"A new student? And he's a cripple?"
"It's called 'differently-abled,' Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle said, while sitting at her desk in the classroom.
"Eh, whatever," Scootaloo commented on, while she circled a pencil on the desk "It's the same thing, really."
"Actually," Sweetie Belle said, while gesturing upwards " it's rude to call a pony in a wheelchair 'cripple.' You should call him 'differently-abled' or just 'handicapped,' if you prefer."
"Yes, I get it, Sweets, you don't need to say it twice." said an annoyed Scootaloo, as she kept making circles.
Sweetie Belle let out a sigh, and, looked behind her, seeing the few ponies in the class going about their business before starting the first hour of school. Right behind her, Silver Spoon was muttering "The battle of Gargamello, fought between Sombra's army and the Diarchy's, was a decisive victory..." as she intently read the book in preparation for the interrogation that was likely to ensure during the History class that day.
At the right side of Silver Spoon, Archer, with some spare cheat sheets, created spitballs to be used later on in the morning as per his usual. On the left side, Snips was sleeping on the desk and, for the first time in years, he was not doing it with his pal Snails, since he was absent.
In the last row behind Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara and Shy Flames were leisurely talking with each other about a topic that Sweetie Belle could not know due to the distance. On the left side of Diamond Tiara's desk, Featherweight was scribbling something on a piece of paper.
"Nothing new so far on the Ponyville Front," Sweetie Belle murmured to herself while turning around towards the empty teacher's desk.
Not that it was going to stay that way for long.
Around a minute after, the old door of the classroom started to squeak loudly.
"Cheerlie's coming!" Scootaloo whispered-shouted to the class. At this point, everybody stopped doing what they were doing for stare at the door, which opened slowly, revealing the usual amaranth shape of the teacher and another dark gray one.
"Is he..."
"Yes, he is."
Cheerliee sat at the desk, then said.
"Class, say welcome to our newest addition to our class: Limp Daeva!"
A cracking sound of rusty wheels followed those words, revealing the previous gray shape in all its glory.
He was a gray colt with short spiky dark purple mane, and his rear legs were no more than a couple of atrophied stumps of what were once.
"Uhhh... ugh, poor colt," Sweetie Belle murmured at the sight of those leg stumps.
"It looks like he has stalactites as hind legs. I don't want to know how they got that shape..."
"Freaky... but cool."
"Curious, most curious..."
As those comments arose from the class, Limp Daeva dragged his wheelchair along towards the teacher's desk, before slowly turning around to face the rest of the classroom, his eyes clearly showing determination and readiness into showing himself off, and the rest of the class, with its silence, was setting itself up for it.
“Hello everypony,” said the colt with a tone that expressed energy and haughtiness at the same time “I am Limpa Daeva. I am from a nearby town, and went to the ‘Vero Vassallo’ school there. I have your same age and yadda yadda, ask me stuffs.”
Scootaloo was very quick to raise her hoof for the first question.
“How did you lose your legs?”
Almost everybody in the class glared at Scootaloo, but Limp kept his composure.
“No, I didn’t, I was just born with bones made of wet paper, and the doctors cut them off.”
Scootaloo hanged her head low and let out a disappointed sigh, which made Apple Bloom facehoof.
The next turn was Diamond Tiara’s, who, after inflating her chest a bit, asked inquisitively.
”What is your parent’s job? And how you are, economically-speaking?"
“Is that a true question?” Limp Daeva stated while leaning forwards and talking in an acidic tone ”or is this some kind of test to see if I’m worthy in being a friend of a rich pony?”
There were a few giggles, causing Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara to blush annoyed.
“Either way, my mother works as accountant in ‘Barn’s Bargain,’ and my father sells trinkets to donkeys and dunces. As you can guess, no, I don’t brush my teeth with liquid gold.”
Scootaloo and Applebloom laughed hard, the two bullies and Shy Flames looked offended at Limp, Cheerilee glared at the crippled colt, and the rest of the class simply chuckled.
“Daeva, that was not very nice. Anyway, any more questions?”
There was silence.
“Nopony?”
Shakily and unsurely, Shy rose his hoof and slowly sank under the desk at the same time.
Fortunately for the colt, Cheerilee spotted him, and said.
“Yes, Shy?”
The colt immediately regained his previous position with crinkling and, while looking down to the floor, he asked.
“What do you do…. err… in your free time?”
The colt in wheelchair sniffed.
