I was tired, well I am usually tired when I first begin to wake up in the morning so that isn’t something too out of the ordinary. I smacked my lips as my consciousness began to rise from the depths of sleep, finding something strange stuck to my tongue. I opened my eyes to see the writing end of a quill sticking out of my mouth, and after failing to spit it out a few times, reached up with a hoof and pulled the ruined writing utensil off of my tongue.
“Gross,” I said as I tossed it on the desk, and pushed myself up into a sitting position in the chair I was in. I yawned and stretched my hooves over my head, popping my back a couple of times, before I wiped the sleep from my eyes, and looked about the room.
It was dark in here, the curtains had been pulled closed, and really gave me no way to track the passing of the day. I gazed down from my seat at the abundant amount of books and loose leaf pieces of paper around me. The mess extended in a circle around me for a few feet, the books that I had gotten from the library mixed with some I had nabbed from the study yesterday morning. I stood in my chair and vaulted over the books and notes to land on a clean patch of carpet a few feet away.
My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I did in fact need to eat at least once every couple of days, so with a yawn I turned and headed over to the chair I had propped up against the doorknob. Without care, I kicked it aside and let it fall onto the floor with a loud thunk, and opened the door to find a dark and deserted hallway beyond. I made sure to stretch out my limbs as I walked towards the bathroom, while also trying to recall what I had been reading over last night.
I had spent the entirety of yesterday just scanning through a dozen different books, and writing down everything that seemed to stand out to me. It had taken a little while, but eventually all of the magic mumbo jumbo had started to slowly click into place. Or at least, the crazily rudimentary stuff had, I was still having an incredible time trying to decipher that advanced magic book I had picked up from the library first.
I pushed open the door to the bathroom and walked inside, stifling another yawn, and went about relieving myself. Once finished, I propped myself up on my hooves to look at myself in the mirror. A few stubborn strands of hair were poking out of my finely groomed mane, making the grey colt in the mirror frown. It took me a few jumps and swipes, but eventually I was able to hit the bottle labeled “serum” close enough to grab, and dab out some onto my hoof. The clear goop on my hoof reminded me a lot of hair gel though it smelled much better, and after taking the time to apply it to my mane, it was once again in excellent condition.
I washed my hooves in the sink before exiting the bathroom and making my way down the stairs. Halfway down, I looked out the front windows of the manor to see that the sun was only just rising into the sky, baking the world outside in the warm orange glow of dawn. I felt the strong desire to go back upstairs to my room and continue sleeping until somepony felt the need to come and rouse me, but my stomach’s protestations pulled me ever forwards towards the kitchen downstairs. I did hear somepony a few rooms down walking on the tiled floor, but other than that the manor seemed to be vacant save for myself as I made my way through the dining hall and into the kitchen.
I hadn’t taken the time to admire the huge kitchen within the Rich Manor, and as I walked in and saw all the shiny cooking equipment I still failed to appreciate it. I wasn’t really somepony that knew how to even boil water correctly, so I was sure that the magnificence of it all was completely lost on me as I wandered my way around until I discovered the pantry. I pushed the two way door open easily, and took a moment to find the light switch, before I examined the shelves in search of something nice to eat.
Luckily for me, there was a step ladder in the fully stocked pantry, and once I had discovered a box of cereal I quickly moved it so that I could get at the “Oat Flakes.” Sure it seemed strange, and even a little unappetizing, but at the time I didn’t really care and picked the box up in my mouth as I hopped off the ladder. I was walking out of the pantry and over to the refrigerator to grab some milk to go with my cereal when the cheese incident Saturday night hit me and brought me to a stop.
I frowned, turning and walking into the dining room, and taking my usual seat before I popped open the box and began to eat straight from it. Scooping up the tiny little flakes was more difficult without fingers, but somehow I managed. I sat there, looking out the windows as I ate my morning cereal, and waited for the day to start around me. The flakes weren’t very flavorful, in fact they were the most bland cereal that I had eaten in a long time. I found myself wishing for something with little marshmallows, maybe with some fruit flavoring for the main cereal, and of course a few little games on the box to keep my interest.
