Magic Kindergarten

by Ponysopher

Ostracization

It started with just a few dirty looks one day. Twilight walked into the classroom that was full of chattering students. As soon as they saw her enter, most of her classmates hushed themselves and glared at her as she went to sit down. A few were left discussing what they would be doing after school in the corners; oblivious to what was going on. As for Twilight, she could not help but feel the weight of the many angry eyes upon her. For a few moments, she imaged that the whole room was completely silent. To her, those glaring appeared to have a bloodlust in their souls; being desperate and eager to tear her limb from limb. She wanted to ask why they were all staring at her, but she was too afraid to do so. Miss Selene soon walked in and class began.

She was treated similarly at recess. When she went to play with those who she enjoyed time with regularly, they shot her those same dirty looks and gave her terse rejections. Seeing that she would find no friendship at the time with those who had some unspoken gripe with her, she went to play with those who had no hoof in the matter. But when she tried this, her passive aggressors simply shouted at her would-be-playmates, “Don't play with somepony like her!” And they treated them in the same manner that they did Twilight until they took the hint and turned a cold shoulder to the untouchable filly.

Twilight could not study that day because of the nagging feelling that something was terribly wrong. She was fairly certain that her maltreatment was not something that would simply disappear overnight. She made efforts to guess what they had against her that made them desire to treat her in such a manner; considering how she had treated them up until that point. For a while, she was at a loss. She had always treated her classmates with kindness and respect; for example, allowing them to borrow her pencils when they had forgotten to bring one. But then her conflict with Blueblood came to her mind. He was the only one whom she could guess had anything against her as of late. Was it possible that he could have made everyone act this way?

That was the best she could come up with. Her classmates must have been influenced by the colt and now they wanted her to stop doing well in school so that it did not look bad for them. She sighed. Giving in to Blueblood’s demands was not an option, but then, she could not simply let this go on. It was probable that they had not done their worst by staring at her angrily and refusing to play with her at recess. She brainstormed all that evening and when bedtime came, she believed that she had a plan.

The next day started out the same way. She walked into class the meet the stares that bored into her like a drill. Walking over to her seat and sitting down, she addressed all of them amidst the silence. “I made a guess as to why you all are doing what you’re doing now. I think that you're all angry at me because I’m getting better grades than you. Am I right?”

There was a pause. Nopony answered until Prince Blueblood finally said, “It is as I said, Sparkle: Your overachievement might hurt the feelings of your fellow classmates.”

Twilight sighed. “I thought so. Well, I just want to tell you all what I told Prince Blueblood the other day. I don’t think that you all should hate me for doing well. In fact, shouldn’t you want to try harder because of that? I want you to do better just like Miss Selene does. I believe that if we all work harder, we can bring up our grades, and then we can all be smarter and happier.”

More silence ensued. Twilight shifted uncomfortably after a moment. Their expression had not changed. Once again, Blueblood spoke for them. “We have already come to an agreement, Sparkle. We think that it would be easier if you just stopped working so hard so that Miss Selene will go easier on us.” His voice suddenly carried a touch of harshness. “It is because of you that we have to do what we’re doing already. You’re the only one whose making it hard and we don’t think that the many should suffer to cater to the few.”

Twilight said desperately, “But that’s not right! You should try your best if you-”

“Enough!” Blueblood interrupted. “We have made our decision, and if you don’t do what we want, we’ll just have to make you.” At that moment, Miss Selene walked in, and the students put on a façade for her.

As class went on, Twilight considered bringing this up to the teacher when she had the chance, but how she would prove what they said, she didn’t know. She also feared that they would retaliate in worse ways than she could deal with if she “ratted them out,” as it was called. That was out of the question. Thus she resorted to another course of action: wait it out. She hoped that they would give up soon. Nopony tries the same method repeatedly and expects to receive a different result, right? If they saw that she was unresponsive to their tactics, then eventually, they would give up, right?

