Chapter 3: Education
Heart cried herself to sleep that night, she just couldn't deal with the fact that her mother was just - gone. Her mind was processing it all as she drifted and her mind went blank. She then began to dream; she woke up in the dream world to nothingness. She only saw darkness as a voice somewhere in the darkness called out her name.
"Heart's Desire..."
The voice was one she had never heard before, it was deep, gravelly and almost sounded demonic. Heart looked around to find where this voice was coming from, but everywhere she turned, she only saw blackness. The voice then laughed, sending shivers up her spine.
"Who are you?" she called daringly. Her demand was only met with a laugh that sounded like he was mocking her. This made Heart more and more infuriated, her courage rose again as she threw her head up.
"I don't know who you are, but...I'm not afraid of you!"
After she said this however, she heard a sound behind her. It was the sound of a light breeze; she felt this breeze drift through her mane as she stood there. She didn't want to look at who or what was haunting her, but part of her wanted to face this creature. She gulped and turned around, ready to face whatever it was. What she saw, confused her at first, it was a puff of grey-black smoke just floating there like smoke usually would. Heart approached it and soon found herself within the smoke, it swirled around her and she even felt a chill across her coat. She then had the feeling that something was watching her, she turned around to see a face with fangs, a crimson red unicorn horn and glowing green eyes with red irises and purple smoke flowing out from the corners. Her eyes wide, her jaw to the ground and her heart racing, she turned and ran; but she could never find an end to the smoke. It was as if it seemed to go on forever, she stopped to observe where the end of this fog might be, but when she did, she heard the voice say, "You're mine!"
She then turned and saw the face, coming toward her, mouth wide open: before she could see him swallow her, she woke up with a jolt! She was sweating and panting, luckily, it was time to get up for breakfast. She looked around and saw Celestia's sunlight coming through the window, she also saw that during the course of the night she had dropped Fuzzy Hearts she reached over the side of the bed and picked her up, clutching to her as she remembered the nightmare she had.
"Heart? Are you okay?"
Heart looked up and saw that Sugar Song was still there, Sugar only watched as she saw a light in Heart's Desire's eyes spin around her pupil and sort of sparkle.
"Whoa, how did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Your eyes...they...they sparkle!"
"Mom said they've been doing that ever since I was a baby. We never figured out why though..."
"But still, that's so cool!"
Heart's face lightened up a little, the sadness of her Mother out of her permanently and the fear and confusion of her nightmare had her a bit on edge. Sugar Song saw this expression on her face and came up to her bed, she then sat herself at the foot and looked at Heart sympathetically.
"I know how you're feeling..."
"You do?"
"Trust me, I was brought here when I was 6, and for 3 years, I was being bounced around by foster families and the family that brought me here cuz...well...they said that the house was getting too full to keep me. And I really liked them and I thought they were gonna adopt me, they were really nice, they took me to the park everyday, they fixed my favorite food on my birthday, and believed that everyday was a celebration...but...the thing was...they...they already had 3 other foals in the house and as much as they cared for me...they had to let me go."
Heart felt sympathy for this filly, she'd been moved between so many families throughout her life and was somehow able to keep her sanity and keep a straight head.
"So, how did you...get over it?" Heart asked.
"I just moved on, I made friends, went to school and tried my best to get up and move on with my life. But, it wasn't easy, every now and then the memories come back and I do cry sometimes."
"So...you're saying I should do that?"
"Yeah, try to move on, as far as I know, your Mom was doing the right thing bringing you here."
"I know, it's just I miss her so much...and it's going to take a while to..."
Heart was now on the brink of tears, she missed her mother, she missed their silly little games and the funny constellations she made up, she missed sleeping next to her Mom at night to stay warm in the dead of Winter.
Sugar saw this and hugged her, "If you need somepony to talk to, you can talk to me."
Heart's tears subsided as Sugar released her, "C'mon! We're gonna be late for breakfast."
