It began, as strange days so often seem to, with a pineapple.
Luna's return from her lunar had been recent at this time in our exposition, only several months prior, and it was still the hottest topic of conversation amongst the citizens of Canterlot. The buzz of a nearly forgotten and suddenly returned princess was not something that could be quenched so easily, as well as whisperings of possible charges of treason regarding Celestia that the Royal Guards were still doing their best to quiet before they could get rolling. A moving boulder was much harder to settle into place than a stationary one, after all.
Luna herself was having a hard time adjusting, having to catch up on a thousand years of advancements in law, technology, customs, currency, politics, pretty much everything had moved on without her. She had spent most of her time following her return in the Private sector of the Canterlot Library, the sector that was closed off to the public, in order to catch herself up. Or, well, to attempt to catch up.
She had watched and admired her big sister during these study sessions, and one of the most curiously interesting things, she had noted, that Celestia had done was to begin a school for talented unicorns, and had, she explained, selected one student at a time to give one on one training to. That student recieved personalized visits from Celestia, an advanced study course, and of course fairly special treatment. The school being rather new, Celestia was only on her third pupil. The first had graduated with honors from Celestia's coursework and went on to become a Royal Guard in the military. The second, Luna didn't know much about. Celestia rarely spoke of her, and when she did it was with disappointment. Something had happened, Celestia wouldn't talk about it, and Luna hadn't pressed the issue. The third student was a studious young purple unicorn, and it was this bond with the unicorn that led Luna to decide she wanted to start a school of her own.
Flash forward six months later, to the present day. This brings us back to Luna, and to the aforementioned pineapple.
It was the beginning of the autumn school season, and the grand opening school season of Luna's Center For Kids Who Can't Magic Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too. The name of the facility, while not the easiest to pronounce and certainly not pleasant to say, was the winning entry in a contest to name the facility, a contest which had been primarily devised to gain exposure for Luna herself, who was still regarded with some degree of suspicion.
Luna had arrived promptly early, and unlocked the front doors before swinging them wide and propping them open. The facility was built with a large number of windows in order to promote a naturally lit, 'green' environment which was all the rage these days, and the torches on the walls which normally lit the darkness with their greedy flames were few and far between. Just enough to see by, not that there would be anyone here at night under most circumstances, except perhaps the janitor.
Luna's hooves echoed mysteriously in the long hallway as she used her long horn to unlock the few inner doors to the facility one by one. There was an arts and crafts room, a toy room, an eating lounge for snacks, a padded flight room with a tiny little ramp for jumps, and a very specially enchanted room that would promote the isolation of magical spells while also artificially boosting them.
The final room, the largest of all of them, was a classroom with three desks neatly arranged in a row of three. These desks sat right in front of Luna's own larger one, and in the middle of Luna's own desk sat the pineapple which we have now heard so much about. This confounded the mare of the night, who had locked up the facility the night before after doing a check to make sure everything worked. Between then and now, nopony had been in here. She was sure of it.
Glancing at the sundial, Luna noted the time. It was nearly eight in the morning. Well, give or take, anyway, sundials were a little bit hit or miss, but it was approximately eight
Circling around the larger desk, Luna frowned slightly. She had absolutely no idea where the pineapple had come from, and was only slightly perturbed by it, but decided to make the best of things. The minutes ticked past with absurdly rapid velocity, and when the first child arrived at eight fifteen, the pineapple had been sliced, and little plastic bowls containing equally sized, equally counted pieces of pineapple had been put on the desks.
The door swung open, and a pair of solid blue equines entered. The smaller of the two, younger even than the Cutie Mark Crusaders of whom at this point Luna had no knowledge, was a unicorn. Similar in race was his father, an uppity stallion who peered past Princess Luna from behind round spectacles as if she were a peasant on the street.
"I am Ocean Breeze's father," he announced. Before Luna could respond, he brought forth a scroll, scribbled with fancy cursive containing at least six separate items of seemingly no relation. "Listed here are the things that Ocean is allergic to. I expect you will adhere to it."
Luna bristled at that. "Listen here, now," she began, before getting a look at the list. "Glue-ten? What is Glue-ten?" She had half a mind to kick them out right now being talked to like that, but that wouldn't do well at all after she'd worked so hard to raise her image as kind and social.
"Nopony really knows, he just can't eat it," the father retorted. "I shall pick Ocean up at three. Promptly." Before she could respond, he turned, looking down at his little colt. "Ocean, behave yourself. It won't do to have you get kicked out of another preschool." He turned and walked out, leaving Ocean Breeze looking up at the Princess wide, admiring eyes.
"GREETINGS, BLUE CHILD!" She announced, far more loudly than she'd intended, and sent Ocean Breeze skittering off to a pile of blocks in the back corner of the room. Oh, damn, off to a great start already.
The second and third of the three recruits arrived at the same time, each with their mothers. Fireball, a spunky little orange pegasus who was already flapping his little wings as if itching to get off the ground, rushed right up to her and hugged her front legs with such force that Luna had to hug him back for almost a full minute before he pried himself loose. The third was an earth pony, a little rust colored mare named Clover who insisted she was really a Diamond Dog, undercover as a pony in order to put a stop to a seedy barley smuggling ring.
By the time this all was underway, it was already eight forty five. When she had the children alone, morning sunlight streaming through the windows of the classroom, Luna rapped on the desk with her hoof. "Attention, please!" She said, and all three looked up. "Before we get started at nine here, we're going to take attendance and sing the welcome song. Does anyone here know what time nine is?" She suspected they all should, but unlike Celestia's school which focused on prodigies, the children who attended this school were primarily underprivileged and poor.
Clover raised her hoof at once, and Luna beamed. "Yes, dear?"
"That comes after 8!"
Luna blinked. That wasn't the answer she'd been looking for, but she wasn't wrong. "Yes," Luna said. "But it's also a morning hour. You can tell 9:00 on the sundial by how long the shadows are. In the morning, shadows are very long, but they're starting to get shorter already, you see?"
"That's stupid," Ocean Breeze said from his seat.
"That's science," Luna responded. "Now then, Ocean Breeze, you're here?"
"Yeah."
"Fireball?"
"Uh huh!" The colt grinned.
"Clover?"
No answer.
"Clover? Clover? Clover?"
"Here!" Fireball announced, and Ocean Breeze snickered.
"Clover?"
Still no answer.
Luna looked annoyed, and went to the far right desk, where Clover was sitting and watching her with perfect attention. "Young rapscallion, thou must answer when thine name is called."
"But that's not my name."
Luna facehoofed. She regretted this already. "What is your name then?"
"I'm Rover. I'm a Diamond Dog. I told you."
"Okay, fine. Rover?"
"Here!"
Luna rolled her eyes and returned to her desk. "Now then, I'm going to sing the welcome song, and tomorrow we can all sing it together. Then we can get started. Welcome little children, welcome one and all! Welcome to the school of fun, where education calls! We're going to have some fun right here while stars are shining bright, so welcome little children and we'll have a lovely night!"
Fireball raised his hoof again. "But it's daytime."
Luna sighed, glancing at the sundial. Just after nine. Off to a great start, and only the whole day to go.