The days wore on and still there was no change. Each day she dealt with the same antagonism in class and each evening she tried to come up with a solution to no avail. The next test came up and the worry of her classmates hating her even more added to her usual stress, though she remembered her goal and studied as hard as she could. When Twilight again received a perfect score, everypony looked very vexed, but Blueblood in particular was furious, all to the ignorance of the teacher.

At recess that day, another filly who sat near her in class approached her. It was Dissonance, the first that Blueblood had conspired with against her. Since everyone had effectively stopped associating with her, she had brought one of her books and was reading from it. “Hey,” she said unkindly. “What are you reading?”

Twilight looked up, having just noticed them, and said, “Oh, actually it’s-”

Dissonance raised a hoof and swatted the book to the ground. Looking at the title, she read, “‘Obscure Unicorn Magic’? Since when do we have to read that for class?”

Twilight was disturbed by the act, but answered, “Well, I just thought I’d read this for fun, you know? This has some really cool stuff in it.”

Dissonance looked at her with a strange expression, but then she began to laugh. She fell over onto her side and held her stomach as she, for no reason conceivable to Twilight, hysterically enjoyed herself. Everyone on the playground looked at her strangely until in between breaths, she said, “Hey everypony, big surprise, but Twilight’s an egghead.”

Hearing this, suddenly, everypony in the vicinity burst into mocking laughter along with Dissonance. Then after a moment, Dissonance, who was recovering quickest from her bout, started chanting rhythmically, “Twilight’s an egghead. Twilight’s an egghead.” After a few seconds, the whole playground caught on and began chanting with her.

The chorus went on for far longer than it should have. For minutes, they mocked her. It didn’t take long for Twilight to be affected. Very soon, she curled up into a ball and just decided to wait out the ordeal. She just lay there in shame and humiliation for Celestia knows how long. The rhythmic chant pounded against her soul and made her feel horrible for some inexplicable reason.

It occurred to her that she didn’t even know what an “egghead” was. Logically, she thought that she shouldn’t be bothered by what she was experiencing at all, but after moment of introspection, she knew why she felt so humiliated. It wasn’t the name at all that bothered her. The way her classmates were acting specifically told her that there was something with her that they disapproved of. Something about her reading that book was abnormal and wrong, and they found it was good to punish her accordingly. Eventually, they grew disinterested in torturing the poor filly and resumed playing; leaving Twilight to sulk. Recess ended soon later, and everypony went inside.

When she asked her parents what the word “egghead” meant, they did answer her. Apparently it was a slanderous term for one who read more than others. From her point of view, Twilight didn’t see how that could be something someone would want to make fun of, yet her classmates seemed to find it hilarious. So, as far as she was concerned, that was all that mattered. Yet of course her parents did pry her for information, and Twilight was compelled to tell the about what had happened; however Twilight foresaw this and asked them not to tell anypony. Instead she asked them to give her advice on what to do. When she explained to them her reasons, they agreed to remain silent for the time and gave her a long talk about bullying, but in the end, it amounted to a dose of fluff and the phrase “sticks and stones.”

Once again Twilight lay sprawled out on her bed; pondering how she would deal with this like she always did. She was coping emotionally with what she had suffered, but at the same time, she knew she had to distance herself from the situation if she was going to decide on the proper course of action. She didn’t have much experience with these things, but at this point she thought she had read enough about them to see how they would go along.

In the end, she knew what it would all come down to: Was she resilient enough to brave the challenge of enduring disdain or would she give into the pressure? To answer this question, she weighed the pros and cons. On the one hoof, if she remained assiduous, she would set herself on the right path. She would now surely pass Magic Kindergarten with flying colors. In doing this, she would be one step closer to the prize: a place in the palace of Princess Celestia. She spent a few moments imaging what that would be like and how awesome it would be. If she passed Magic Kindergarten, all she would have to do would be to pass the other seven grades of schooling and she could be apply for a position at the University of Canterlot. If she showed promise there, then she be recommended by one of the high mages. Only then would her dream be recognized. She was confident that she could attain this goal if she tried. The means were clear and there was no chance of error. The prize was right in front of her. All she had to do was reach out and grab it.

