"And do you have your pencils and crayons and rulers?" Pinkie asked Spyro, probably the ten millionth question thus far.
"Yes, Mom…" he said, trying not to scream in frustrating.
Twilight stood with Trixie at the other side of the library. "And do you have the curriculum notes that Cheerilee let you borrow?"
"…Yes, Twilight," Trixie said in a similar fashion to Spyro.
"Well, get going then!" Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically while she used her magic to shove Trixie out the door.
Spyro watched this transpire. "I gotta learn how to do that…"
"And do you have your lunch pail and gems and—"
Spyro took his claws and gently, yet a little firmly, slammed Pinkie’s mouth shut. "Yes, yes, yes! I have everything, Mom."
She blinked. "Okie dokie then! Why didn't you just say so, silly?"
He sighed and smacked his head, rubbing his claws slowly down his face.
"Okay…" Pinkie took out a checklist, something the pink mare was rarely found with. Twilight had insisted she make sure her son’s first day of pony school went well. "Get ready for school…" She stuck her tongue out to the side and checked off the box labeled just that. "Check! Next is… show up on time but have you walk in five minutes after the school bell rings." She furrowed her brow at the oddly specific instruction but shrugged. "Hop on, kiddo!"
He hopped on and wrapped his claws around her neck. He clutched onto his lunchbox and made sure his backpack was strapped on properly. Twilight was intrigued to know how humans made saddlebags. He tried explaining how they worked, but it sounded awkward to her. Luckily, Rarity knew exactly what he meant. Though uncommon, some bipedal creatures in Equestria needed custom saddlebags. Spyro's explanation of what he called a backpack pretty much matched the custom design. In the end, she simply let him have one of her pre-made ones which he happily took. After all, he had saved Sweetie Belle’s life along with her friends, Rarity felt as if she owed him. Even if they were all to blame for getting themselves in trouble.
Halfway there, he wondered what school would be like with ponies. His first thoughts always landed on a zoo. He knew this thought was silly, perhaps even insensitive since ponies were clearly intelligent, but he was having issues imagining a school that was taught by a pony, for ponies rather than taught by a person for kids… who were people. It also started to confuse him on what exactly a person was. He used to just think that word meant other humans, but he had heard some ponies use the word people. He looked it up in a dictionary and was somewhat confused on the summary it gave, but he got that it basically meant anyone with intelligence, an individual. Being a planet filled with many races that could think, person or people just meant others.
Still… a class full of ponies to him seemed comical, perhaps even freaky. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would see this other than in a cartoon. The same went for Ponyville.
"What’s up? You seem like you’re thinking? Are you thinking?!" Pinkie asked quickly.
"Hmm…" He hesitated and then nodded. He leaned into her neck so she could hear better. "It just seems weird. A school of ponies and all."
"Oh…" She nodded in understanding, slowing down her walk a bit. "What was school like in your world?"
"Hmm… loud sometimes, and during study time it was quiet."
She giggled. "Pony fillies and colts are loud! What else?"
"We have fun at recess, but our playground was kind of small…"
"You saw the play area at your new school. It’s pretty small!"
"Yeah, I guess so," he agreed and took in a deep breath. "I just still think it’s weird to be the only dragon there, or human…" He shook his head. "Whatever."
"It won’t be so bad, sweetie. Plus, the Cutie Mark Crusaders will be there! They like you, right?"
"Hmm, I don’t know. We didn't get off to the best start." He remembered their first day together. A Manticore nearly ate them all. He did save them, but he doubted the three fillies thought much of him after he went into shock and they were forced to head home.
She nodded. "Maybe not, but I’m sure they still like you. So cheer up!"
He thought about it more and finally nodded, giving her a small smile. They were nearing the school, and the bell had just rang. They watched the final filly, a pink one, run inside and slam the door shut.
