//------------------------------//
// First Chapter 
// Story: "Boia Dè!" or "Never Trust the Title of the Course." 
// by Daxn 
//------------------------------//

The Cafèteria of Canterlot High School, like every Cafèteria of every school at lunch hour, was bustling with voices, shouts, hand-waving and flying chunks of food. The usual groups gathered around in the same spot, exchanging informations to each other seamlessly, gossiping about the latest act of bravado from a collaborator, or just talking about anything and everything.

The group of six girls that had recently saved everybody from mass enslavement by the power of music was no exception to the situation presented above.

"So, girls, how did the Old Mongolian test go for you all? Five and half was my mark..." Rainbow Dash said as she took a leaf of her salad with her bare hands, and chewed it in a bovine way while almost lying on the eating bench, to much of Rarity's chagrin.

"Dash, please, stand upright and use cutlery." Rarity said with a sigh, as she cut a piece of soft cheese and put it on the bread "Anyway, my mark for that test was seven. Disappointing, to be honest, but it isn't the end of the world."

"I  got a six," Said Sunset Shimmer as she dressed her salad with salt and vinegar "I mean the piece was, like, ten lines full of verbs with only one noun!"

"Yeah, easy version my ass!" Applejack commented while munching down a ham and egg sandwich "The teacher just proved herself the bi..."

"Applejack, your mouth." Rarity said, before taking a bite of her cheese sandwich.

"Bah," she said, quickly gulping the bite before speaking again "you know that is true, Rarity. After all, she told us said she modified the text, but she didn't and caught us out of guard! Hell, even you got a worse mark than the previous, how can you deny it?"

"I was half-asleep and at empty stomach at the time, it's obvious I was not going to do it perfectly," Rarity said a bit scorned as she put the sandwich down "Also, she DID modify it."

"A comma in a different place doesn't mean she 'modified it for our level,' Rarity!"

"Mmm... please... stop." Fluttershy meeped from under the table. However, she was not heard, as the two contenders kept arguing about how much their version got modified, up until Pinkie, after a rather long silence, bursted in.

"I've got one!" Pinkie Pie cheerfully shouted, causing everybody of her group to stop and express their various degrees of confusion, simply saying "What?" in different tones and with gestures.

Pinkie Pie, still smiling widely, said.

"I taken One at this test! This means I've completed my collection of grades of this year!" 

Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash promptly facepalmed at the statement and allowed Sunset and Fluttershy to gain some respite from the ongoing argument between their friends.

"What? Isn't that how it works?" Pinkie asked, breaking the relative silence that was born between the six girls.

"No, Pinkie... not at all..." Rainbow Dash said before sighing "If it worked like that, I would be the first of the class in English."

"And the last in Physical Education, or 'Uncoordinated Jumping' as I call it," Rarity commented while giving a quick adjustment to her hair. "Also, Extracurricular Activities giving credits for the State Exams would be something able to turn every year upside-down no matter what."

Rainbow Dash glared but remained silent, thusly allowing Sunset to come in.

"About those..." she said, taking out a sheet of paper with a couple of columns with names, dates and horarires filling the spaces. "Prof. Fluer De Lis just gave me, as Class Representative, the sheets for the after-school activities. Maybe you want to check them out now?"

Pinkie Pie quickly yanked it out of Sunset's hands, while Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack formed a knot around Pinkie, and the others either kept eating while observing.

"This year the options are..." Pinkie announced, as she moved her finger along the lines "Football on Monday from 14:30 to 17:30 with Spitfire; Basque Basic Lessons on Friday and Saturday from 15:00 to 12:00, presided by Professor Bitter Leaf; Cineforum 'Cinema Trash' on Wednesday from 14:45 to 16:20, presided by Prof. Harshwhinny; Daycare every school day from 15:45 to 18:30, presided by Vice Principal Luna."

The eyebrows of the entire group arched their eyebrows and their stares immediately went to the sheet of paper.

"What?" Pinkie asked as she rose hear head away from the piece of paper "Did I just do something?"

Rainbow Dash quickly rip the piece of paper out of Pinkie's hands and put it at few millimeters from her face, her hands trembling slightly, clear sign of furious reading. Shortly after, Applejack ripped that out of Rainbow Dash's hands, who kept gripping onto the thin air, and looked at it, changing distance between eyes and paper several times over, clearly trying to be sure to read it correctly.

"So, was Pinkie for real?" Sunset Shimmer asked, looking at Applejack and the sheet interested.

"Yes... she was," Applejack said "I seriously don't get why  it is even an option, this begin a Classical Languages High School, and not a Child-Raising one."

"Well, why that would be a limitation?" Sunset asked "Can't somebody from this school become a teacher if they want? Or wish to be one when already in here, and wanting to get used to the gist of it?"