Though, since I lacked such attention grabbing games, or even a colorful mascot, I had to occupy myself with staring out the window at the slowly blooming morning. I couldn't see the sun, but if the slowly building radiance of the blossoming dawn was anything to go by, then sunrise had come just a few minutes ago. As the morning continued to grow brighter outside of the large windows that I stared through, slowly shovelling bland flakes of cereal into my mouth as I did so, I slowly began to be able to make out vague shapes in the distance. The vantage wasn’t particularly excellent, the many trees and bushes that dotted the estate blocked most of my view, but if I strained hard enough I felt that I could make out some outcropping of trees in the far distance.
It was still too dark to be sure however, the tall dark masses just on the edge of my vision slowly growing brighter as the sun continued to climb higher. Actually, they were growing much brighter than they should have. In fact, as I strained to see the far off mass of trees I could tell that some of them were already practically orange, shining with a radiance that they shouldn’t have had. Others had taken a darker tone, a frightening shade of crimson, and the light continued to sweep across the tall and proud trees faster than I could account for. It wasn’t too long before all of the ones I could see were glowing in various shades of red, orange, and yellow, expelling whatever blackness that they had found within their midst into the air.
There was somepony out there also, I no longer felt the need to strain my eyes to see, and sat back in my chair as the figure made a slow and steady approach towards me. No that was wrong, there were two coming towards me, the first was a woman, not a mare, and she was running from the other one. The second one, just now languidly making their way from the glowing trees, the orange and red radiance spreading around her with every step she took, was after the first.
The woman, I was more and more sure that she was human as she continued her mad dash towards the estate, wore tattered clothing. She was bleeding, stumbling, as she continued forwards, and the fear on her face shone so brightly in the world around her that was slowly growing brighter and brighter, that I felt some small part of me start and grow frightened as well. Still, despite her injuries, and the tongues of red that licked her heals and caused so much obvious pain, she spurred forwards in a mad dash for the safety of the mansion.
The pony, more detail becoming apparent about her as she continued approaching, chasing the woman. She was a great figure, made of the same red and orange energies that were seeping out about her into the world. She had no eyes, or more accurately, where she should have had eyes were only pure orbs of gold that were locked onto the woman’s back. She chose not to move quickly, enjoying the small game of cat and mouse that she had involved herself in.
The air around me started to grow warmer, it was suffocating, but I dared not look about. I kept my gaze straight ahead of me on the two approaching figure, the first making it past some of the trees of the estate as the red radiance sped on past her. It was covering the whole world now, burning it, I realized with a start. The mansion was not being spared whatever fiery wrath had been handed down from the heavens, I could hear a beam break overhead and crash thunderously into the table I was sitting at. The long table rocked and broke just as loudly at where it had landed, but still I did not dare look away.
The woman was trying for all that she was worth, but the burning grass had already overtaken her, and the flames about her continued to pick at her bare feet until she would be unable to press on. Then she stumbled, she fell to her hands and knees and I could see her cry out in anguish, though I was unable to hear it. In some herculean show of willpower she managed to push herself to her feet once more, and take a single step before her legs gave and she fell to her knees. She kneeled there, defeated, as the rags that she wore began to burn even as they clung tightly to her skin. She gazed toward the burning house, through the window that I was watching from, but she did not see me. Her eyes were vacant as I stared into them, there was nothing left of her any longer, and it wasn’t long before she fell forward into the burning earth around her never to stir again.
The red mare continued her approach, gazing at the fallen woman the entire time that she did so. A door to my left exploded into the room, spreading flames around me as it did so, but I still sat unharmed in my chair, watching her loom over the corpse of the woman. She looked down for a long while, the smile on her face slowly spreading, before she lifted her head in triumph and let a cry out to the heavens. Still, I could not look away. That was until she looks away from the flaming sky overhead and locked her gaze with mine, the glowing golden spheres bearing into me. She took a step away from the woman on the ground, and started towards me. Her eyes…
“Ash,”
Her eyes saw me, saw me truly for what I was.
“Ash!”
She didn’t take such a sedate pace this time though, she stood back on her hooves and spread her wings wide, preparing to overtake me before I could have the chance to run. I tried to force myself to move, the burning air inside the manor already making it impossible to breath but…
“ASHEN STROKE!” came a forceful yell just to the left of me.