But on the other hoof, there was something that was stopping her. The prize was pleasing, but in order to reach it, she would have to forsake any chance of friendship. The problem was she desired socialization. Although Twilight had been driven by what she had seen at the Summer-Sun Celebration, she, like every other filly, wanted to make friends. Now all of her friends had either moved out of town by now or were in her class. Thus at the present point in time, she was officially friendless. It was a problem that was causing her more and more stress as she dwelt on it. Her mother and father did provide some company, but as for ponies her age, she was very lonely now. Unfortunately, the only way that she could gain more friends would be to forsake her dream. Either way, she was going to have to sacrifice something. What she sacrificed would come down to which of the two she valued the least.

Twilight rolled around in her bed; the shadows of her dream and her desires flowing in her mind. Both had allure so she desired to have the best of both worlds. The possible worlds she foresaw clashed with one another within her and the agony of the schismatic dilemma drained her quickly. As time passed, she found herself becoming drowsy. Although she did not have an answer, sleep was taking hold of her and she did not know how much longer she could resist its embrace. Finally, she gave up the conscious quest that night and conceded; falling into the hallways of her soul.

Twilight’s dreams were more vivid than ever before. She arose from the blackness between the realm of what they call reality and the realm of dreams. She was sitting in a wide open prairie at midday. She looked above and saw the boundless blue sky with white clouds drifting overhead. All was quiet and peaceful. There was no sign of wild life around. The warmth of the sun was beating down on her coat and every so often a refreshing breeze would pass by. In front of her, she saw a road paved with bricks that led off into the horizon. Seeking to see where it led, she walked down the road for a good while.

As she walked down the path, she realized that she was becoming thirsty, so she looked around for something to drink. As if to answer her need, necessity had left a small oasis of water to the left of her path. Gratefully, she went over to the oasis and drank. The water was cool and refreshing and seemed to have a sweet taste to it. So she was very glad that she had filled her stomach with the water and quenched her thirst.

She continued walking down the road, and not long after she had found the oasis, she realized that she had become quite hungry. So once more, she looked around, and once again, necessity had placed a feast of wheat and oats on the right side of the road. Being grateful once again, she went over to the food and ate her fill; becoming glad for a short while because she had satiated her hunger. But as she was beginning to finish, she noticed that she was suddenly becoming thirsty again. So she walked down the path until she found another oasis and drank from it and quenched her thirst. But once more, as she was completing the task, she suddenly became very hungry again. This cycle of hunger and thirst continued on for a long while.

Eventually, she came to a fork in her way. The road split into two pathways separated ninety degrees apart from one another. For a moment, she forgot about fulfilling her bodily desires and examined the ways before her. On her left she saw a street made of golden bricks which shone in the radiance of the sun. The road was straight and wide and was very neatly built. Not a single brick was out of place for as far as her eyes could see. Though as she looked further off, she noticed that she could not see where it led, because it trailed off beyond the horizon.

Then she looked to the path on the right. The right path was a dirt walkway that led into a large forest. As she looked into the forest, she saw that it was very dark and daunting. It was also full of thorns and housed dangerous creatures. But as her examining gaze continued onward, she looked up and saw where the pathway led at the far edge of the forest.

At the end of the forest was a huge mountain that towered up into the heavens. She saw that its height was so great that its peak pierced the clouds. However it would not be difficult to climb because there was a pony-made stairway which led up it. She could not see its summit, but as she looked upwards, she had to look down immediately. A glorious light shone through the clouds that surpassed the brilliance of the sun even though time had remained constant at midday. The star was directly overhead, but this light was much brighter so that she was blinded for a few seconds.