Heart's eyes sparkled once again as she followed her newfound friend to the cafeteria where 3 long tables of seated fillies and colts filled the room. Sugar led Heart to the back of the line to get their breakfast, on the menu, they were serving: waffles, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, and baked apples. Heart had heard of and smelled pancakes and waffles before but had never had them because her mother couldn't afford them, she took advantage of the opportunity and ordered the pancakes she then got an apple juice box, and waited for Sugar who was ordering waffles. Once Sugar had her food and drink, both fillies went to sit down in two empty seats next to each other and began eating. Heart took one bite of her pancakes and was immediately in love, they were so sweet, syrupy and fluffy but as she ate her pancakes, she decided to talk to Sugar as well, Sugar told some jokes and made Heart laugh, Heart told her some things she liked to do and found that Sugar liked a lot of the same things. They both liked to play pretend, checkers and Battleclouds Heart could already tell the two were going to get along great. Ms. Serenity then came out and excused the children to their classes, Heart remembered seeing classrooms in the building and was heading there when Sugar stopped her, "Where are you going?" she asked.
"School."
"Oh! I forgot to tell you, the older kids go to a school in town, the little kids go to school here since, the school in town is a one room and would get too full...plus, the little kids have to get used to a school's environment and learn at the same time!"
"Okay, that makes sense!"
"Plus, you'll love Ms. Cheerilee! She's so nice and sweet!"
Heart smiled as she followed Sugar once they were outside, they began talking and playfully joking with each other, Heart then saw the schoolhouse and the playground in front of her and felt excited with a twinge of nervousness. But she tucked the nervousness and wouldn't let it come back out. The bell then rang and all the children entered, as the two fillies tried to scramble inside, Heart was bumped by somepony and knocked over.
"Are ya okay?" a colt's voice asked with a southern accent.
"I'm fine."
"Here, lemme help ya up."
The colt took her hoof and helped her up, she then saw a colt with an apple red coat, orange hair and blue eyes.
"Thank you, I'm Heart's Desire."
"Lil Mac."
They both entered; once inside Lil Mac took a seat next to a freckle faced white unicorn with short curly blonde hair and a giant blue bow on the back of her head and green eyes. Heart saw an available seat next to Sugar, but before she could approach a sweet voice said, "Well, it looks like we have a new student! Can you tell the class your name dear?"
Heart looked over to see a purple earth pony with three smiling daisies for a cutie mark, green eyes and a purple and lavender mane; Heart concluded that this must be her teacher.
Heart gulped, realizing she was now being put on the spot, "Ummm....I...."
She could hear some of the classmates snickering, "Quiet!" Ms. Cheerilee ordered.
"I'm...Heart's...Heart's Desire..."
"Well, I'm sure I speak for the rest of the class when I bid you welcome dear."
Heart smiled at her then sat in the empty seat, Ms. Cheerilee then stood by her desk and asked the class to bring out their reading textbooks, she then gave one to Heart and politely told her that they were on page 39 and if she needs any help or has a question, to raise her hoof. Heart then began to panic, her heart started racing, '39?! What's and where is 39?! I didn't know I had to know any of this stuff! Oh, now I regret even coming here!'
All Heart could do was stare at her book worriedly, would anypony notice she wasn't opening it or looking at it?
"Heart's Desire? Is everything alright?" Ms. Cheerilee asked.
"I...um...."
Sugar then leaned over and flipped the book to where they were, Heart thanked her and looked at the page and felt the same wave of panic times two! The page was full of words she didn't know how to pronounce, spell or even give definitions to! She prayed to Celestia that Ms. Cheerilee wouldn't call her name as the class started.
"Alright class, now I am going to call your names one by one and spell a word on the chalkboard from your textbooks then I will ask you to describe what the word means."
Heart felt like she was going to faint! What would they think of her when they found out that she wasn't educated? Thankfully, the first foal she called a little colt named Zura, he had a grey coat, orange eyes and an orange mane and tail. He spelled 'Character' on the chalkboard and said, "A character is a pony in a story."
"Very good Zura, take your seat please."
Zura walked to his seat and sat down as Ms. Cheerilee called, "Heart's Desire?"
Heart gulped and slowly made her way to the front of the class, she was given the chalk and Ms. Cheerilee gave her a reassuring smile. Heart looked at the chalkboard and wrote the only thing she knew how to write, she drew 3 spirals and when she was about to do a third one the entire class except Lil Mac, his sister Lil Angel and Sugar Song were laughing. Then the voice of Zura came up and asked while he was in full laughter, "What are you? Stupid?"
Heart then dropped the chalk which then broke into two pieces, she then began to cry and ran out of the school building crying all the way back to the orphanage.