I sat up with a start, spilling the box of cereal that I still had in my lap all over the floor around me. It took me a moment to realize just where I was, and whose orange hoof was still stabbed securely into my ribs. I looked down from my seat as Steel who was staring at me with something akin to worry or amusement, I couldn’t really be sure.
“Dude, you were freaking out,” he informed me.
I blinked at him a few more times before I finally found my voice. “Really?” I asked.
“Yeah you looked like you were hyperventilating or something.” No, I could tell now that he was most definitely worried. I put a hoof to my head, aware now that I had some a fearsome headache. I squinted, rubbing my temple as I tried to recall just what had happened.
“I guess I fell asleep,” I said after a while. “Can’t really remember what the dream was about though.”
“Must have been a pretty bad nightmare,” he said as I hopped down from my chair.
“Yeah, I guess so.” I shook my head vigorously, not really helping with the pain pounding against my skull, but it helped to wake me up just a little better.
I heard the doors open and looked up to see Feather Duster walk into the dining room. “Well there you are,” she said as she made her way over. “It is nearly time to leave for school.”
I recalled faintly that today would be Monday, and that school usually took place on the weekdays. I yawned, and stretched my back again as I started trotting towards the door she had just entered the room from. I said nothing as I headed towards the front door, taking my backpack from one of the servants that was holding it open as I exited. Diamond Tiara was already seated inside of the carriage as we made our way out to it. Me, shielding my eyes from the harsh morning sun that aggravated my headache, and Steel, practically skipping as he made his way down the stairs.
He seemed to be in an extremely good mood this morning, though I had neither the ability or inclination to try and figure out why. I was far too busy with introspection to consider anything else as we began to sedately make our way to the elementary school we would be attending today, that was, until Feather Duster decided to ask how our weekends had been. Diamond and Steel both gave simple one words answers while I instead lapsed into a lecture on all of the different magical principals that I had been reading and learning about over the past few days.
To the mare’s credit, she did a much better job at pretending to be interested than I would have expected. My other two companions just tuned me out completely, trading a few quips to each other, between bouts of gazing out the window at nothing in particular. It didn’t take too long before we had nearly arrived at our destination.
“Nearly an infinite amount of classes and subclasses,” I informed Feather Duster. “Though one thing seems to remain constant throughout, the will of the pony manipulating and shaping the energy. Though, I suppose, it doesn’t have to be the will of the actual pony that is actually crafting the energy into a spell form. The will could come from just about anywhere, and apparently, from even non-sentients. From what I have read, it seems that though there are even elemental forces that can cause spells or spell like properties to arise using the mana in some given vicinity, and apparently this still counts as some kind of willpower input.
“Now I know, how can something like a blizzard or thunderstorm actually create a construct? I was asking the same thing too, but while looking over the equations and double checking the math, though I suppose that was kind of redundant since these were in publications, there is a proof to explain it. Apparently, these phenomena have been reported to actually connecting to the Astral Plane, and collecting some amount of turbulent emotion from there, which then gave rise to a spell form. The documentation of these events is pretty clear, and I don’t particularly have any reason to doubt that they happened, but still it is strange.
“Truthfully, I have always kind of been a proponent for the lack of what is commonly referred to as ‘free will.’ In my mind, for at least the last while, I always felt that we just function off of some predetermined programs. The programing having been established either by our genes or by the vast amount of experiences that we have been through. I think, or at least I thought before getting my hooves on all of this literature, that we can actually know how anypony will react in any given instance if we take a look at their past behaviors.”
“Master Ashen Stroke,” Feather Duster interrupted, just before I was about to go into another shpiel.
“Yes?” I asked.
“We arrived some time ago, the other two have already left the carriage.” I looked out the open door to the schoolyard where colts and fillies were racing to get into the classroom before they were late. I caught the sound of Feather snickering as I just straight out of the litter and landed in the grass, already sprinting to make sure that I didn’t end up tardy and earn the wrath of Cheerilee.
As I ducked into the building and raced down the hall, I caught sight of the door to the classroom slowly coming to a close, Cheerilee not seeing my rapid approach as she called after some other colt. With barely enough room, I jumped and dove face first into the classroom, sliding a little bit on my stomach, and feeling one of my rear hooves clip the doorframe as I just barely squeezed through.
