Welcome to the Jungle
Lyra’s flanks were covered in lather by the time she reached the school, her horn flickering dangerously as she continued to drag along her belongings. It didn’t look very far on the map but in person it had been much, much further and most of it up a steep gradient, not for the first time she wished she’d inherited Skyla’s wings, but then, she supposed, she wouldn’t be going to a school of magic. Maybe she should have just hired a taxi?
Dropping her luggage she looked up and up at the building in front of her, it was huge! She’d been here before, for her interview and test but now that she was going to be living here it seemed so much more real. The central building stretched up into the sky seemingly carved from the mountain itself, around it were large grassy grounds were many ponies of all tribes were wandering chatting to each other and paying the gawping new arrival no heed. Other smaller, newer, buildings were scattered around the campus. The whole area was overshadowed by the castle itself standing not far away.
It suddenly struck her that she was actually here! She, Lyra Heartstrings was really standing at the entrance to Princess Luna’s School of Magic! That blue clad ponies with fangs and snake like eyes standing at the gate was a real member of the Night Guard! She gave a little squeal and pranced in place, her tiredness momentarily forgotten, it was just a shame Bon Bon wasn’t here with her. Then she tried to bring herself back under control, she was a mature, independent mare, she told herself again. She closed her eyes and felt the power around the place, a buzzing at the back of her horn which seemed to run all the way down to her hooves, the feel of centuries of spell casting by some of the greatest mages in Equestrian history.
She opened her eyes again and looked around. Ok, she’d made it to the school now where? She needed to register somewhere. Everypony around her seemed to move with certainty, apparently on important business, she didn’t want to interrupt them, well almost everypony. Screwing up her courage she turned to one of the two night guard, a large grey coated stallion, his horn long and thin, protected by his dark blue armour.
“Um, excuse me, sir,” she stuttered. His draconic gaze rolled onto her making her quake a bit. “Could you tell me where...” she looked down at her papers, “The Nova Sparkle reception hall is?”
“Why do you want to know?” he grumbled.
“I’m new and I need to register and the place seems so big and I don’t know where anything is and...” she replied nervously, her mouth starting to run away from her.
“How do I even know you’re supposed to be here? Do you have any identification?” he demanded.
“Oh, well, here I think...,” she started to rummage clumsily through her bags.
“No need to frighten the poor filly, Glimmer,” said the guard’s partner, a slightly smaller bat winged mare.
“Sorry Sergeant!”
“Now, Lyra isn’t it?” said other mare.
How does she know my name? thought Lyra. “Yes ma’am.”
The night guard took Lyra’s papers and looked through them. “Ok, you go that way,” she pointed towards the main entrance to the building. “Then turn right, it should be signposted from there. I didn’t know you got accepted here, your fathers must be very proud of you.”
“Oh, they are, thanks for the help,” said Lyra feeling a bit creeped out by how much the guard knew about her. She hefted up her bags again with a bit of a grunt. “Thanks again!” she called as she set off towards the building.
It was a fairly short journey across the campus to the indicated building. The inside was awe inspiring, the walls were lined with paintings of famous ponies from history. Lyra only recognised a small fraction of them and she stopped every few steps to read the plaques. By the time she reached the registration desk she was actually a bit late. She apologised to the bored-looking stallion behind the desk and showed him her identification before quickly filling in the various forms he passed her. In return she received a key to her new room and had an identification spell cast on her, it make her hooves itch but she was told that would pass. She was instructed to step into a nearby meeting room and she would be shown to her dorm.
The room contained about two dozen ponies of about her age, and their luggage. Most of them seemed to be dressed rather ornately and were talking amongst themselves. Before Lyra could introduce herself to anypony an attractive grey mare of about her age with a carefully arranged black mane wearing a pink bowtie slammed her hoof onto the wooden floor. Talk died down as the echoes died away.
“Greetings,” said the mare. To Lyra’s surprise there was no sign of a horn on her head, she frowned, she hadn’t expected to meet any earth ponies at a magic school. “My name is Octavia Melody, I am the upperclassmare assigned to look after you as you settle into the school. Now that you are all here I will show you to your rooms and give you some time to unpack. Then we will meet up again in a few hours and I will show you around the campus and its facilities. The building is rather large and I suggest you familiarise yourself with the map you will find in your packs.” She held up and unfolded a sheet of parchment, Lyra quickly scrambled through her papers till she found hers, to her surprise there was a ‘you are here’ arrow pointing to this room, she took a few steps back and noticed that the ink shifted slightly across the page to follow her movements, that was clever!
