twilight's library swung open, revealing a young, green-haired woman and her nine-year-old son. He had murky brown hair and eyes of green with brownish rims, and he was in a T-shirt decorated with a few paint splotches. He wore black jeans and matching shoes that shined spotlessly. In his hand was a metallic crossbow of old French design, and he had a brown quiver wrapped on his body filled to the brim with arrows of wood and steel.

Soon, a young man in a Nazi-esque uniform joined them. He eyed the landscape and nudged his son off the stairs before he and his wife went with. Humans and ponies greeted them the most, and a few Gryphons did the same here and there. They walked through the bustling streets of Ponyville and stopped a house short of Sugar Cube Corner's famous bakery. The house they stood next to was much like their own on the exterior, except it was made with bricks instead of steel. The man went up and knocked a few times before the door opened to reveal another young man with long, blond hair that was tied up into a low ponytail. After conversing for a few minutes, the blond man nodded and retreated indoors before he returned with a black-haired, half-demon man and a red-haired, young woman who was carrying another child. A third stood between the three, her mahogany hair and green-blue eyes making her stand out. She had little wings on her back that could not support her weight, a school uniform covering most of her body. In her hand was a black staff with diamond-esque patterns on its top, a blue orb settled between the open gap created by the pointed ends. A pink-haired woman stood almost invisible behind the other three adults, and she was at least five months along.

Once more, the group of humans was in the bustling streets as they tried making their way west of the town--toward Sweet Apple Acres, which had doubled in size and profits thanks to the human helpers. Between said Acres and the town was an oriental house with traditional Japanese lanterns. Sitting on the nearby bench was a human-like woman in a kimono, she was calmly sipping her drink while watching her twin children play with wooden swords. They were trying to use them like rapiers even though a castle in the Middle Ages was more appropriate given the shape of said swords. Then again, rapiers existed then at that time, didn't they? They weren't that common according to the woman's memory. A set of nine fox tails billowed out behind her, coiled up like sleeping basilisks while wings covered in feathers were folded up.

She noticed the group and smiled, calling out to her children to put the swords in the toy box. She then got up and went inside for a few minutes before returning with a werewolf who was also in a kimono. He hugged the man in the Nazi uniform before greeting his son and introducing him to his twin aunt and uncle. Both children were black foxes, one had wings and the other had the power to pick an adult up as evidenced when he bear-hugged his big brother.

The group ran to the improved schoolhouse where human and pony teachers alike taught their respective species with a few variations here and there throughout the curriculum. The parents took the weapons from their children and hugged them as summer break ended for them and the bell rang for the first day of school. The kids ran into the building and went into their classroom that had a few ponies and a Changeling with minotaur horns on her head.

All the children and foals rushed to their assigned seats as a human teacher and Miss Cheerilee entered the room and quelled the gossip running amok. Everyone turned their attention to the human teacher as he cleared his throat and took roll.

"Alexis Redwing?" The teacher called. The girl with the mahogany hair rose her hand and said 'here.'

"Alright. Nicholas Schröder?" The boy with the murky brown hair mimicked Alexis.

"Okay. Um... Blue Horn?" The triple-horned Changeling did the same, her wings buzzing anxiously.

"Welcome to second grade." The teacher smiled warmly, "My name is Mr. Rhodes, and I will be helping Miss Cheerilee to teach you as best as I can. Just follow the rules and it's all fun and games. Understood?"

"Let the learning begin!" Cried both teachers in joy as the bell rang once more.

"Alright, class." Mr. Rhodes said with a stern, Scottish accent, "Today, your first assignment is to write about your summer break. We will present our reports Monday, first thing after the bell. You will tell us who your parents are, how you spent time with them, how you spent time elsewhere if it matters, and the like. There will be no profanities in your essays or they will get five points off for every individual profanity. Is that understood, children?"

"Yes, Mr. Rhodes!" Cried the eager children together. There were humans and foals and even a triple-horned Changeling whose middle, small horn was crystal blue.

"Excellent!" Miss Cherilee chimed in a cheery tune, "You will start in five minutes and..." The magenta pony looked at the clock that currently said 8:23 AM, "...end at nine sharp. Understood?"

Little Alexis Redwing was already jotting down simple ideas on paper. She was brainstorming, and it was a good idea to brainstorm during such few precious minutes given.

Fangtail and Wing-Gale darted their heads nervously, as if expecting some bully to call them out on something ridiculous.

Nicholas sighed, wiping cold sweat off of his forehead. Confound this accursed anxiety.

At once, all the children and foals began writing about their summer break. Some wrote slowly to avoid many spelling errors while others wrote as if their fingers were attuned to the wind. Some only wrote a few sentences because their summer was what they said was particularly boring while the others wrote more than four paragraphs because their summer was outlandishly awesome, to say the least.