“Safe!” Steel called loudly, earning a round of laughter from the students in the room as I got back to my hooves.
Cheerilee finished closing the door, her mouth open to chastise me for my reckless behavior, as a smack resounded from the now closed door, and she turned away to address the pony that had just run full tilt into the door. I took the opportunity to head over to my cubby and tuck my things inside, but as I did so I noticed that there was an unusual visitor in the back of the class, sitting in a comically undersized chair. The beige unicorn with a blue braided mane that I had met just a few days ago, South Wind, turned and waved at me.
“Good morning,” she said pleasantly.
“Um, good morning,” I replied as I finished grabbing the things I wanted to class and started heading towards my desk. I hopped up into my seat, laid out my pencils and my notebook on top of my desk, taking a minute to make sure that everything was perfectly straight and square, before turning back around to look at the unicorn that was for some unexplained reason sitting in on our class today. When she saw me looking back she smiled and waved at me again, to which I simply nodded and turned back around to face the front. “Weird.”
Cheerilee finished making sure that all of the ponies were in the classroom, having stopped and scanned the hallway before closing the door for a final time. She walked up to the front of the classroom, and put on her winning smile as she turned to us. “Good morning class,” she said...cheerfully.
“Good morning Miss Cheerilee,” the class droned back to her.
“You have probably noticed, but we have a visitor to our class today,” she said as she motioned to the unicorn in the back. “This is Miss South Wind, and she has come all the way from Canterlot to visit our class today, so make sure you are all on your best behavior.”
South waved to the class, some of whom were murmuring something about Canterlot, obviously impressed for some reason that there was a pony from there. I was just left wondering as to why she was actually here, sure the teacher had said that she came to the class for some reason, but never actually told us what that reason was. Was there some reason that she was keeping that a secret, or was it just not important to tell us since we are in an elementary school class, and we don’t need to know those kinds of things. That line of thought had the headache, that I hadn’t noticed had disappeared, come back in full force. Wincing, I turned back to the front to see that Cheerilee was handing out some worksheets to the class.
As the stack of papers made their way to me, I took the top one and handed the rest off to the foal behind me. Staring down at it, I noticed that they were some incredibly simple math problems. I looked back up to where Cheerilee was starting to go over the first few on the board, demonstrating some principal or another, but honestly I had lost interest before she even finished the first problem. Sighing, I looked down at the sheet, turned it over to see that there were in fact half a page of questions on the back, before flipping it back to the front and starting on it. It wasn’t the least bit difficult, in fact, it was mind numbingly easy.
I was halfway down the page when my right eye started becoming too heavy to stay open. I shook my head, trying to blink away the tiredness, to no avail, before I continued to grind through the paper. By the time I was finished with the front and flipped it over to the back my headache had once again faded, but my ears picked up some far off whining that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. I finished the rest of the paper quickly, and even wrote out a few more harder problems on the bottom of the page, following the same format as the rest of the paper, before my weariness grew too much for me and I laid my head down on my desk to give myself just a little bit of a rest.
I hadn’t even noticed that I had dozed off until somepony shook my shoulder lightly to rouse me.
“Hmm?” I asked whoever was trying to wake me up.
“I wouldn’t want to wake you, but I believe you are missing recess.” I opened an eye to see that the pony disturbing me was none other than South Wind. She was smiling gently, something that reminded me a whole lot of Cheerilee, and as I sat up in my desk I noticed that we were the only two in the room.
“Oh?” I said.
She smirked down at me. “Yes, you should probably hurry off, you wouldn’t want to miss lunch now would you?” she asked.
I sat up, focusing on my stomach and finding that I was in fact pretty hungry, which was strange since it seemed like I had just eaten not too long ago. Of course, with all the sleeping that I seemed to be doing today I wasn’t surprised.
“Yeah,” I said as I lazily got out of my desk.
She picked up the worksheet that I had completed, apparently hours ago, in her magic and began looking it over. I looked at her, those blue eyes scanning over the page furiously before flipping it over and looking at the other side before the paper was rolled up by her cyan magic field. “This is really good work,” she said, smiling at me once more, the concentrated and scrutinizing look that she had just a second ago completely disappearing.