“Do not lose your map, they are expensive and you will be charged for them! They show all the common areas of the campus as well as indicating areas which are off limits to you. Some highly dangerous magic is carried out in this building so it is very important that you pay attention to all signs and keep well away if so instructed. Ignorance is no excuse in these matters! Lessons do not start for two days but you will need to sign up for your classes tomorrow and there is a formal dinner tomorrow evening hosted by the Headmaster, Open Door, which the Princess will be attending.” Lyra’s ears pricked up, the Princess! She’d never actually seen her in person, she wished she had something suitable to wear.
“Do you have any questions?” concluded Octavia, she looked around the room but nopony seemed to want to speak. “Good.” She brought out a clipboard, “Now if you would follow me, our first stop will be dormitory B, Sunny Showers, Presto Changeo and Beauty Brass, you will all be housed in that area.” Without glancing back the mare started to stroll out of the room leaving the rest of the crowd to quickly grab their luggage and rush to follow her.
Slowly the crowd started to thin as one by one they were dropped off at their rooms. Lyra’s anxiety slowly grew, she glanced at her papers, she was in dormitory M, she hoped there hadn’t been a mistake. She had visions of being told she had no room and being kicked out of the school to try and survive on the streets of Canterlot! Her worry increased when she found herself the last member of her group to be roomed. Octavia, however, did not seem to be fazed, she checked her clipboard again. “Ah you must be one of the scholarship students, follow me.”
“What were all those other ponies then?” asked Lyra looking back towards the other dorm rooms they had just dropped most of the group off in.
“Their tuition is either being paid by their families, or by a noble sponsor from their province,” explained Octavia.
“Oh, North Everfree doesn’t have a noble at the moment.”
“North Everfree? You are not far from home then.”
“I suppose not, it seems a long way though. I miss my family and marefriend already.”
“I can sympathise, my home of Trottingham is a very long way away indeed, I have not seen my family for some time. Ah here we are,” she gestured to a rather non-descript door with the number fourteen on it.” Octavia gently pushed the door and it swung open. “You will have a roommate but it appears she hasn’t arrived yet.”
Lyra rushed past the older mare to look around her new living space, it wasn’t as large as the ones that her fellow students had been assigned but it was still bigger than her room at home. There was a large window in one wall giving a view of the castle and two large canopy beds surrounded by curtains, which took up a good chunk of the floor space, there was still room for two desks and several cupboards and drawers. Currently deactivated magical lighting was set into the walls, she’d heard that part of the curriculum was to learn to create your own lights. “Wow!” gasped Lyra rearing up and slowly turning to take in the whole of the room.
A small smile graced Octavia’s face at her companion’s joy. “I am glad you like it. The bathrooms are at the end of the hall, if you want anything I am in room twenty nine.”
“You stay in this dorm? Didn’t you say these were for scholarship students?”
“Indeed. Countess Perfect Melody may run Trottingham, but I am only a very minor cousin of that family. I got my place here purely on skill, like you.”
“Oh, well I wouldn’t say I was all that good, I mean I was top of my class for magic and well my music’s good but I’ve heard better...”
Octavia frowned. “You do realise how lucky you are? Every year thousands of ponies apply for scholarships here and only a few dozen are successful.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. It just sort of happened,” Lyra bit her lip, there had to be better ponies out there surely?
“I would suggest that you try your very hardest while you are here, you really have been most fortunate.”
“Oh, I will, um... can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“I’m not tribalist or anything, my dad’s an earth pony, but what are you doing in a magic school?”
Octavia cocked her head for a moment. “All of the tribes have magic Ms Heartstrings, not only unicorns,” she said a little icily. “But have you never suddenly felt the urge to sing just for the joy of it? Or to join in a song with your fellows even though you have never heard it before? Music is magic, Ms Heartstrings, just as much as invisibility or the ability to teleport. As such it is studied here at Luna’s school and is open to ponies of any tribe.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...”
“Now if there is nothing else, I will meet you back at the assembly room in an hour,” giving a short bow Octavia turned and left.
Oh dear, thought Lyra, that hadn’t gone well.
As her roommate hadn’t arrived yet Lyra unanimously decided that the bed nearest the window was hers and she started to lay out her things in that part of the room. Despite seeming so heavy as she was lugging them around the city when it came to unpack her belongings they seemed rather meagre. She found herself tearing up a little when she found a little encouraging note from her fathers packed away in her bags, she gently placed it by her bed before packing her few items of clothing were into a cupboard. She opened each lyre case to make sure the instrument within was undamaged then stacked them away in the corner. Her books were lined up in a bookshelf and her few other belongings laid out around the room.