Pinkie shrugged and walked over to the back. Spyro noticed a door was on the side of the schoolhouse. She let him hop off. "Alrighty, you’re supposed to wait for the teacher who will open the door for you. Are you ready?"
"Ready as I’ll ever be."
Pinkie surprised him by giving him a quick peck on his forehead. "Then good luck, Son! I’ll see ya after class!" She then dashed off in a hurry.
He waited there after that. His mom, which was still a concept that he was getting used to, had helped him feel better. But just knowing that the building in front of him held at least a dozen ponies and no humans to be his classmates unnerved him. He started breathing without thinking, up and down, up and down. Why a classroom would frighten him but not a town full of ponies was beyond him. His nervousness spiked when the noise of the other children suddenly stopped, the classroom going almost completely quiet. He frowned and stuck his ears to the door to listen.
"…to… Spyro!" He had barely heard the teacher speak before the door slammed open. He was quick and was able to avoid being hit in the face at least, but he did land square on his tail. Cheerilee's smile faded. "Spyro? Are you alright?"
He saw several of his classmates peeking through the doorway so he jumped up, while quickly dusting himself off. "Yeah."
She furrowed her brow for a moment and raised a brow to him, trying to figure out just why he was on the ground before shrugging it off. "Alright, come on in!" She gave him no choice by using her head to nudge him forward.
She made sure he stood in front of the class before she began speaking. "As I was saying, this is your new classmate Spyro!"
Spyro looked to the ponies. He spotted the Crusaders sitting in the second row from the back. Sweetie Belle waved while the other two seemed just as nervous as the other ponies in the class. Or were the other ponies simply weirded out? He couldn’t exactly tell. He was certain two particular ponies wanted nothing to do with him, one with a pink coat and the other with a gray coat. They both had their heads held up high and looked away almost distastefully. The rest were simply intrigued.
"And where are you from originally?" The teacher asked him curiously.
That was a funny question in regards to his situation. He wondered what Pinkie Pie put down in her papers, or if she even required to. He knew exactly where he was from though. It was almost funny how no one had asked him so far, not even Twilight or Pinkie. "Uh, you mean before I came here and went on that ship and woke up on that crazy island? Or did you mean that?" he asked, his nervousness making the tone of his voice wavering.
Cheerilee blinked and so did the other students. "Whichever town, city or country you were from before coming to Ponyville, dear. I’m afraid we don’t know too much about dragons after all."
Well, she did ask… He cleared his throat. "New York City…"
The silence was starting to get annoying, most likely for everyone, but none more than Spyro.
"…I see, just where is that?"
"Uh…" He quickly looked at an Equestrian map that was pinned up on a wall. "Not on this map," he simply replied.
She nodded. "Well, why don’t you take a seat just in front of Scootaloo over there." She pointed to the only empty seat in the class, which just happened to be next to the pink-coated filly. He nodded and did just that, putting his things away in a cubby nearby.
"Now then, would you all please open your history books to chapter three?"
Spyro was glad she hadn’t said a higher number. Twilight had tried to catch him up and for the most part he understood the first two chapters. It talked about the war with Discord, Nightmare Moon, the settings of the three pony tribes and a few other things that seemed less important. The teacher began talking about a general in one of the old pony wars and soon he was mostly paying attention, but occasionally his mind would wander.
"Psst…" he heard the pink filly say to his right. He looked over curiously and she silently scowled at him. "What are you looking at?"
She had clearly tried to gain his attention, he knew this because she had been facing him. Whatever…
He continued to study his book, turning pages as the teacher read.
"Pssst…"
He looked over instinctively, only to recieve a view of the filly’s tongue sticking out. He narrowed his eyes and then sighed and looked away. He went a whole two minutes without being interrupted from his reading.
"Psssssst…"
Not this time, he decided. He would focus on his book and everything would be okay.
She tried again. "Psssssst…"
He sighed and turned pages again, just then realizing that he had not listened to the teacher on the last two pages.