“Sure,” I said with a shrug as I headed back to where my bag was to retrieve my lunch. I hadn’t actually looked this morning, but I was fairly certain that somepony would have packed me a lunch. That was their job right?
“I noticed that you don’t show your work,” she continued as she followed me.
I located the brown paper bag and pulled it out of the backpack, unrolling the top and looking inside to see what I had. “Never show your work. They think you are smarter if you don’t.” I paused, frowning at the lettuce that was sticking out of the side of my sandwich. “Until you mess up that is.”
I looked back at her in time to see a quill floating in her grasp next to my worksheet. She noticed me looking at her and the pen magically disappeared in an instant. I frowned, trying to decipher just what she had been doing, it seemed that she had noticed my mood change since she quickly tried to move the conversation on.
“Who’s they?” she asked.
“What?” I replied, arching a brow at the random question.
“You said that if you don’t show your work ‘They think you are smarter.’ Who’s they?” she floated the rolled up paper back over to me, and I snatched it away from her magical grasp.
“Ponies that look over your questions and do mysterious magical things behind you back. Also the teacher.” I unrolled the paper, seeing that she hadn’t actually written anything on it, making me even more curious as to what that pen had been for. I glanced to her flank, seeing that her cutie mark was a magnifying glass on a clipboard, and found that my curiosity about this pony was growing even more. As was my need to get away from her.
“Well,” I pressed before she could get a chance to reply, “I need to go to recess.” I quickly walked past her, pointedly ignoring the startled look that she was giving me at having dropped our burgeoning conversation so quickly.
As I got to the front I tossed the math worksheet onto Cheerilee’s desk and quickly exited the room. I didn’t turn back to look at the mare as I left out the back and headed towards the playground where all of the other children were playing. I stepped out into the bright noon sunlight, thankful that my headache had disappeared and I didn’t have to shield my sensitive eyes from the light, before I found an open spot on the stairs to sit and eat.
I opened my brown paper bag, pulling out the sandwich first, and opening it so that I could toss out all of the evil lettuce I had been given, before I put it back together and took a bite. It was a daisy sandwich, something that sounded completely unappetizing, but and I chewed on it, I found that it wasn’t actually too bad. Flowers, something that I had tried to eat before, were flimsy, but tasted good enough to keep my interest. That, and my stomach informing me that I was even hungrier than I had originally thought.
The last bit of the sandwich had soon disappeared down my gullet, and as I started to look through the bag for my sides I noticed somepony approach me. I pulled a pear out of my bag and found myself face to face with none other than Applebloom.
“Hey,” she said, somewhat dejectedly.
“Hey?” I replied.
“Ah, just wanted to say Ah’m sorry ‘bout that whole net stuff,” she went on, taking a seat next to me.
“Don’t worry about that I don’t blame you for it,” I said, waving off her concern. How could I have possibly been mad at the little bundle of cute that was Applebloom, even if she did leave me tied up in a tree with little chance of escape.
“You don’t?” she asked, ears perking up hopefully.
“No, I blame Steel,” I said, biting back a little bit of bitterness that bubbled up. I wasn’t still really mad at him about it, but it was still a dick move.
“Oh,” she said, looking a little relieved.
“Yeah, I will get payback on him eventually so don’t worry about it.” I took a bite from my pear and smirked.
She looked pretty uncertain about how to feel about that. “Okay,” she said hesitantly after a minute.
I was about to go on, asking her about what other kind of crusading shenanigans that she had gotten into recently when somepony cleared their voice loudly near me. I stopped, turning to see Diamond Tiara looking very irked as she glanced back and forth between Applebloom and I.
“Ashen Stroke,” she began, “can I speak to you in private please.”
“I was kind of having a conversation here,” I replied, making her glare grow in intensity.
“It’s important,” she said between clenched teeth before she turned and walked away. I watched her go, looking back at Applebloom and shrugging my shoulders before I got to my hooves.
“Well, I better go see what all of that is about,” I said.
“Alright, we’ll talk later then,” she said as she also stood.
“Cool,” I replied before taking off after Diamond Tiara. She had made her way towards the very rear of the playground, the other children keeping a good distance between her and themselves. I didn’t fail to notice a green filly trip over herself as Diamond shot her a nasty look.