The minutes seemed to turn into hours as many of the classmates were already done. As a matter of fact, Alexis was still writing by the time the hands on the clock pointed to 8:53 AM.

"Time's up!" Mr. Rhodes called in a happy tune right as the hands of the clock chimed at precisely 9:00 AM. "Now, who wants to go first?"

"I do! I do!" Alexis replied, shooting her hand up in the air. She was standing tall, her little demon-wings fluttering in excitement.

"Alrighty then!" Mr. Rhodes said with a smile comparable to that of Pinkie Pie, "You will go first Monday."

Alexis smiled and sat down, waiting for everyone else to hand in their reports while she sat there and doodled stick figures. She used red crayons and yellow and pink and grey for the people and brown and red for the house. And blue for the house cat who had no legs.

The children and foals were talking about this and that. Some foals gossiped about the only Changeling in the room while the human children could not stop yapping about the twin hairballs in the room--or the little girl with mahogany hair and bat-wings, for that matter.

"What's with the over-sized dust bunnies in here?" "Should we vacuum them up and out?"

"That girl with wings sure is a freak." "I hear her dad is a half-demon." "No way! Demons aren't real!"

The bell rang for recess, and the classroom was quickly emptied as everyone ran out into the playground. There were swing-sets and sew-saws, slides and basketball courts, monkey bars and benches for the kids who were tired or merely wanted to gossip some more. Separating them from the rest of the town was a wire fence to keep the children from skipping school and mysterious adults away--and this applied to both humans and ponies.

Two children began pulling Alexis by the hair in an effort to push her into the ground.

"What is going on?!" Mr. Rhodes cried as he grabbed the boys by their shirt collars.

"I-I was minding my own business and then I was jumped!" Alexis sobbed, hugging Mr. Rhodes frantically.

"Boys! Principle's office, now!" The teacher bellowed in an angry tone of voice. "Not even one day in and already you are harassing somebody?! That will not be tolerated!"

The boys, whimpering and crying, ran to their destination as they were instructed to do so. It was an utter so clear and shocking that nobody on that playground could ignore.

The teacher then knelt down and held Alexis tightly, stroking her hair in an attempt to soothe her. It hurt him very deeply to see someone--anyone--being bullied, and it made it worse considering it made the victim break down into tears half the time. He looked around and saw more children stop their charade before the twins and triple-horned changeling--and he immediately gave those children, not their victims, another cold glare.

"This is quite the gathering of parents we have here today." Miss Cherilee sighed as she looked at the aforementioned parents sitting next to their children.

"I for one," Called the red-haired woman, "Wish to give those bullies a lesson. But I won't because the law simply forbids it."

"Natalie," Scoffed the half-demon man, "I want to do much the same and am in the same predicament. It's Miss Cherilee's job to deal with this unless some extreme happens and then police have to be involved."

"Your dad's right," Sighed the man in the Nazi getup, "Can't really do anything."

"Anna, it's Friday, so we might as well teach Nick to stand up for himself in a way that doesn't bend the rules." Lance replied. "Besides, we'll have time Saturday, right?"

Anna looked surprised. As quickly as it had come, her question went straight out the window.

"I know, we have to deal with bullies." Ranted the fox-woman, "But I think they...err...haven't been exposed to our children before and simply react in the only way they know how: to terrorize."

"You're too philosophical today, Katie. Then again, wisdom takes its toll eventually." Called the wolf-man.

"Fen-Fen, the kids last year were no different. This is simply the same batch with a different set of names and looks." Katie snapped.

Fen-Fen, whose real name was Fenrir, shut his mouth. There was no point arguing with the wise woman here.

"Why do they think all of us Changelings are bad?" Chimed the older Changeling with an azure carapace, set of eyes, and dark blue wings.

"Matt and Coryza, you two are quiet today. Why is that?" Katie asked, turning her attention from her twins to the blond man and pink-haired woman.

Coryza merely held up a sign with the words 'no comment' carved into its woodwork.

"Blake, are you okay?" Natalie asked. The half-demon nodded, his arms crossed and his eyes closed.

Miss Cherilee sighed. "If it happens again, I will give them detentions and notes to their parents. After that, I will heap homework on them. Is that fair?"

The parents nodded, all of whom were satisfied with the proposal. They and their children left the classroom and closed the door behind them.

Mr. Rhodes had finished looking over the reports and put them neatly into a paper holder. He let off a defeated sigh. This is gonna be a long year, breaks or none.

Schoolhouse Shenanigans!

by Dragonborne Fox

Chapter I- The First Day