//------------------------------//
// Shard #173,847 (The Teacher) 
// Story: Friendship is Optimal: All the Myriad Worlds 
// by Eakin 
//------------------------------//

SHARD #173,847

It was a perfect world.

The stallion baked in the first rays of the morning light, soaking up the heat as he lounged on the park bench watching the foals at play. He always came here when he needed to think, and right now he had a lot to think about.

His boss was being a bitch again. Ever since she'd turned fourteen and started going through the pony equivalent of puberty, she'd been insufferable. All the charm and magical innocence she'd held before were gone. Foals were so much better. Open minded, empathic, trusting.

There was nothing you could do with a fully grown pony that wasn't better with a child.

Perhaps it was just as well. He'd been thinking about quitting anyway, maybe opening up his own store to sell treats instead of working in the factory like he was 'supposed' to. He was supposed to do a lot of things he hated, and not to do even more things he enjoyed. But the old norms and obligations that had followed him after uploading were finally starting to go away, and he wouldn't miss them. Yes, work wasn't where his passion lay. His passion was in teaching.

Speaking of, he was about to get a chance to do some more of it. An orange earth pony colt, maybe about seven, was slowly plodding towards him with ears pinned to the side of his head and eyes fixed on the ground. It took him a few tries to say anything in a voice louder than a mumble, but once he'd gotten started a deluge of words started to tumble out. The stallion could only barely keep up with the babbling colt's story, but luckily it was one he was familiar with.

The colt had been playing with a friend, wrestling with him to be specific. As he’d pinned the other colt down in the grass, he’d suddenly gotten all hot. Now there was a funny feeling between his hind legs that he’d never felt before, and he didn’t understand it.

With a quiet smile, the stallion stroked the little colt’s mane and explained that what he was feeling was completely safe and natural. Everypony got feelings like that sometimes. What the colt needed now was somepony to teach him about all the wonderful things those feelings could lead to.

And teaching was the stallion’s passion, after all.

The stallion led the little colt away from the playground and back to his home. When the younger pony hesitated at the threshold of his bedroom, the stallion gave him a gentle kiss on the top of his head and slid a hoof along the underside of his thigh. After that, there was no more protesting as the two went inside to begin the lesson. Briefly, the stallion considered closing and locking the door behind him, but he immediately chided himself for thinking that. That was the old way of doing things, lingering on from a world that hadn’t understood the gift he’d given to so many little boys and girls over the years. Not that he’d never been interrupted here in Equestria. There was that colt who’d wandered in to investigate the strange noises while he was teaching that flirty little filly last month. He grinned and recalled what a wonderful afternoon that had turned out to be for all three of them.

For the next two hours, the stallion taught the colt about his body.

The colt stumbled out of the house’s front door, walking a little funny but grinning ear to ear. When he looked back, the stallion gave him a friendly wave as he basked in the afterglow. His stomach grumbled; it was past lunchtime. He’d worked up quite an appetite and needed to keep his strength up. After all, he knew the colt would go to find his friends and tell them what had just happened. It wouldn’t be long before another wave of them came to him, curious and receptive. He loved them all so much.

The stallion shook off his distraction and went about his day. There was so much still to do, and so many fillies and colts that still needed teaching. But it was no burden; not when they were all so desperate to learn from him.

It was a perfect world.