“Okay, what’s up?” I asked as I finally made it over to her and took a seat in the grass next to her.
“Why are you talking with that blank flank Applebloom?” she asked, cutting right to the chase.
“Because I happen to like her and she’s friendly,” I deadpanned.
“But...didn’t you say that she and the rest of her friends tied you up in a tree over some stupid game?” she asked.
“Well yeah,” I replied with a sheepish smile. “But that’s not really as big of a deal as I thought it was.”
She scowled, obviously not very pleased with my answer. “You can’t be friends with her,” she said.
“What?” I asked, a bit taken aback at her sudden sanction upon my social life.
“You can’t be her friend,” she repeated.
“Why not?”
“Well for one she is a blank flank, which should be obvious reason enough. Two, she and her little club friends are just absolutely terrible.” I was about to ask exactly how they were terrible, but she cut me off. “And three! You said that you were going to be my fr...acquaintance. You can’t be her friend if you want to be my acquaintance, so you can’t be her friend.”
She crossed her legs and huffed, finishing her little tirade and staring at me. “So I can’t be her friend and yours?” I asked. “Why not?”
“Because I hate her,” she spat.
There seemed to be more to this than something as simple as Applebloom not having a cutie mark, but I wasn’t exactly going to push at that right now. I knew that Diamond Tiara and Applebloom didn’t get along, hell, in the show the two are basically polar opposites, but I didn’t think that my being friendly towards Applebloom would get this big of a rise out of her. I continued looking at the fuming pink filly that was glaring across the schoolyard at Applebloom as she played without a care.
“You know, that’s the kind of attitude that will make ponies think you are nothing but mean,” I replied after a few moments.
“I don’t care what other ponies think. Why should it matter at all, it’s not like they’re important or anything,” she huffed, tearing her gaze away from the pony that had somehow earned her ire and staring off at some distant trees.
“Well that’s dumb,” I said simply, bringing that death glare back to me.
“Did you just call me dumb?” she said angrily.
“No, I called what you said dumb,” I replied with a smirk. “You can’t not care what other ponies think, and they are all important. You aren’t the only one in this world you know, everypony does things that affect the world around you, so what they think about you matters.” I stood, seeing that the children had started heading back inside, Cheerilee holding the door open for them as they came back in from recess.
As I started heading back towards the door, leaving Diamond Tiara behind, I stopped and looked back at her. “You can not care what anypony else thinks, but if one day you find yourself alone and destitute then you would have nopony to blame but yourself.” She just continued staring back at me angrily, so knowing that nothing could be said at this point, I turned and galloped back to the schoolhouse.
I snatched my half eaten lunch up in my mouth as I got back inside, several of the other students taking their merry time getting back inside and back to the classroom. As I came back inside I hurried back over to my bag, and tossed the lunch back inside. I noted that South Wind had left the classroom, which was a small comfort to me as I headed back over to my seat just before Cheerilee entered with the rest of the stragglers. Once everypony had taken their proper seats, Cheerilee started off class once more, this time going over some grammar and literature that the class had been assigned to read one or two weeks ago.
Despite not knowing the reading, I found myself interested, or at least not listing into another impromptu nap as the lesson continued on into the day. I even raised my hoof once or twice to answer a question every now and again, only missing one because I didn’t realize some obscure proper noun rule that was used in Equestria for some reason. Still, the class wasn’t completely tedious and I managed to make it to the end of the day without losing my focus completely.
I had hardly noticed the time fly by, but when the final bell for the day rung, and all of the students quickly raced out of the room, I looked out of the window to see that it was a bit later in the day. I stretched my two front hooves out on the desk before I also jumped out of my seat and retrieved my things from the back. I was just about to call out to Steel, who was waiting for me near the door, when Cheerilee called me from her desk and asked me to stay a little while. Steel shrugged and left, and a few seconds later, I was alone once again in the classroom with a fully grown mare that wanted to “talk.”
“Ashen Stroke,” she began, “are you okay today?”
The concern in her voice caught me a little bit off guard. I knew that that she was supposed to be concerned for all of her students, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on why she was concerned about me.
“Um, yes. Why?” I asked.