"Hey…"
He slammed his fists onto his desk, sending sparks out of his claws and turned to face her. "What?!" It was a simple reaction. The very second after yelling, he knew that she had won. Her eyes had widened enough for the teacher to see, but behind her eyes was a tiny smirk just subtle enough to miss unless you were looking for it.
"Spyro! Is there something the matter?" The mare asked him harshly.
"Uh, sh…" He realized he had been in this situation before, back when he was still with humans so he sighed. "No, sorry."
"Good. And please keep your magic under control!" she exclaimed sternly and turned around to face the chalkboard again.
She turned around again after speaking about another pony briefly and paused to see most of the children’s hooves high in the air, except three. "What?" She questioned them all.
The pink filly spoke first. "He has magic?"
Cheerilee groaned. it was going to be a long day.
Lunch rolled around and the students were ushered outside.The silver and pink ponies from before giggled at him as they ran by to sit by themselves. He groaned and stomped over to the Crusaders and instantly sat next to Sweetie Belle. "I hate those two."
"Join the club… heh," Scootaloo said quickly before shoving her face into a sandwich.
Sweetie Belle smiled at him while he scowled down at the table. "Aww, don’t let them get to you, Spyro. They’re just a couple of no good bullies."
He calmed down and smiled to her. Then he reached into his lunchbox and found a red gem to munch on. He enjoyed the gem very much and started eating faster.
"So, uh, how have ya been?" Apple Bloom asked from the other side of the table.
"Okay, I guess."
He started eating some more when he noticed all three of them were looking away with nervous expressions. "What’s wrong?" He looked up, confused when Sweetie Belle placed her hoof on his claw.
"It’s just… you left us really sad the other day," she said in an odd, motherly tone.
He blinked and then realization dawned. He had been so busy with Trixie and getting ready for school that he had forgotten about the Manticore incident. His chewing had slowed down so he sped it right back up. "Yeah, I’m good. I guess I wasn’t thinking about it." He shrugged and went silent for a moment until he noticed they were still staring at him. "Are you three okay?"
Scootaloo scratched the back of her head. "We almost kinda… died. I guess it just feels weird. I actually went home that day to read a book. Yuck…"
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle giggled, the latter speaking up. "Aww… did somepony want to relax for once?"
The pegasus blushed. "Shut up. I just felt like it, okay?"
Apple Bloom smirked. "More like you thought your folks wouldn’t notice anything was wrong. We all got grounded regardless."
The filly shuddered. "I don’t want to think about it. That was so boring!"
They both nodded. Spyro felt a bit guilty for not being punished as well (he still had cupcakes when Pinkie wasn’t looking). He was glad they hadn’t brought up how he was punished.
"Hey, Spyro, how come you weren’t in school before?" Sweetie asked suddenly.
He shrugged. "Twilight said dragons don’t usually go to school here, but I guess she felt I should now. I… kind of told her I wanted to anyway."
All three of them nodded, but then something struck them all at once. Scootaloo was the first to respond. "Wait! You didn't have to go to school, but you actually told them you wanted to?! Why?!"
The three of them found it impossible to ignore her outburst, but Sweetie Belle just chuckled. "Aww, school isn't so bad Scootaloo. I mean what would you do with yourself all day if you didn't have it anyway?"
Scootaloo stuck her face into Sweetie Belle’s personal space. "Are you kidding me?! Learn to fly, do what I want, no homework, I could—"
"Hang out with Rainbow Dash?" Sweetie and Apple Bloom finished for her, speaking in unison.
"Yeah, that!"
Spyro finished his last gem quickly. "You’d get bored really fast. I know I was."
Scootaloo ignored that thought and choose to just drop the whole thing. "So Spyro, is there really a dragon city called New York?" She changed the subject.
Apple Bloom swallowed her food, forcing it down and turned to Scootaloo. "He used to be a hu-man, remember?"
"Oh yeah…" Scootaloo mumbled. "So Spyro, is there really a hu-man city called New York?"