“I generally help in the house, do my homework, then go to bed after eating dinner. Happy now?”
Shy quickly retreated under his desk at the answer.
“Alright. Any more questions?” Cheerilee asked.
Nobody answered and, after a short while, Limp Daeva walked towards one of the empty desks near Scootaloo, and set the rucksack beside the desk.
With a sigh, Cheerilee went to the blackboard and picked up a red chalk.
“Now that the greetings have been done, let’s start with our first lesson of the day, History.”
With a sigh, Sweetie Belle proceeded to take out her textbook from her rucksack, and set it on the desk, before opening it at a random page.
“Today’s topic is the demise of Sombra’s Northern Kingdom and the Donation of Perticanon. Open your books at page thirty-nine, and look at the third paragraph.”
Sweetie Belle, like the rest of the class, browsed the pages of the book until she reached her destination.
“Daeva, do you want to read the paragraph?” Cheerlie asked.
The colt smirked, then, after he set his eyes on the page, he started to read.
“Sombra’s Northen Kingdom fell in ‘Whocares’ Before Banishment thanks to the deeds of General Cadaver McDead, and resulted into a bunch of dead ponies turning dead earlier.”
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Snips erupted into giggles, while the rest either glared or were left unfazed.
“Limp Daeva,” Cheerliee said sternly, glaring again “please, stop it, and behave yourself.”
The colt groaned, as he lowered his eyes on the pages again.
“Sombra’s Northen Kingdom fell in 475 Before Banishment thanks to the deeds of General Cretinorna, whom assaulted the garrison of the city with only one-hundred soldiers, that managed to take a hold on the fortifications… I find it unlikely but whatever, and thus allowed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to challenge King Sombra to a fight to the death, where the King lost, and was banished in Çita.”
Cheerilee, after another glare to Daeva, said.
“Okay, now look to the map of the city below the paragraph.”
Sweetie Belle immediately looked at the map. However, due to the lack of a legend explaining the symbols properly, she was left more confused than anything.
“Ugh. Maps. Who designs them anyway? Abstract painters?” Sweetie Belle whispered to Apple Bloom, trying not to get anyone else’s attention.
“Yeah, they are useless! It’s just a bunch of signs scribbled on smears of colour!”
“And it’s not like that they are useful anyway,” Sweetie Belle turned to Scootaloo “Am I right?”
Scootaloo, however, did not answer, since she was too busy snickering and talking with Daeva, clearly unaware that her friends were talking to her.
“Yep, this map looks like a dirty tablecloth with lots and lots of ants squished!” Scootaloo said while giggling and gesturing to Limp Daeva. The colt, after snickering a bit more, put the book upwards and pointed to a photography of a tapestry piece.
“Also, doesn’t this guy in this picture looking like he got hit in the…” he laughed gesturing to the book deviously
Naturally, begin on the first row, the little chat between Daeva and Scootaloo didn’t last much longer, as Cheerilee slammed her hoof on the table.
“Daeva, Scootaloo! Stop talking!”
After jump-scaring a little, the colt and the orange pegasus filly immediately shut up, and went back to look at the pages of the book. Not wanting to be the next ones, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom also went back to reading and observing the pictures.
Twenty silent minutes passed, the whole class all reading with solemn expressions, only a few seeming to enjoy this time of quiet studying.
“Bored…” Scootaloo groaned, as she let her chin hit the pages of the book. “Can’t we just do this at home?”
“Yeah. When this class is gonna end?”
“But then we would have more things to study at home.” Sweetie Belle commented, as she read silently a timeline briefly explaining the major events of Equestria’s History during the Early Modern Age.
“Study at home?” Daeva said, before blowing a little raspberry “Who needs study anyway? It’s just a bunch of useless notions.”
The comment of the disabled colt was seemingly heard in the rows behind.
“They are not so useless anymore, at least, if you want to get somewhere in life,” Silver Spoon said, her head bent forward.
Naturally, this was not taken kindly by Daeva.
“Shut up, Luxurious Laura. You know nothing about how the world goes around.” The colt said with an hiss.
“Oh, really? Tell me more, oh great sage!” Silver Spoon said before rolling her eyes.
“Silver Spoon!” Cheerilee called “Stop talking!”
“He started it!” She complains as she pointed to Daeva, being the only one in trouble from the talking
“Why didn't I hear him then?”
“I have no idea, Miss Cheerilee, but he started it!”