"Well... the one leading it, according to this paper, is Vice Principal Luna," Applejack answered, as she put the sheet down, allowing the others to read it. "you know, our Law teacher. The one left spinster and no kids whatsoever."

"Your point begin?" Rarity said "She doesn't have to be a mother, for being able to care for children. Maybe she used to do it for other reasons."

Applejack facepalmed at herself. "Right," she said while Rainbow Dash slowly lost her odd fury for go back eating, Pinkie imitated Arcimboldo with bread and salad, and Fluttershy and Sunset talked about the extra scholastic activities they wanted to take part in the following days.

"Anyways, any choices already, so that I can present them?" Rarity asked, in the attempt to return the conversation to topics with more reasons to exist.

"Football," Rainbow Dash said absently-minded.

"Basque Language course sounds fun, I'll take it." Pinkie Pie said "Also, it's lead by Professor Bitter Leaf, you know, Sweet Leaf's father, so it's guaranteed to be fun."

"As for me, nothing," Rarity said while inflating her chest a bit "I don't need no credit point."

Applejack glared at Rarity's boast, before saying "Cineforum. No effort required, not even actual attention, just go there, sit down, and chat while a crappy film is projected."

"Mmm... let me see..." Sunset Shimmer said while putting a finger under her chin thoughtfully, before taking it off and declaring "I think I'll take part to the 'Daycare' group. You know, just for try something new and different from what I usually do. And, who knows, maybe it will be more interesting and useful than it sounds!"

Fluttershy raised her head and whispered "I'm with Sunset..."

Rarity, after taking a pen out from one of her skirt's pockets, wrote down her friends' choices, and, as soon as she did that, the bell rang through all over the school canteen, announcing the end of the allowed time for lunch break.

"Time to go back to the class." Rarity simply stated as she got up from her spot "I will notify the Fleur De Lis whenever is possible."

"Okay," the others said, with various degrees of loudness and interest, before also getting up and walking away to their classroom, just like everybody else in the room.





Four days later, after the usual five hours at school, and a quick break at their homes, Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy met again in front of the school's entrance yard, which was scarcely frequented at that time of day.

As she walked at Fluttershy's side, Sunset decided to try and strike a conversation with her timid friend.

"So, had a good lunch, Fluttershy?" She asked.

"Yes, a very good one." Fluttershy said, still looking down at the concrete-paved path leading to the actual entrance of the school.

"And it was...?" 

"Salad and feta," Fluttershy answered "Oh, and some vegetarian casserole. You?"

Sunset Shimmer looked at the entrance briefly, seeing the shape of other two people standing at the entrance door.

"I had some nice ribs dipped in kokok tlanelolistli, and some mais bread." She said, and Fluttershy nodded, a clearly awkward smile of non-understanding on her face.

"Oh, sorry, I always forgot," Sunset says with a hint of blush "the kokok tlanelolistli is a spicy sauce of the Tarascan cuisine."

Fluttershy nodded awkwardly again, as she made the first step onto the stairs of the entrance, shortly followed by Shimmer.

"Ah, forget it," she said after few seconds of dead silence, while doing the last steps of the stairs "I ate ribs with hot sauce, to cut it short."

As soon as she said that, Sunset accidentally walked into the glass door of the entrance, slamming her face flat against the glass, before bending over in the opposite direction and holding her nose with both hands.

"Need help?" A soft male voice called, quickly answered by another male voice, this one deeper than the previous "She is fine; I am sure of it, no assistance shall be brought to her."

"Are you okay, Sunset?" Fluttershy asked while helping Sunset to go back upright, to which Sunset replied "Yes, I am fine," she said as she turned around, only to see Fluttershy putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you very much Flutters," she said as she took off her hands from the nose "But I'm fine."

Fluttershy nodded as she turned to the entrance, and Sunset reached it fully, finally seeing the three people that were going to work with her that afternoon. Specifically, there was a lily-white guy, dressed sharply in blue trousers, blue sweater and black jacket, sporting long blond hair and unkempt beard and mustaches, idly playing around with his phone and, at his side, there was an orange-skinned boy with dark orange and light green hair, wearing a blue shirt with jeans that were suspiciously too large on the legs but perfectly fitting around the crotch, that was looking at the ground in the attempt to avoid the two girl's gazes.

"Well, at this point, might as well speak with them since I will stay for them for a bit," Sunset whispered to herself, as she walked towards the floor-looking boy with her previous upbeat demeanor.

"Hello there," she said "I don't think I've ever seen you around. What's your name? Mine is Sunset Shimmer."

The boy rose his head timidly and said while bowing down.

"My name is Flameboy Shy, and.... uhm...," he said hesitantly, before continuing hastily "nice to meet you Sunset."

"Pleasure is mine, Flameboy Shy" she said, looking at him as he broke the bow, while pointing at the sharply-dressed young man  "Do you know the other guy over there?"

