Amethyst adjusted his saddlebags, feeling the weight of the textbooks inside. Today was the day Rarity insisted he attend school.
School. Now there was an interesting concept. By the time he had entered the age of reason, school had consisted of nothing but messages of how great and wonderful the almighty King Sombra was. The education was of the things they could do to serve him better. He had received better education at most, he supposed, since his mother had worked in the palace, but nothing to the degree he’d be receiving today.
Sweetie, unfortunately, had gotten up in time to cook breakfast, and after the cereal and milk she had poured inexplicably burst into flame he decided to stay far away from anything that was prepared by her horn. A quick meal of toast and tea was all he ended up getting while Sweetie stubbornly tried downing her burnt flakes. After three gags, she gave up, with a grumble that she’d get better if Rarity would just teach her.
Nevertheless they were out the door by the usual time, both walking side by side. They were soon joined by Spike, who gave Sweetie a quick kiss, which Scootaloo, who was next, gagged at.
“Oh don’t act like that,” Sweetie said. “You never see us complain when you lock lips with Light.”
Red formed on Scootaloo’s checks. “Yeah, well...” Her comment just died right there.
“You’ll like Miss Cheerilee, she’s nice,” Spike said, deciding to both save Scootaloo from her embarrassment and get the topic on Amethyst.
“So I’ve heard,” he said. “Tell me, are the old conditions for being a teacher still in effect?”
“What do you mean?”
“In my time, teachers were required to be mothers first. They believed it helped them handle foals.”
Scootaloo couldn’t help but laugh. “Cheerilee’s too young to be a mom to any of us... maybe an older sister or something.”
“What?” Sweetie said. “She’s older than your mom.”
“Yeah, well, I’m different, aren’t I?”
She noticed Amethyst looking her over. She realized it must still be strange to him, a pony that was made rather than born.
“Anyhow,” Amethyst spoke, changing the topic. “A lot has changed in the time I was in slumber…” he trailed off, thinking back to the books he had read since Twilight delivered them to him.
Spike shrugged with his eyes closed. “You should speak to Princess Luna, you and her would get along just fine.”
Amethyst merely blinked, confused with what Spike was saying until her remembered something. “Oh yes, her banishment.” He said, but paused for a moment. “But why was she—”
“We’re here!”
The foals all stopped before the entrance of an old school building, painted red with a large bell on top. Amethyst blinked as he saw how many hearts decorating the school. “Why are there so many hearts on the school?”
The others cocked their brows before inspecting the schoolhouse thoroughly and tapping their chins in thought, before Apple Bloom spoke. “Ye know, Ah dunno. Always been like that.”
Amethyst merely nodded and sighed before speaking again. “Well, I suppose we should enter now?”
“Right, let’s go!”
School was many things to foals, be it exciting or dull. For Amethyst, it was an awfully peculiar place. Ms Cheerilee was a very kind mare when he introduced himself to her and she was more than happy to have one more foal to teach in her class.
For the other foals, it was rather mixed. A few foals were intrigued by his heritage and how he came to be with them, whilst others were more loathing towards him. Amethyst didn’t bother with them though, as he was too engrossed by what each lesson had in store for him. Math, Equestrian, and Literature were all covered that morning, but the one lesson he was most interested in was History, as it was the most productive one for him at the moment.
The school bell rang, signalling the start of recess. When the foals were outside, Amethyst was dragged by his friends to one side of the playground that they called the Jungle Gym.
Amethyst was standing on the jungle gym, finding it awfully entertaining until he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head.
“Bullseye!”
Amethyst rubbed his head, trying to dull the sharp pain. He glanced around the ground to see what the missile was that hit him, and saw the likely object, a small, sharp rock.
He looked for the one that had thrown it at him, and it wasn’t long until he saw the likely culprits. Two ponies, pink and silver, whom his friends had told him to simply stay away from. The pink one, Diamond Tiara, was grinning a cruel grin, one he could tell she wore frequently and with great pride. The other, Silver Spoon, didn’t look so committed, and in fact actually seemed rather offended.
“Diamond... why’d you—”
“Wretch! Foul wretch!” Amethyst cried out as he glared at Diamond Tiara.
Now Diamond looked offended. “What did you call me?”
“You committed assault upon me. Why would you do such a thing?”
“Because you’re weird!”
Amethyst paused, his face scrunching up with confusion, as if attacking for such a petty reason was a foreign concept to him. He did not have long to ponder this, however, as his friends rushed to his defense, having finally looked up from their own playing to notice he had stopped.
“Can’t we go through one day without you annoying us?”
“If you don’t want to be annoyed, quit being so stupid! Isn’t that right, Silver Spoon?”
Diamond Tiara’s partner-in-crime, as much as she was these days, kicked the dirt with her hooves. Red tinged her cheeks, showing her feelings of being in this situation. “Um, actually, Diamond, I don’t think you should have done that.”
Diamond Tiara looked at her friend with an incredulous gape. “Don’t think... what’s wrong with you?”