She laid back on her bed, it seemed both softer and strangely less comfortable than her smaller one at home. She turned towards the bedside table where the only two photographs she owned sat, one had been a formal sitting a few years ago with her dads. The other had been taken at last year’s Running of the Leaves, it was odd to think she’d miss this year’s one. Somepony from Hoofington had a camera and had charged a pretty sum to take pictures, she and Bon Bon’s smiling faces shone out, Lyra reached up a hoof to gently touch the black and white image of her marefriend. She suddenly felt lonelier than she ever had in her life. What was she doing here, so far from home and the ones she loved? Everything seemed so different, did she really belong here?
She was broken out of her reverie by the sound of the door opening. She hopped off the bed to see an old unicorn stallion enter, his coat was white and his thinning mane was a purpley-grey, a long moustache covered his muzzle. He looked around the room and sniffed like there was a bad smell. “Look,” he announced, “See how small it is! It’s not too late to change your mind you know.”
A short rotund mare with a pale pink coat and a deep purple mane trotted in after him, she looked around seeming a little shocked but tried to put on a happy face. “It’s fine Daddy, I’ll be fine.” She seemed to notice Lyra for the first time. “Oh, could you please unpack my bags,” she instructed.
Lyra frowned. “Um, hi, I’m Lyra Heartstrings, your roommate.”
“Roommate? Sorry I thought you were one of the staff.” She blushed, “Oh, um, pleased to meet you! I’m Lady Confidant of House Schere.”
Lyra’s eyes popped for a moment, her roommate was actual nobility? “Oh, um pleased to meet you your highness.” She tried a bow. “I hope you don’t mind but I already picked a bed, I can switch if you want.”
“No,” Confidant looked around the room a little unsurely, “I’m sure this will be fine.”
“You can change your mind at any point dear,” said the stallion again, as an earth pony mare started to bring in a large number of bags and boxes. “I’ve got some pull with the headmaster, I could get you moved to... more suitable accommodation at any time.”
“No Daddy, I want to do this by myself, I got the scholarship on my own, now I’ll live on that.”
“I’m very proud of you, you know, you don’t have to do this to prove a point, I just want to help you,” he walked over the gently nuzzled his daughter.
“I know Daddy,” said Confidant returning the gesture. Lyra felt a little embarrassed to be watching, although it sent another little jolt of homesickness into her heart.
“At least have Sturdy Back stay with you,” he indicated the mare bringing in a further pile of bags, the other side of the room was rapidly filling up. “They have rooms for servants.”
“No Daddy, no servants, I want to do this alone.”
The older stallion sighed. “If you’re sure. I have to be back in court soon, you know where my office is, if you have any problems just see me there.”
“I know Dad.”
“And you young mare,” said the stallion talking to Lyra for the first time. “I hope you will be accommodating to my daughter while you share this room. If you try to take advantage of her in any way, I will know, and you will be sorry.”
Lyra swallowed painfully, she didn’t understand what was going on. “Of-of course sir.”
“Good. Goodbye Connie, I’ll see you soon,” said the stallion as he left not giving Lyra a second glance.
“Sorry about that, Daddy can be a little protective sometimes,” said Confidant, she looked around at the large pile of bags covering most of the floor. “Um, could you help me unpack?”
It turned out that Confidant’s luggage took up all the space on her own side of the room so Lyra offered some of her space, almost all of which was used as well. She found out that her roommate was attending on a Divination Scholarship, she seemed willing to talk about magical theory for the rest of the day given half a chance, Lyra had to remind her that she was supposed to meet back at the reception soon in order to shut her up. Confidant apparently was due to meet another group of new students a bit later so Lyra left her to finish settling in.
Her new roommate seemed alright, thought Lyra as she weaved her way back towards the entrance to the building, although she was a bit patronising. She seemed to think that Ponyville was some sort of wilderness town, she’d been surprised to be told they had gas lighting.
After a few false starts and a quick check of the magic map Lyra found herself back at the reception room along with the others in her group. Octavia had been joined by a handsome tan stallion with a white mane and two musical notes on his toned flanks. “Greetings everypony,” he began in a loud and posh sounding accept. “I am Frederick Horseshoepin Junior, you might have heard of my father?” Lyra had indeed, he was a famous musician, it looked like his son was following in his hoofsteps. “Like Octavia I will be showing you around today, I apologize for not being here earlier but I was a little unwell.” Octavia looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. “I overindulged a little last night celebrating my return to the school this year.” He didn’t seem very shame faced at that.