“You fell asleep in the middle of class this morning,” she explained. “And while I appreciate you finishing your work and putting it on my desk, you really should try to stay awake for the lesson.”
“Oh,” I replied. “No, I’m alright I just didn’t get too much sleep last night. I ended up falling asleep at breakfast this morning too.”
“A growing colt needs plenty of sleep Ash,” she said. “Make sure that you get plenty of sleep at night or I will have to send a letter home to your…” she trailed off for a moment and quickly recovered, but I was able to catch her lapse easily enough. “Or I will need to send a letter home with you.”
I smirked and gave a mock salute. “Yes Ma’am.”
She smiled at that. “Alright, run along now. I wouldn’t want you to be late getting back.”
Being formally dismissed by the teacher I headed out of the classroom quickly. Steel hadn’t waited for me outside, having instead already made his way over to the carriage and climbed in next to Feather Duster, leaving me to sit next to Diamond who still seemed to be quite peeved with me. Feather gave a word to the driver and we were quickly off on our way.
The ride was much quieter than this morning, I no longer feeling in the mood to babble on about my studies, and the other three having nothing to say either. I lost myself looking out the window once more, so lost that it took a particular lime green unicorn walking past the window and waving to us before I realized that we had made our way into Ponyville. The town was busy with activity, and I wasn’t exactly disappointed to be here, but I had not been briefed on this change of schedule so I was a little worried.
“Hey,” I said as I pulled away from the window and looked over to Feather Duster, “why are we in Ponyville?”
She looked...concerned. Like I had just caught her with her hoof in the cookie jar, but only that she had been planning to give the cookies to some orphans that I didn’t know. “There is something that we need to take you and Steel too,” she replied sheepishly.
Steel looked up at somepony saying his name. “Huh, what?”
“We’re going to the doctor to get shots. I hope you like shots,” I told him.
“Gah! No way!” he yelled. Yeah, he kind of had a thing about shots.
“It’s nothing like that,” Feather Duster said. Throughout all of this Diamond just continued to stare out the window, not caring what we were discussing. The carriage came to a sudden stop, and I looked back outside to see that it was now parked in front of the Mayor’s Office. “You two just need to...talk to somepony here today.”
She opened the door and stepped out, beckoning us to come on out after her. I was hesitant, a dark sense of foreboding welling up in me, but I pushed the emotion away. These were ponies we were talking about after all, I highly doubted that I had anything to fear from whatever it was that they had planned for me. Steel didn’t seem to share my reservations at all, after being told that he wouldn’t be getting a shot today he gladly made his way out of the carriage behind me.
Once the three of us had exited, Feather Duster closed the door and said something to the driver before it started moving forwards once again, no doubt taking Diamond back to the manor. She turned back to the two of us and smiled pleasantly. I was really starting to get sick of all the pleasant smiling that was being directed towards me.
“Well then, shall we?” she said before she started off ahead of us. Once again I found myself just expected to follow along behind somepony else, and once again I had no other choice but to obey.
Once inside the Mayor’s Office, I saw that there was practically no activity. The only pony around was that same mare behind the front desk that had been here the last time that the two of us had been dragged here, and Feather quickly hurried over to exchange a few whispered words with her.
“You know, I’m starting to feel that I might not like whatever is coming next,” Steel said as he looked around.
“You don’t say,” I deadpanned.
He was about to reply, no doubt with something snarky and sarcastic, when Feather called us over. “Alright boys, come this way please.”
I turned away from my “brother” with a sigh, walking towards the elderly mare that was standing in front of a door near the rear of the lobby. We walked over, making sure to take up as much time as possible as we did so. She didn’t seem to mind, putting her hoof on the door handle and turning it before she opened it and started to usher us into the room.
“Okay you two, I want you to be on your best behavior,” she said as we entered.
“For what, you still haven’t told us what we are here for,” Steel complained, and I had to admit that I felt the same way.
Somepony cleared their voice from a chair on the other side of the room. Steel and I stopped and looked across the office space, decorated with a few pieces of furniture and some nice inspirational posters along its bland and uninspired walls.
“Hello boys,” South Wind said from her seat, a quill and notepad levitating next to her. “I was hoping that we could have a talk.”