“Then you are admitting you started it. No matter anyway, you remain silent now.”
With a resigned sigh, Silver Spoon went back to her position, making Daeva smirk a little.
“Wow! You made it! You actually put Silver Spoon in trouble, albeit little!” Scootaloo whispered.
“Richies always get what they deserve in the end” He shrugged while still grinning.
As soon as Daevas said that, the bell rang, signaling class change. Everybody in the class immediately put aside their History books and notebooks, and started to take out their English books.
“Now class, today we will be learning about the ‘Caliope’ by Prench Laidmount. First of all, let’s read it,” then the teacher immediately pointed at Shy. “Flame Shy, do you want to honor us with you reading?”
“M-me?” He stuttered as the whole class looked towards him, making him slowly hide under his desk.
“Is there anyone else called ‘Shy’ here?” Cherilee joked.
He shook his head, before raising up again, and nervously opening the book.
“W-which page?” He asked, his blush visible even from the front row.
“Page 29 please”
After browsing to that page, he cleared his throat before letting out a barely-audible squeak, then followed by the reading of the first words.
“I-it is a s-statue in deep w-wisdom’s l-lore,
T-that for h-his line-es none s-should patron-n a cu… cho…”
Diamond Tiara quickly came to rescue, saying.
“Chuse, Shy, it’s chuse.”
“T-thank you,” the colt said, before resuming, the rest of the class going from borderline chuckling to perfect silence and attention after Diamond Tiara’s correction
“By w-wealth a-a-and poverty, by l-less or more,
B-but who t-the same is-s able to p-peruse:
Nor o-ought a p-pony his labour dedicate.”
“Okay, you can stop there, Shy,” Cheerilee said, before gesturing towards Snips “Snips, could you please read the rest?”
The colt jerked his head up, leaving a little trail of saliva behind.
“Uuuh? What is going on?”
“We were reading Caliope.” Cheerilee deadpanned.
“Oh, okay, sorry Miss Cheerilee,” said Snips, as he browsed the book towards the poem’s page. “Where we were?”
Cherilee sighed before telling him the part at which the class was at. And then the colt started to read where Shy had left off, thus causing the class to stop staring at him and read the poem on their books instead.
As soon as Snip was done reading, Cheerliee said.
“So, does anybody know what Calliope was?”
Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle raised their hooves at the same time. Noticing the draw, Sweetie Belle quickly spoke up.
“Calliope was one of the Muses, the one protecting poetry, to be more precise.”
“Indeed it was Sweetie Belle, but please wait until I say you can talk in the future.” Cherilee answered back smiling.
Sweetie Belle nodded off, faintly hearing a “nerd” coming from somewhere, but being unable to pin it.
Daeva was smirking at the front of the class, looking back, as Sweetie Belle peered around the room, trying to find the culprit, but failing to do so.
“Thank you for that… hurtful insight, whoever that was.” Cheerilee said sternly, glaring at the class.
As silent as the class was, a tapping noise could be heard. Daeva waited impatiently, slumped down in his wheelchair, his uneasiness clearly growing.
Then Cheerliee gazed upon Daeva, and she said, whiel takign pencil and paper.
“Daeva, I would like to see you after class.”
The colt looked confused at the teacher.
“Why? What did I do?”
Cheerliee started to scribble. “You made a pretty rude comment, and your behaviour wasn’t top notch. I think that we can easily talk about it during recess.”
“Actually,” Daeva said, while stretching his left hoof behind him “that wasn’t me. It was sivler Spoon. I’ve heard her perfectly.”
Silver Spoon recoiled a bit, dropping her pencil. “I never said that. Sweetie Belle may be a blank flank, an airhead, a bland clot of oatmeal, a shadow, but she is not an excessive scholar or, as you call it, ‘a nerd.’”
The sound of two hooves meeting an equal number of faces resonated in the room, as Cheerlee quickly cancelled whatever was on the paper.
“Silver Spoon, what happened to you today? Did you woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Daeva isn’t the one that will talk with me today, you are.”
The gray filly with glasses was going raise her left hoof, before dropping it and, with it, her ears.
“As you wish…” she siad.
“Alright, let’s move on now,” The teacher said, after going to Silver's desk and dropping the paper onto it.
And so every pupil in the class returned their attention to the piece of poetry.
Well, most of them, since, once again, Daeva commented on the text, and made Scootaloo snicker and Silver Spoon groan some more.