"Yes, why? Did you think I was lying?"
She shrugged. "Sorta, we weren’t really sure if you wanted the hu-man thing kept a secret or not."
"Oh. Uh, I don’t think I’m supposed to… but yeah, New York was pretty cool. It had giant buildings that touched the sky!"
"Like Cloudsdale?"
"No… they didn't fly."
Scootaloo scoffed. "If the buildings did not fly, then how did they touch the sky?"
"They were really tall."
"Taller than the castle?" Sweetie wondered.
"Uh… I think? Canterlot Castle is on a cliff, huh?"
They all nodded, secretly wondering just how it stayed up there.
"A few are taller than the cliff it hangs on."
"What do humans do there?"
"Same thing ponies do here, I guess. Only there’s more yelling and lots and lots of people, way more than here."
They all nodded and finished their lunches.
Back inside, they were confused to find Trixie up front with a book levitating in the air while Miss Cheerilee was busy grading papers. "Hello, students. I will be helping out the class for a few weeks. My name is—"
"Hey, Trixie!" They all heard Snips and Snails, two young colts, call out from the back of the class.
She gritted her teeth but kept a false smile up. "Hello, Snips and Snails. Would you both please take your seat?" she told them as calmly as she could. They frowned but nodded.
"Now then, I will be teaching here as a joint effort for a little while. My name is Trixie Lulamoon. You may call me Miss Lunamoon, although I don’t mind Trixie or Miss Trixie." She waited for the students to respond, but most of them looked confused. Spyro, however, waved, a happy smile plastered on his face. "Hello, Spyro. Now then, would you all please open your science books to page thirty five?"
She doesn’t seem very happy… Spyro thought. Figuring there was nothing he could do to help for now, he opened his book and started reading.
Unicorn magic can be a complicated process when learning multiple spells. Most ponies will strictly stick to a few in their lifetimes. This is due to the connection between a pony’s special talent and the magical field that binds Equestria. The only exception would be if a pony’s special talent was relating to magic in some way. The basic methods for…
He stopped reading when he realized that this chapter was about the basics of casting magic. Of all the things he should be learning in school, that probably wasn’t going to help him with Twilight as his teacher. While Trixie talked, a nagging thought kept going through his mind. Dragon’s don’t get cutie marks… He looked down at his side and frowned. He noticed that Zecora had a mark of some kind, so obviously non-ponies could get cutie marks, right? But, dragon’s don’t normally use magic… neither do humans. It was a puzzling thought. Would that effect what he could do and how many spells he could learn? He supposed it was dependent on how much he could learn in general. Could that mean there was no limit?
He blinked once. Trixie was still talking about the basics of magic, meaning he didn't miss anything. What caused him to blink was how he had just started thinking. He made a lot of assumptions about this place, about Equestria in general. However, he had never really thought critically on that level before. Usually he just acted. It was odd, but he wanted more of it. It felt good. Without thinking, he raised his hand high in the air. Trixie looked up from her book for a split second and looked back down. Thinking she only imagined it, she looked back up and confirmed his hand was still raised.
"Yes, Spyro?"
He grinned. "So if someone never got a cutie mark, could they learn whatever spells they wanted?"
"Well… I don’t think it quite works that way, no. Now—"
Spyro raised his hand again and she stopped. "But what if you didn't end up… getting a cutie mark that had very little to do with magic?"
She raised her brow for the second time. "That would still have very little to do with helping a pony become proficient in magic."
He frowned and went silent again for a while. A couple moments later, Miss Cheerilee stood up.
"Normally we give each student equal attention. However, today I would like anypony who can utilize unicorn magic to stand up. We will be practicing basic levitation. Tomorrow will be the pegasus ponies turn and the next day will be earth ponies. We know that often your guardians and parents will teach you the finer points, but we still need to make sure the basics are taught here. The good news, for the rest of you, is an extra break on the playground starting right…" She paused and saw at least half of her class storm out of the class, she frowned. "…now."