Witnessing this, she desired greatly to see what was at the peak of the mountain that gave off such splendor even though it was blocked by the thick clouds. But she looked once more at the forest and saw its deterring nature. Then she gazed at the path on the left again and saw the ease with which she could traverse it. Not knowing which path to take, she was at a loss. So she called upon her advisors, the manifestations of all the knowledge that she had gained by reading some of the many books in the library of Canterlot.

They heeded her summons and each came to her. Then she asked them, “Which way should I go?”

Platony answered with soundless words and Miss Sandy acted as his mouthpiece. “We cannot tell you which pathway you should take, but we can tell you what you will find at their ends; for your soul already holds the knowledge of the paths’ ends. You simply have not brought it to mind.”

This was not what Twilight had hoped for, but she took what she had. She asked Platony, “Okay, well, what is at the ends of the paths?"

Star-Swirl the Bearded stepped out and answered her; his words too being voiced by her interpreter. “The experiences you have had in this dream are symbols. They are the manifestations that your mind has created to visualize the dilemma before you. Your hunger and thirst are symbolic of your desires. Your hunger is your desire for success, your nature’s need to pursue your dream. Your thirst, in contrast, is symbolic of your desire to make and maintain friendships. As you have seen and experienced, satisfying one flares up the other. You cannot satisfy both. The only option left then is to forsake one and satisfy the other.

“In the same way, the paths before you are symbols. As you found food on your right, so the right-hoof path symbolizes your decision to forsake hope of friendship and pursue your dream. It displays the hardships you will endure along the way. One the other hoof, the pathway on your left, the same side as you found water on, symbolizes your decision to forsake your dream and pursue friendship. It shows the ease by which you may travel down it.

“If you choose the left-hoof path, forsaking your resolution to do your best and deliberately alter your performance for the worse, you just may gain some friends. Possibly, you could gain the favor of all of your classmates. They could welcome you as a friend and play with you every day as you desire. You may be still able to pass Magic Kindergarten and move into the grades. You might pass through the grades as an average student; performing in the same average manner as before. Your work will have been sufficient and you will maybe become a mage. Then, securing a position where you are able to sustain yourself, you will settle down and make many friends and live life in contentedness.”

This idea was bittersweet to Twilight. The idea of this sort of life sounded easy. She would barely have to work to attain it. She could live easy and grow old and enjoy her life. It was comforting that she had this option. Yet at the same time, there was something that made her insides churn in disgust. She knew choosing this option would mean that she would only get by in life. She would be an average unicorn with maybe a little more than average job. She would have done the minimum to exist; completing only what was necessary. This sounded not so bad at first glance, but soon she realized that the idea was horrible. Just moving on through life, doing the least possible that was required of her, was purposeless. It would mean that her life would have no meaning to it.

As she was thinking about this, two ponies, more recent additions to her circle of teachers and contemporaries in their day, stepped forward. They continued where Star Swirl had left off through Miss Sandy. “But should you choose the right-hoof path, you will suffer many great trials. You will be tested time and time again and your hardship will seem endless. But if you persevere down the right-hoof path, you will take great joy in these hardships, because you will know that they will make you mature and wise. We tell you, if you press on towards the goal to win the prize, you will not fail.”

They gestured towards the mountain. “You have seen splendor of the prize at the top of the mountain. You saw that it is so bright that you cannot gaze upon it even though the clouds dim its brightness. The bright light is also a symbol, but its meaning is twofold. In one respect, the brilliant prize at the mountain’s peak represents the splendor of the rewards that you will earn should you brave the challenges and sufferings of the woods. The joy that you will receive from taking hold of it will surmount any pain you suffer more than one hundred times over.”