Shy turned around to look at him. "Oh, yes, I know him, his name is Blueblood, and..."

"Who am I? I am Blueblood Felipoglu, part of this School's Student Council." He said somewhat emphatically, interrupting Shy "So; I will ask you: what is the name you bear, and what are your intention towards me?"

Sunset looked sideways at Blueblood for the whole small speech, and kept doing so even when the young man had imitated the gesture of a hat tip with his fringe, so she resorted to say. "Aehm... was that really necessary?"

In front of this rhetorical question Blueblood nodded and said "Yes, it suits my position in society and my rank here in school."

Sunset shrugged at that statement, before saying "My name is Sunset Shimmer and... that's it. Kind of saved everybody's butts from begin mind-controlled, and became a daemon, but otherwise I'm as normal as white bread."

Blueblood had put his left hand under his chin, and was looking at Sunset interested "So, you were involved in what caused holes in several points of the roof, the missing books in the library, and the skyrocketing of the use of the free condoms in the bathrooms, right?"

"How'd you know all of that?" 

"I am interested in doing this part of my duty, alright?" Blueblood said slightly annoyed, thusly causing the conversation to die and leave spectral silence and tension behind, silence that lead the four to look at each other passingly before going back to either look the floor or, in case of Blueblood, to his phone, until the janitor, a jaundice-colored man with buck teeth dressed in a stained white tank top shirt with the drawing of a turnip in the middle, and a red baseball cap on his head.

"None too soon," Blueblood commented, as he stopped leaning on the wall and swept some dust away from his shirt's left sleeve. "I almost thought this activity had been canceled due to an unforeseen issue."

The janitor just shrugged, as he unlocked the glass door from inside, and pushed it outwards, thusly allowing the four students to walk in. As she did that, Sunset realized that there was an oddity in all of that so, while she walked alongside Fluttershy, Shy and Blueblood down the hallways that connected the main entrance of  the High School to the rest of the school complex, which contained the Middle and Grade School, so she decided to get an answer directly from the one involved.

"Lemme ask a question real quick, Blueblood," Sunset said, while passing through a narrow hallway with red ruined walls "why did you join this group exactly?"

"Why should I not?" He said, getting behind Sunset for pass through the alley. "The time for me to become a father is pressingly near, this, coupled with the lack of appeal of the rest of the courses, has lead me to consider the possibility of learning a few things about how to..."

"You know that this isn't a course for would-be fathers, right?" Sunset pointed out while going down one of the white-and-green hallways of the Middle School. Blueblood shrugged as he dodged a pillar with a fluid movement  while walking "Better than nothing. And, if it will not help me in that, it shall be something new I tried once."

"If that makes you happy," Sunset said as she had already moved her trajectory away from the above pillar "I won't say anything else." 

With this discovery made, Sunset's mouth closed, and nobody else talked, the only sound accompanying them were their own steps, the dripping sounds of water leaking in the most run-down parts of Grade School, and a vague suckling noise of unknown origin. Fluttershy, naturally, was almost cowering when walking, whispering what each sound was and where it came from, and getting no response in return.

Sunset even heard Blueblood comment "This is just an empty building, what she is afraid of?" 

"I would like to agree with him," Sunset thought, as she did the final steps that lead to a secondary gym, which in turn lead to the first hallway of the Kindergarten and their destination, the Daycare "but I feel it would be mean. Let's avoid think it."

With that thought of the way, the group stopped itself on the front of the door, a green formica door labeled with "Daycare" in red letters written on a piece of paper; that separated the corridor from the room they were supposed to be in

"Weird... I don't hear anything..." Shy suddenly said after making a popping sound, pointing out the lack of sounds "Shouldn't the kids be here already?"

"I think they will come a little bit later," Blueblood said while leaning against the door's wooden beam "maybe the Vice Principal has to tell us something, before starting."

Fluttershy remained silent while looking fearfully around her, and Sunset Shimmer shrugged at Blueblood's theory.

Then, all of sudden, the clicking sound of high heels on hard surface was heard, causing everybody in the group to turn their ears towards the source of the clicking.

"I see her," Sunset said, squinting her eyes as the woman approached, and saw her carrying four blue and green bags "she looks a bit too overloaded, thought... I mean, why four bags?"

"That is almost my question." Blueblood said while giving a brief look at what Luna was carrying, only to see they were blue bags, thusly causing him to go back to lean silently against the door's beam. However, by far, the stronger reaction by far was Shy's, who, after moving his head forward, whispered "Guys... something makes me think there ain't any little kids coming..."

"What makes you think so?" Blueblood asked to Shy while his face frowned in irritation. Sunset, on another hand, had moved away from the door for get a better view upon the upcoming Vice Principal, and also saw that those bags were barely closed tighter by a button.

"You see what I see?" Shy asked timidly to Sunset, but Sunset just murmured a word she could read from afar.

"Molicare..."