"Alright!" Luna announced. "We have a lot of things to do today, so we're going to get started. This is my first day, and the first time I've done this, so I hope you'll be as patient with me as I will be with you," she said kindly. "There are pineapple slices on your desks if you would like them, I think everypony enjoys a little taste of sweet pineapple now and again."
Ocean Breeze raised his hoof. "Are they gluten free?" He asked.
Luna faltered. Great. Day one, question one, and already she felt that mild nagging sensation in the back of her mind that she'd gotten off to a rocky start. "I... I don't..." She stammered. She had absolutely no idea what gluten was.
"Daddy says if I eat gluten I could die," Ocean said. His voice was calm and unwavering, as if this was completely normal.
"Oh. Well then. You just go ahead and leave it there and I'll clean it up in a bit. We're going to start off the day with circle time, and I'm going to read you a story that has been told to many children over the years and is a traditional favorite. Come little children, I'll take thee away, off to a land of enchantment." She swept up Ocean under her wing and led him to the back of the room where a circle of pillows had been strategically placed. Ocean came at once, but Clover and Fireball, who had found the pineapples and were happily nomming, took a few more calls before they left the treats and came over as well, to join the circle.
"This little book is called The Three Little Pigs, see?" She held up a colorfully bright hardcover book, which indeed displayed three little pigs cowering in a straw house while a nasty, mean looking wolf patrolled outside.
"That looks scary," Clover said.
"Not at all," Luna assured her, and began. "Once upon a time, in the magical land of Hamalot..."
---
With minimal interruptions from the children, it took approximately twenty minutes to read the story, and Luna used her night magic to cast enchanted, magical shadows on the walls that would enact various scenes from the book for comedic effect. The wall had only finished displaying a shadowy black wolf leaping into a fire, before howling and running around in circles on two legs with his pants on fire. The children were roaring with laughter and applauding at this, before the shadow wolf dissipated into smoke and vanished.
"Now then," Luna said, closing the book. "What did we learn from this story?"
Ocean Breeze raised his hoof, he always seemed to be the first with an answer, Luna noted, with some mild admiration. She did like seeing children willing to participate. "That wolves are bad?" He asked.
"Well," Luna said. "In this story, yes, but not all wolves are bad. Some are very important to the ecosystem. Timberwolves, however, are very, very scary, and they ARE bad."
Clover, or Rover, as she claimed her name was, raised her hoof next. "I think it's about family, and that when you need help, you can always rely on your family to get you out of it," she said.
Fireball, who remained mostly quiet during all of this, shook his head. "No way. It's obviously a metaphor. The house represents a safe zone, the pigs are confidence and bravery, and the wolf is fear and anxiety trying to break into their safe zone and crush their spirits."
Luna, Clover and Ocean all stared at him.
"Whoa," Clover said, her voice tinged with respectful admiration, as if she'd just witnessed Celestia herself give a long and powerful speech.
"...Alright then," Luna said, breaking the silence that followed after this display of intelligence. "It's almost nine thirty now, so we're going to spend the next hour in free play, so do what you like, and then after that will begin the first of three individual sessions to work on your special abilities. Fireball, you'll be first, you'll be getting some basic flight lessons."
"Alright!" Fireball grinned.
"But what about us?" Clover asked, sounding hurt. "We're supposed to just spend half an hour by ourselves? What if the barley dealers find me? I'm undercover! I'm a wanted dog! Things could go down at any moment! I'm a member of law enforcement! I'm a child! I can't be left on my own! That's too much, man! Too much!"
"Not to worry," Luna said. "I have a special guest coming who will be assisting me." She said no more on that matter, and let the children run free in the toy section of the room. Fireball ran straight to the puzzles, while Ocean Breeze went to the little plastic Royal Guard army figures. Clover sat down at the small table covered in crayons and coloring books, and flipped through them.
"Hey," Clover complained. "How come all these coloring books are filled with pictures of you?"
"Oh, are they?" Luna looked away, placing a foreleg against her chest in a mocking gesture of surprise. "I had no idea. What a strange coincidence."
---
The next hour went smoothly, and as precisely at ten thirty as she could tell by the sundial, Luna called the children to attention. They had hardly moved from their individual stations, she noticed, all engaged in their own separate favorite activities.
Luna smiled a bit, and stood up. "Time to put away the toys for now!" She said and moved towards the door. "I promised a very special guest would be entertaining you today, and I think I hear him now!" She dramatically swung open the door to the classroom, and revealed a completely DONE looking Celestia, dressed in a theatrical green dragon suit, with only her nose and tail sticking out of it.
"Look! It's Dreamy the Dancing Dragon!" Luna exclaimed. The children burst into squeals of joy at once, and immediately surrounded the costumed performer.
Celestia stared daggers at her sister with eyes that almost seemed to burst into flame. <You owe me so hard,> she said, sending this message not with her tongue but with mental telepathic abilities heard only between the two.
<No, I don't think I do.> Luna sent back. <One word. Moon.>
<Bah...>
Clover and Ocean were squealing with delight, and Celestia sighed, trying to put on her best cheerful voice. "Hey, kids!" She announced. "Good to see you! We're going to have lots of fun today, and I even brought my special bag of tricks!" Her horn lit up and summoned a bright green bag that looked like it had been bedazzled to death, and opened it. "Now for my first trick, I-" she began, pulling out the first item she could find, which turned out to be a pineapple. "I don't remember putting that in there..."
Fireball, meanwhile, followed Luna into the side room, the one which had padded walls and a little ramp, rising only a few inches off the floor.
"Now, have you ever flown before?" Luna asked.
"Only a little bit," the colt said. "I can't stay off the ground for more than a few seconds."
"Alright. Well why don't you step onto that ramp there and show me your technique?"
Fireball did just that, stepping onto the ramp and flapping his little orange wings as hard as he could. His legs lifted a few inches off the ground as he was clearly struggling, his style was all over the place, but he was off the ground.
"Needs some work," Luna said gently. "You can't just flap like a maniac. You need style. Prose. Grace. Confidence. Come now, on the ground, try again. One, two, three! One, two three!"
Luna spent the next half hour teaching Fireball various calming techniques and breathing exercises, which he, of course, thought were stupid. Near the end of the session, she had him taking a running jump off the ramp. He was nervous at first, but did as she asked, and ran right off the edge of the ramp. Luna's horn lit up at once, creating a gust of wind that wafted straight up off the floor like an air vent in one of the video games that Celestia had introduced her to, and which she found she rather liked.
Fireball hit the gust of wind, completely unaware of it, and soared higher at once until his head bumped the padded ceiling. "Luna! Luna! I'm doing it! I'm doing it!" His joy was absolutely contagious, and as she breeze died down he lowered to the floor again after a few seconds, and the night princess caught him, quickly finding herself being fiercely hugged.
"Thank you, Luna. You're not as bad as everyone says," Fireball said. "I'm gonna tell my mom that Princess Luna is my favorite, and maybe even be an astronomer when I get older!"
Luna nearly melted at that. Her plan was working! Without any hesitation, she hugged him back.
It was just after eleven thirty.