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// 9: A Historical Interview 
// Story: Mr. Disc 
// by CrackedInkWell 
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Let me be brutally honest here, I absolutely loathe the subject of history. I hated it in Elementary school, I hated it in both junior and high school, and I certainly hated it in college. I know history is supposed to be the story of all of us, but in the classes I took, I viewed them as badly written stories. Once you look past the bore of reading and looking at maps, all I found was that the places may be pretty to look at, but just plain boring when it goes into every single microscopic detail. The people they present are boring, pure evil or have no interest whatsoever. And the events are mostly a list upon never-ending lists of dates and places.

“Star Swirled the Bearded, born in 39 B.B.N.M. Disappeared in 21 A.B.N.M.” Sweetie Belle read aloud in the usual monotone that is always present in any history class. “He was a unicorn who had invented over 200 spells in his lifetime. He was supposed to be an early mentor to both Princesses Celestia and Luna around the year 18 B.B.N.M. Star Swirl-”

“This is not going to work out,” I spoke aloud.

She and the others looked up from their books, “Mr. Disc?”

“Class, I’m not gonna lie, out of all the lessons I was told to teach you, this is the one I wasn't looking forward to. I have always hated history with a passion. And you know,” I put my copy of the same book down. “There has got to be a way to make this a wee bit interesting than this. Something that would answer the questions at the end of the chapter without reading it, something that…” I trailed off. All of a sudden, inspiration harpooned me in the head.

“Could I do that?” I asked myself. Snails raised his hoof, “Do what Mr. D?”

I took the piece of chalk from the board. “Give me a moment; I want to try something here.”

With the piece of chalk, I drew an outline that bordered around the edges of the board. I confess, even with all the powers of random at my disposal, even I’m not too certain if this’ll work.

But might as well give it a try and see what happens though.

I knock a few times on the board, and then, the green chalkboard fell away from me like a sideways door. And from the other side of that said door, was what looked like a room, stacked high with books, charts and who-knows-what-else. There was a stone fireplace, and besides that, was a pony. From the looks of it, he was male, gray with white hair and a tail, has a pointed horn on its head holding a cup.

When the door banged open, the guy jumped a good ten feet before asking. “Who are you?!”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Star Swirl. And what are you doing in my tower?”

I turned back around to see every one of them has their eyes as well as their mouths wide open. “Please do close your mouths; it’s a little rude you know,” I told them, turning back to the gray fellow. “Sorry for the intrusion, I’m teaching a class here and we have some questions for you.”

“I find that very odd.” He said, approaching the open doorway, “A classroom that just appeared from a wall where there’s nothing on the other side, with a… whatever you are teaching a classroom full of children at two o’clock in the morning wanting to ask some questions from me.”

I turned back at the children; Applebloom was looking back and forth from the book to the guy behind the chalkboard. “You look nothing like the picture. You don’t even have a beard.”

Swirly raised an eyebrow, “Why should I? I’m only twenty-two after all.” He stuck his head out from the open chalkboard. “Is it me or is it daytime in here?”

“Don’t try thinking too much,” I advised him. “It usually gives one a headache.”

“Although I would like to know how this is done, I like to add this to my book.”

“Eh, good luck on that part, I just kinda made it up.”

Starry looked towards the teacher’s desk at the open book. His horn glowed and the book was covered in blue light. It floated over to him, I guess to look at a future portrait of him.

“I look ridiculous. I mean the beard’s one thing but that hat? What am I? A court jester? Who made this…? Wait-a-minute! That engraving… CLOVER!!!” He shouted.

“So aren't we gonna ask questions from him or what?” Diamond asked.

“Look, how about I make you a deal here?” I asked, getting his attention. “I’m sure that you have a lot of questions as much as us, so how about that every time you ask a question, we ask you a question as well. Agree?”

He sighed, “Alright, let me get my tea first.”

For the next ten minutes, the students got answers to their questions in the book, and the Merlin wannabe got his questions answered. Or at least, as best as we could answer them.

“So you're saying that the classroom that all of you are in is the future?” he asked. “Now this is fascinating! Perhaps I should work on a spell that has to do with time. Oh! That would be quite amusing to do.”

“Yeah, you work on that,” I said reaching to close the chalkboard back up. “And by-the-way, you should probably try growing a beard. It’ll make you look important.” And with that, the chalkboard was whole once again.

Looking at the clock, we were still on time for the next subject.

“Alright kids, Ms. Cherliee said that your presentations are due today. So get out your essays and let’s see how you do.”

As the class went to get out Cherliee’s homework, I rest back in the chair, I admit I was looking forward to telling the pony Ms. Cherliee a report of today’s class. And besides, this morning is looking up as it is.