Trixie took charge however. "Go on, stand up!"
Spyro shrugged and did as he was told. Sweetie Belle and two other fillies that he did not recognize and one of the colts in the back did the same. They all looked at Spyro oddly, but Trixie spoke up.
"These…" She trailed off and cast a spell onto the chalkboard. The runes he recognized for levitation revealed themselves. "These runes are the basic building blocks of unicorn magic. Don’t bother trying to read them, that is not their purpose. Instead you must try and memorize them in the correct order. Your mind must be clear when doing this and especially when casting magic. Memorizing these symbols with all sorts of memories or thoughts clouding your mind will do you no favors. Do you all understand so far?"
They all nodded, Spyro was still lost in his thinking however.
"Good, the first real step is to visualize what you want to achieve with your magic. Though to be quite frank, this step never really helped me all that much. But for all of you, try to visualize levitating a piece of paper or a pencil or whatever you have on your desk right now. It shouldn’t matter. Channeling magic is the next step and that can get kind of tricky. If you’ve never used magic before, then your horn can feel numb or like it’s not even there in the first place."
Sweetie Belle flinched upon hearing this. All she had ever managed to do before were sparks and everypony knew it.
"In a few moments, I want each of you to try to channel some magic. Don’t even try the spell, please don’t. Unless you’ve done it before, then go ahead and show off." Cheerilee frowned at Trixie’s wording, but the showmare ignored her. "Try right now actually. Clear your minds and just try to channel magic…" Trixie trailed off as Spyro was busy channeling as much as he could, making it painfully obvious with his claws glowing bright red. He would then snub out the magic and try again for fun.
Trixie shook her head and addressed him. "Having fun?"
He looked up. "No. So… the book kept talking about cutie marks, but I don’t think dragons get cutie marks. Does that matter?"
"So that’s why you were asking… to be honest it might matter. I can’t say for sure."
"Could I learn as many spells as I wanted to?" He raised his claw and levitated a pencil high into the air. "Or mix spells?" Before she could stop him, he had snubbed his pencil out of existence, visually at least, rendering it invisible. "Oh I know!" He stuck his tongue out and concentrated, the pencil slowly morphed back into the visible spectrum, but only half of it was visible, the other half remained shrouded in magic. "Half a spell!"
Trixie nodded, half smirking. She tried to keep the other students attention, but Spyro seemed to have them well in check. "Yes, well—"
His eyes widened. "Hey if I used the invisibility spell on myself." He raised his claw, while her eyes widened in horror. "And eat a gem, would the gem still be visible?!"
"Sp-Spyro that spell was not meant to—" Whatever she was about to say was not heard by anypony. The magic he had channeled and cast on himself seemed to backfire almost immediately. He yelped and was soon upside down, his head and eyes spinning. "…To be used on dragons."
"Goodness, are you alright?!" Miss Cheerilee was on him almost instantly, getting him upright and looking him over.
A small puff of smoke came out of his mouth. He looked down at his horns, an odd frown formed. He instantly looked up to Trixie, ignoring his classmates and the teacher. "What was that?"
She sighed. "As I was trying to explain, dragon skin can often reflect magic. Not always, it’s not exactly like a shield, however, it can react badly to magic. That was a bad reaction."
"But I use magic!" he pointed out. It kind of raised a big concern if his own magic could react badly to himself.
"There are ways to learn how to make sure your own magic will not do that. One of them is not casting so many spells so quickly."
"Oh…"
She smiled. "It was actually the next part of the chapter. You were paying attention right?"
"Yes!" He stood up. "But I started thinking really fast about what I could do and it felt… really good. It was weird, but that feeling is gone…" He trailed off, trying to describe what it was.
Sweetie Belle nudged him. "You had a weird, crazy look in your eyes. Last time I saw that was with Twilight!"