They waved their hooves in the air and Twilight was brought into a different dream. She looked around and saw that she was facing the wall of the cave of ignorance. She turned her head and she could see the same bright light in her peripheral vision. The teachers went on. “But the dimmed light also symbolizes the fire inside the cave, which is a symbol in itself. As we have said, the fire is key to finding your way out of the cave. If you wrestle with all your might against the chains which bind you, your attempts will not be in vain. As we said, ‘We are here to help you break of the chains.’ Though our help has not yet ended, it is nearly so. We have been hacking at the chains for the longest while, and with time, they will break. You will break free and will, after a while, be able to gaze upon the flame.”

This possibility sent a chill down Twilight’s spine. It was a good feeling, the kind that one had whenever they saw or heard something amazing. Then she asked them, “What will happen then?”

Miss Sandy answered Twilight’s question herself this time. “I cannot describe to you, with words you are familiar with, what lies beyond becoming used to the fire in the cave, but to give it a try, you will be able to leave the cave and gaze at what is on the outside. On the outside is the world of truth, where you do not gaze upon shadows, but where everything that is real is clear to you.” The thought of this amazed Twilight and gave her another chill. Hearing this, she awoke. It was now morning and she was no longer at a loss for what to do.

Once more, Twilight entered into the hostile zone, the classroom full of her antagonists. And once more, she declared that she was not going to give into their maltreatment. So she earned another derogatory title and another session of laughter directed at her. But she remained firm. Over the next days, she fixed her sights on the prize and the prize only; not losing her focus or letting her gaze waver to the left or right. Like the wounded warrior, she endured the hardship of the constant loneliness and aggression that was impressed upon her.

Every day, she went to school and ignored everypony. Although the base cuts and remarks hurt her, and burned deeply, she remembered the words of her teachers. After she exited class, she went straight to the library and filled her soul’s stomach with the solid food of knowledge. But as was bound to happen, after a while, loneliness started to take its toll. Ignoring the pain of humiliation was one thing, but coping with her thirst for friendship was another. Several times, she tried to befriend those who were not against her, but as before, no pony would associate with her for fear of alienating themselves from their other classmates.

The school year’s end was now in sight, and all of the students including Twilight in her class knew it. Still, the gifted unicorn had earned a perfect score on every test, and the whole class knew this too. It seemed that she was immovable, that she had held fast against them. Despite her classmates’ best attempts to persuade her to throw a test, she had not changed. So one day, the colt sitting to her left said to her, “I give up. Let’s be friends.”

Twilight was not sure what he meant. “What?” she asked.

“Let’s be friends.” He repeated himself. “I don’t want to keep being mean to you if you’re not going to do anything about it.”

At first, she thought he was teasing her, but when recess came, he offered to play the make-believe game with her. Seeing this, many of his classmates ordered him to stop, but he would not listen. “I’m going to play with her whether you like it or not.” He said. He was true to his word. Twilight, though puzzled at the foal’s change of heart, spent the early afternoon with him and made a friend. After school, he wanted her to come over to his house and play. Despite her desire to continue studying, she wanted to socialize more; having been thirsty for so long for it. So she asked her mother if she could go to his house. Her mother was delighted that Twilight had made a friend and let her go over.

This seemed to be a turning point for the filly. She might just be able to have her cake and eat it too. The colt seemed to be genuinely interested in being her friend, though she did not know why. It also surprised her that he was not averted when she talked about what she was reading in a book every now in then. It appeared to her that with this one friend, she might just be able to triumph over Magic Kindergarten and the following grades, while still satisfying her need for friendship.

She could not believe the luck of her situation. Not only did he desire to socialize with her, but now he also dealt with the same taunts and underwent the same antagonism from all their classmates as she did, all for her sake. It did not seem reasonable that he wanted to be friends with her when he lost an entire body of friends in the process. Perhaps, she thought, this meant that she was one step closer to the prize. Perhaps this colt was fate’s way of showing her that she could reach her dream.

The day of the penultimate test came, after this one, she would have only one more test in two weeks’ time and she would pass magic kindergarten. This time, she finally had learned to not stress over the tests so much. She still took extreme care with ever little detail, but she did not worry about the result; for she knew her effort would be sufficient. Again her pencil touched the paper that would decide her fate and she wrote upon it the words that would pave the way to her success.