“Now, if you would follow us,” said Octavia, “We will show you around the important parts of the campus. The school has grown rather organically over the centuries so many of the lecture theatres and labs are quite far away from each other. My understanding is that all of you are at least minoring in music so we will also show you the practice rooms as well, there will be opportunities to apply for entry various ensembles tomorrow if you so wish.”
“Unfortunately Octavia is as boring as she is beautiful and talented,” said Frederick. Octavia seemed to try to scowl and blush at the same time. “I’m sure she’ll show you round all the ‘necessary’ parts of the campus without showing you the more ‘interesting’, so I’ll be hosting a little tour of all the fantastic drinking establishments in and around the campus this evening.” A little cheer went around the room, Lyra grinned, that certainly seemed a good way to get to know her classmates. “Nothing like a little liquid lubrication to help everyone get together.”
“Now remember that we are here to study as well as socialise,” said Octavia glaring at Frederick, who grinned back. “I would suggest you do not overindulge,” Octavia reminded them sternly.
The next few hours were spent following Octavia and Frederick around the school’s campus being shown room and after room and being introduced to a few of the teachers. Lyra found most of it fascinating but she was sure there was no way she’d be able to find her way around, it was just so labyrinthine. Finally their tour ended up in one of the schools dining halls, it looked large and grand enough to host an official banquet in. Octavia suggested that they eat while they had the chance and Frederick reminded them of the pub crawl he had planned for a few hours’ time.
The menu contained many options that Lyra had never had before, food from all corners of Equestria. For a moment she considered playing it safe and going for something familiar then she shrugged and decided she might as well try something new. The curried vegetables she found she liked, the spotted dick less so, the name alone put her off but Octavia seemed to be gobbling it down with gusto, each to her own she thought. She tried to chat to some of her fellow new students, although they seemed to be just as apprehensive as her, she couldn’t seem to find any common topics of conversation with the young nobles.
With a full belly Lyra returned to her room, well eventually she did, she still found navigating the various passageways of the school a little difficult. At least she found the swimming pool, she assumed it was a swimming pool, something was swimming in it. Her roommate was there when she arrived, the pink unicorn lying on her bed reading a book she was levitating in front of her face.
“Hi,” said Lyra.
“Hi,” replied Confidant, there was a long moment of awkward silence.
“So, what do you think of the place?” said Lyra eventually.
“Oh, it’s very exciting to think of all the ponies that have passed through this place over the years and the things they went on to do. I’ve been waiting for years to be here!”
Once again Lyra felt a bit awkward, she’d not really put that much thought into her future, her teacher and parents had just sort of pushed her in this direction, and it sort of happened.
“Of course Dad thought he’d be able to get me in as long as I met the requirements, but I wanted to do it without his help.”
“He’s important is he then, your Dad?”
“He’s a count, our family used to be some of The Princess's closest advisors you know.”
“Wow! So you’re going to be part of the night court some day?”
“Oh no, I have two older sisters, Advistrix will follow after Dad. No, I want to be an archmage. How about you?”
“Oh, I haven't really made up my mind, I’m majoring in magic and music so maybe a bard? There aren't that many around now a days.”
“That sounds interesting,” said Confidant with a slight frown. “What does your family do, are they musicians to?”
Lyra laughed. “Pop can’t hold a tune to save his life, and Dad only sings in the shower. No Pop’s in construction and Dad run a shop selling Furniture and Stationery.”
“That’s an odd combination.”
“Yeah, well Dad saw a gap in the market and just had to fill it.” Sensing a pause in the conversation she wandered over to her cupboard. “Are you going to the party tonight?”
“Party?”
“Yeah one of the older students showing us around was going to organise a get together so the new students can get to meet each other.” Lyra flicked through the few clothes she had brought with her to see if anything caught her eye for tonight.
“Is that all you have?” asked Confident looking over Lyra’s shoulder. “Oh, um, I mean you can borrow one of mine if you want.”
Lyra looked down at her significantly shorter and rounder roommate. “No, thanks but I think I have just the thing.” She brought out a short black dress and levitated it over herself. “What do you think? My marefriend bought it for me for my last birthday.”
“You have a marefriend?”
“Yeah Bon Bon, she amazing. She makes sweets, here try one,” she passed Confidant one of the chocolates she’d received this morning to Confidant.
“It’s very nice,” said the pink mare politely.
“Yeah they’re the best. It’s going to be hard without her being around, but I’ll see her soon enough.”
“I’ve never had a special somepony,” said Confidant a little mournfully, “I told myself I’d wait until after I graduated at least.”
“I don’t think you can just schedule your life like that, you never know when the right pony will turn up. How about you come to the party tonight? You never know who you’ll meet.” She started to rifle through Confidant’s dresses. “This’ll look great on you.”