One of the unicorn fillies from the back of the class spoke up. "Oh, you mean when she made the town act all crazy over the doll?"
"Yeah like that!" Sweetie nodded and smiled, then she shuddered, remembering what it felt like.
Spyro wasn’t sure what to say to that. "Uh, anyway it felt really weird." He rubbed his head a few times. "What do you think it is?"
"Maybe learning magic mixes with dragon greed and you’ll keep learning more and more spells until you can move the sun! And then Princess Celestia will be put out of the job and you will be the dragon prince of Equestria!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed quickly.
Everypony stared at her, causing her to blush profoundly and chuckle.
"Maybe not?"
"No, but you raised one good point. Dragons do have an inherited attitude towards greed." Trixie pointed out. "At least according to an old book I read. It could be affecting you."
"I don’t feel very greedy…" Spyro said, mumbling his response.
"Oh, but you did. You wanted to learn like Sweetie Belle said. It was a silly thought she had, but it could hold more truth than she knows. Did it feel like you simply wanted more knowledge?"
He nodded without thinking. "Wait, well… yeah, I guess."
"Well it could be your mind getting used to…" She was about to say getting used to being a dragon, but she did not feel like explaining that to the students and the teacher. "To gaining magic from Twilight. It could be greed, but it’s manageable."
"Gah! Why does magic have to be so complicated? Now I have to memorize symbols and manage greed or something…" He slumped into his seat and sighed.
Miss Cheerilee smiled at him and cleared her throat, taking her seat as well. "I believe Spike has had to manage his greed before. You should speak to him and Twilight when you have the chance." He thought it over and nodded, feeling a bit more calm about the whole thing. "At any rate, why don’t we all go back to levitation spells and only levitation spells, hmm?"
"…Fine," Spyro said, the other students sighing in relief that they could finally practice some magic.
The final bell rang, letting most of the students run out, cheering as they left. Trixie groaned, being forced to grade the remainder of the papers was an extremely tedious job. Spyro stood up himself, gathering his homework. Pinkie Pie came bouncing up behind him.
"Hi, Son. How was your first day at school? Huh?"
He frowned a bit. "Okay, I guess… A little weird."
She tilted her head. "How so?"
Miss Cheerilee walked up to Pinkie. "He is a wonderful student, although I think I better let Trixie explain the odd incident today." She turned back to Trixie. "I’ll take care of the rest, you're done for the day. Thank you."
"Oh thank Luna." She groaned and stood up. Walking outside, she began to explain her theory on Spyro’s dragon greed to Pinkie who listened intently. She explained how his human mind, whatever that entailed, might be getting used to his new body.
"But won’t that affect his mind? Like a lot?" Pinkie asked, watching Spyro with a concerned look.
She shook her head. "I don’t believe so. Of course he should be monitored a little, but it could be a good thing. Seems he wants to learn a lot more."
Spyro was only sort of listening when he piped up. "Hey, Trixie, could you teach me how to summon cupcakes with my magic?!"
"Or a bad thing from my perspective," Trixie muttered.
Pinkie giggled. "Are you sure you feel okay?"
Spyro nodded. "Sure, I think so."
"Well, okie dokie then!"
"Yes, for now I have a show to plan."
"Um, do you need any help with it?"
Trixie sighed. "I am sorry, Spyro. Twilight did raise a good point, using things from your world might either be confusing to others or frightening to most of the children there. Plus, don’t you have homework?"
That was the only thing which he was not looking forward to about real school: homework. "Okay…" He sagged down on Pinkie Pie’s back.
"Don’t be sad! I’m sure Trixie can use all sorts of crazy magic and take stuff from Earth to use in Nightmare Night! Right, Trixie?"
Not wishing to upset the dragon, she nodded. "So long as I don’t get arrested from terrorizing ponies." She shuddered at the thought. While she found Batman to be hilarious, she very much doubted many of the ponies in this town or the next were ready to see him as anything but spooky.