In the same way that she always did, she drew the words with the skill of a calligrapher. Her muzzle-writing was as slow as it could be and with all deliberation. Twilight was completely focused on the absolute perfection of words that she saw within her mind which she would replicate and transform into tangibility.

A “Psst” from her left broke her concentration for a moment. She ignored the annoying noise, but then moments later, she heard the sound again. So she looked to her left to see what the disturbance was. Her friend was motioning to his test and trying to direct her attention to it. At first she made a gesture with which she tried to convey that she was working at the moment, but he seemed to think that the matter was urgent. So, she leaned over and looked at his test.

At the bottom of the page were written the words. “I’m so happy we’re friends, Twilight. I want to be your friend more than anything else.” The message immediately captivated her. All this time she had contemplated the idea that they were friends. She knew they were friends, but to see it in writing was something else. For her, words, especially written words, gave meaning to things. They gave form and solidity to what was previously just an idea.

It seemed to her that this message was now a complete recognition that she had achieved an impossible benefit. She no longer could, but instead would have both her dream and friendship. These words brought everything all together. She read each of the words again, contemplating their meaning and recalling the individual definition of each one. This for Twilight, was a peak moment, an actualization of her impending victory.

The colt, whose name was Tricky Framer, raised his hoof. “Miss Selene.” He said. “Twilight’s looking at my paper.” With this, immediately and as quickly as he could, he erased the message; leaving only the sentence that he had written as part of the test.

The teacher looked up and saw Twilight leaning over and staring at Tricky’s paper. “Twilight Sparkle!” She said in surprise. “Are you cheating?”

Twilight’s mind suddenly was not functioning properly. Her brain was trying desperately to process what was happening but it was failing. She responded in the negative, but could do nothing other than that. Miss Selene went over to look at Tricky’s test and saw only one of the Cardinal Laws of Magic written on it. He had written the message for Twilight only lightly and it was now well erased. Twilight, unfortunately, seemed to have the same amount of progress, though her words were more finely written. Miss Selene was quite convinced, based upon what she saw, that Twilight was cheating, and Twilight was too mentally destroyed to give a proper defense. Being accused of cheating was bad enough, but the implications of Tricky Framer’s actions were debilitating.

To the lavender filly, the words that came out of Miss Selene's mouth were like the sound of nails scraping upon a chalkboard. “Well, Twilight, I know that this is your first offense, but we can’t tolerate cheating. I’m afraid you’re going to get a zero on this test.”

The world around Twilight suddenly became surreal. Time had stopped and the room started to spin all of a sudden. Twilight felt very weak and queasy as she heard the words which had before only occurred in her darkest nightmares. Except this was not a nightmare. Those evil, black dreams of immense tragedy had become reality. The intensity of the situation was far too much for Twilight, and she fainted.

Comments

[Black]

THAT MOTHER FUCKER!!

[aquilerafroot]

One zero doesn't do anything to the average score; I know it, and know it well

[Ponysopher]

528389
It's not about the overall score. There are numerous problems that are devastating for Twilight. First off, she has lost perfection. Perfection was not just her goal but her standard. She tried so hard and gave up so much of her time all in the pursuit of this one goal, but that was taken away from her by this.
Secondly, she lost that perfect score because she was betrayed by the only person who she thought would be friendly towards her. I guess I didn't take a lot of time to build it up, but the acquisition of as few as one friend, was extremely important for Twilight. I'm going to go into greater detail in the next chapter on how Twilight was effected by this, but that's a basic overview. To put it simply, this incident may only have little consequence academically speaking for Twilight, but in regard to her motivational and psychological state, this was a crippling blow.

[Kitsu da fierce]

They continued where Star Squirrel had left off through Miss Sandy.

Star Squirrel? Best typo ever