“Wow, looks like officially nopony likes you now,” Scootaloo jeered. By now, Apple Bloom and Spike had stepped between the two bullies and Amethyst, and were trying to push the latter away from the scene. However, he stood his ground, through some reason or another.
“Shut up!” Diamond yelled, but only looked at her opponents for a split second before turning back to Silver Spoon. “Are you going soft on me?”
Silver Spoon’s attention was not on Diamond Tiara though, but rather on the victim. She couldn’t help but look at Amethyst and his blue eyes. She felt a little heat gathering on her cheeks and started to blink profoundly.
“Hey Silver! I’m talking to you!”
Coming back to reality, Silver shook her head and gave Diamond Tiara a pleading look that seemed to silence her. “Let’s just go.”
“Hmph!” Diamond Tiara straightened herself and began to walk away. “I’ll be back, you loser!” She snapped at Amethyst, before walking away proudly swaying her head to show off her tiara, her fake tiara.
Silver Spoon bit her lower lip and gave Amethyst an apologetic look before bowing her head slightly. “I-I’m so sorry!” she told him hastefully, before rushing off to her friend.
Light groaned as he rolled his eyes. “That filly is not going to get far in life, that’s for sure.”
Spike nodded his head in agreement. He then cocked his brow looking back at Silver Spoon. “There’s something that bothers me, though…”
“What? You’re not actually believing Diamond Tiara, are you?” Scootaloo asked him curiously as she eyed the duo leaving.
“Nah, not in this lifetime. But didn’t Silver Spoon seem a little… off?”
Sweetie Belle, noticing this, scratch her mane in thought. “Now that you mention it, yeah…”
Scootaloo merely rolled her eyes and sighed. “Whatever! Let’s get back to our recess before class starts again.”
“Righ’!” Apple Bloom shouted out from behind, thinking of something to help ease the situation. She eyed Pip for a moment before shoving him hard. “Tag! Yer it!”
With that, all the foals began to run around the area avoiding Pip. All save for one. Amethyst stood still in place, tilting his head in confusion. Pip began to gallop towards him and shoved him. “Tag, yer it mate!”
“Oh, is that game still played? Very well, then...”
After ten minutes of tag, A new game called Stop and Go was played. It was new to Amethyst, but it simply involved running toward who was it, in the first case Pip, until they said Stop, and then moving when they said Go.
After thirty minutes of recess it was back inside. The next subject was science, and the entire class depressed Amethyst greatly. So many theories he had learned before his imprisonment were outdated, to the point he was sure he’d be laughed at for stating that animals were classified into “blood” and “bloodless” categories. Every sentence Cheerilee spoke made him feel a foal. He vowed to run to Spike’s home and retrieve every science book his mother would allow as soon as class was over.
Music was next, and the day was ended with Art, a treat for the final hour. Amethyst spent a good deal of it sketching buildings from the Empire, and looking at them with a sense of longing and uncertainty. The others noticed this, but for once tactfulness won out in the group and each decided to keep his or her peace.
Once the school bell rang at three-thirty, the class was dismissed, and despite Amethyst desire to run to the library, a few words from his friends sent him running to the clubhouse.
Rarity hated silence. She first realized this after the very first “week-long vacation” her parents had taken that meant Sweetie had stayed a month. When her parents had finally remembered they still had an underaged filly to take care of and took back Sweetie for what ended up being only two weeks, Rarity found herself unable to sleep. It took her thirty minutes of contemplation before she realized why. She hadn’t yet tucked Sweetie in and kissed her goodnight, and sleep was hard coming without that step completed.
The next vacation came during a school year, and Rarity found herself unable to work during those hours, with no little hooves running around or voice asking her to please teach her to sew. Silence, she discovered, was a distraction.
But this silence seemed even more silent, because now two things were missing: Sweetie practicing her singing, and Amethyst flipping through his latest book, the colt having quickly rivaled Twilight in frequency of books consumed. Rarity grinned. It seemed like Twilight would be getting another regular patron to her library.
She stopped at that. Which was bad, because she was using her sewing machine at the time, and it caused a jam. While fixing it, she reflected on what made her stop. She was already thinking of Amethyst as a permanent fixture in her new life. Schooling, plans to add a new room onto her home for him, plans on nurturing his Special Talent.
She sighed. The last time she had had this revelation was when she realized she was the one raising Sweetie, not her parents. But that had been definite, this was not. Why should she be expecting to keep him?
A knock on the door called her back to reality and she turned to face the front door, walking towards it. She opened it slowly and was greeted by a red earth pony stallion carrying a few baskets of apples on his back.
“Good day, Miss Rarity,” Big Mac bowed his head politely to Rarity, standing still outside before her.
Rarity simply smiled and shook her head. “Big Macintosh, you don’t have to call me ‘Miss’. We are friends, are we not?” she asked rhetorically, before standing aside. “Come on in.” She instructed him and closed the door once he was inside. “Could you drop those off in the kitchen table, please?”
“Eeyup!”
When they were in the kitchen, Big Macintosh started unpacking all the apples on the table. “Where shall Ah put them fer ya?”
“Oh, you don’t need to do that for me, darling,” Rarity waved her hooves at him, but she was grateful at his manners.
Big Macintosh merely cocked his eyebrow and smirked. “Ah know Ah don’t need ta, but Ah wanna. So tell me, where shall Ah put them fer ya?”
Rarity giggled and sighed before showing the stallion where to put the apples. “Over here, please.” She pointed to a large pantry and opened it for Big Macintosh to deposit the apples inside. Rarity looked on the stallion as he worked and her eyelids started to become half hooded as she started to smile slowly. She shook her head to bring her out of her daze and immediately cleared her throat. “Say, Big Macintosh. Are you busy for the rest of today?”
“Eenope. Why ya ask?”
“I was wondering, if you would like some tea?”
Big Macintosh nearly dropped some of the apples he was carrying as his eyes became wide. He was fortunate enough of having a red coat, or else Rarity would have seen the blush forming on his cheeks. “Ah beg yer pardon?”
Rarity blinked and looked away from his gaze before looking at him again. “Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to talk a for a little?” She asked him curiously, feeling oddly nervous when he was looking at her like he was now.
“Ah... Ah’d love to.”
It was a simple arrangement, to Rarity at least, but her guest might as well have been looking at the most elaborate placement in Canterlot for all he was worried about. A thousand worries ran through his mind as he tried to remember the small amount of lessons his uncle and aunt had bothered to teach him in his youth. Earth ponies took steady laps of tea, never a big gulp. The little cakes are taken only after a drink is complete, in one mouthful.
Rarity couldn’t help but giggle. “Really, Darling, this isn’t a fancy dinner. I truly do not mind if you slip on a few things.”
Big Mac was never more thankful to have a red coat. “Um... Ah appreciate it, Miss Rarity. But I was taught to honor the table of any table I was invited to eat at.”
Rarity gave her winning smile, the one that had always managed to put Fluttershy at ease when she was learning etiquette. “I truly think you have already done better than... some nobles I could mention.”
Big Mac blinked. “Ah see...” he was silent for a moment. What could he talk about too such a mare that wouldn’t bore her? Crops and planting were not the subject to bring to this table. “Is the colt doing okay?”
“Amethyst? Yes, he’s doing quite well. The poor dear still seems a bit saddened about things. I can tell he’s hoping we’ll find his mother. I hope it will happen but—” She paused before turned away. “Never mind...” She left out that she was beginning to hope they wouldn’t find her.
But something on her face must have betrayed this hope, because Big Mac tilted his head oddly. “Ya seem to like the boy.”
She blushed. “Well... I do believe I have gotten used to him being here.”
It was the most neutral answer she could give, which only told Bic Macintosh of what he already suspected.
“Miss Rarity, what are you gonna do if they do find his mother?”
“I’ll let him go see her.” The words were said after a telling split-second pause.
“And if they don’t, you think you can take care of him?”
“Of course. I have enough money, and time... I already take care of Sweetie Belle.” She thought a moment. “Why the sudden fascination?”
Big MacIntosh scrunched his lips before blinking. “It’s just, ya seem to be thinkin’ of him quite a lot lately.”
Rarity looked down on her cup with a frown forming on it as she was thinking. “Yes, I suppose.”
“Well, Ah’m sure whatever happens… he’ll be alrigh’,” Big Macintosh told her as he finished his cake. “Ah mean, he’s very fortunate that he has ya to look out fer him. Any foal is lucky to have ya in their lives.”
As Big Macintosh continued to speak, Rarity just stared at him with more wonder than she had ever before. When he was finally done talking, she giggled again and looked at him with demurring eyes. “You really are a fine gentlecolt, Big Macintosh.”
Big Macintosh flustered for a moment, blinking profoundly as he tried to find his voice. “Well, Ah’m just being honest is all. Ah mean—”
“Hey Rarity, ya home?”
Both ponies ears perked at the voice calling out from the front entrance, the voice belonging to Big Macintosh's sister. Applejack.
Rarity sighed and planted her hoof to her face. She got up from the table and cantered towards the room where Applejack was. “Applejack, how can I help you?”
“Was wonderin’ if ya saw Big Macintosh around? We need to finish up some apple bucking and he said he’d be back after delivering yer apples fer ya.”
With his name being mentioned, Big Macintosh made his way out of the kitchen. “Righ’ here AJ, was just keepin’ Miss Rarity company is all.”
Applejack cocked her brow and looked to her friend, who simply nodded. A mischievous grin started to form on her muzzle, before she snorted a little. “Ah see…”
“Applejack?” Rarity wondered what her friend found so funny.
“Nothin’.” Applejack scoffed and motioned her head to the front door for her elder brother. “Come on Big Mac, let’s go.”
“Righ’ righ’.” Before he went outside, he looked back at Rarity with a gentle smile and nodded to her. “Thank ye kindly fer the tea, Miss Rarity.”
“My pleasure, Big Macintosh.”
“Will ye two lovebirds quit it?” Applejack chimed in the conversation, with the entire boutique acquiring a new silence.