A Star Pony Tale

by BlondeSky

School?

Chapter 4

School?

She followed the crowd that looked to be her own age as they burst through the door. They walked through the hallways as she followed behind them and finally entered one of the many doorways lining the walls. As they walked in they each walked dutifully up to a desk, sat down there, and moved their things from the saddlebags into the desk. Then they just started to talk and horse around with the ponies near them. Rather unsure of what to do Polaris simply found an empty desk and sat there hoping to be like the rest around her. The joking around and conversation confused her however as she looked at the other foals in the room. "Hey! What's your name!? You weren't here last week!" the filly next to her exclaimed catching her attention.

She looked the excitedly grinning filly over as she attempted to figure out how to respond. The filly was a unicorn and a light green color that was just a little too bright to be called mint. She had a long and straight orange mane that fell over one side of her face and the rest fell over the opposite side of her neck. Her tail was the same color and style and fell from her chair where the end rested on the floor. Her violet eyes glowed with energy, joy, and curiosity as she leaned towards Polaris in excitement. Her bright grin was completely ecstatic.

Think, think, think, Polaris told herself, I can't say my real name, that's a star pony name. "Astro." she blurted as the first thing that came to mind. She scolded herself silently as it still held relations to her origins.

"Really? Cool! My name's Kara! You wanna be friends!?" the unicorn filly, apparently named Kara, responded.

"Friends?" she asked astonished, "But I do not even know you, and you do not know me."

Kara looked at her in confusion due to how she had phrased her reply, but quickly shook it off to answer, "Well why not? We can be friends and then I can know you and you can know me! It'll be fun! It's always the best to be friends with somepony you sit next to because then you can talk all day! But you have to be quiet 'cause you can't get by Ms. Rule though. Nopony can talk when she's talking."

Quiet seems to be the last thing on this filly's mind, Polaris thought worriedly, I didn't want to form any relationships, but maybe if I say yes she will talk to another pony. "I suppose that would be alright with me."

"Man, you really talk like an adult. Are you like trying to be like one, 'cause I don't think it'd be all that fun to be an adult. I mean you'd have to go to work and get up early and stuff. The only cool thing about being grown up is having a cutie mark." she told her.

"I think it would be interesting to be an adult, so I thought that I would try and imitate their speech." she answered trying to make up an excuse for her speech pattern which she considered to be perfectly normal.

"Whatever you think." she dismissed with a shrug. She opened her mouth to speak again, but was cut off before she had the chance.

"Now kids! It's time for class to start!" came the voice of a mare from the front of the class. Looking forward Polaris saw a light blue earth pony mare at the front of the room. She wore a kind smile and her red mane framed her face well and looked similar to her tail. Her dark pink eyes held a sort of kindness to them as well. All of the foals in the room quieted down and turned their attention to her as she stopped speaking. "I'm still getting to know you all since it's only the second week of school, so please forgive me if I mix up any names. Now, it's time for roll call." she finished as she sat down at her desk at the front of the room.

"Oh! Oh! Ms. Rule!" Kara called out.

"Yes, Kara I believe." she responded still wearing her smile.

"Yeah! There's a new student today!" she replied excitedly. Polaris pulled back as she realized who she was referring to.

"There is?" the mare asked looking confused.

"Uh-huh! This is Astro and she just started here today!" she proclaimed proudly gesturing to the pegasus sitting next to her. Polaris shrank away even further as this happened. Things were not going according to plan.

"Oh. Hello there. I'm sorry, nopony told me I was going to be having a new student in my class today. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" she asked politely after recovering from her surprise.

No, she thought, but decided against declining. "H-hello, m-my name is Astro." she stated quietly as she blushed.

"If you could please give me your last name as well so that I can put you on the roll list?" the mare reassuringly requested sensing the filly's apprehension.

Another name, she thought confused, just spit out a word, come on! "Color." she blurted out as it was the first word that came to mind looking around the colorful room.

"Well welcome to the class Astro. Now, roll call." she finished turning back to the paper on her desk.

She started calling names off of a paper and each student would respond as both of their names were called. The light green unicorn jumped up and proclaimed that she was present as the name Kara Tay was called off of the list. That was the only name she heard since she was devoting the majority of her attention to finding a way out of her current predicament. Still, she felt that just leaving was the most conspicuous thing that she could do at that point. She hoped to just keep her head down and out of the way so that she wouldn't get any more eyes in her direction.

The class continued on after that with simple mental exercises that Astro couldn't say caused her much thought. She felt a little panic as she realized that she didn't have any of the supplies, but Kara was more than willing to share with her. All of it seemed mundane after that as Ms. Rule was explaining things up by the board at the front of the room. The other foals however seemed to be having a much less easy time of it. They weren't struggling, but they had to think about it at the least. She attempted to look more absorbed in her task and mimic the ponies around her. She also did her best to listen to the ponies as they talked so that she could develop a speech pattern similar to their own. It wasn't long before she started to figure out how her own speaking was considered different. They didn't annunciate all of their words nearly as much as she did, they had a much less serious tone of voice, and used words with less serious connotations. She was a fast learner and recorded all of these discoveries in the back of her mind as she continued to listen carefully to each word that was said so that she would be ready if she had to speak again.

The time came as Kara once again started conversation. "Wow! You're really smart!" she exclaimed looking over at Polaris's finished paper and her own half-finished one, "And you're hoofwriting's awesome! Where'd you learn to write like that?" she asked entranced.

"At home." she supplied trying to avoid talking too much, or mentioning details she'd regret.

"You gotta teach me to write like that some day! Maybe that's what you'll get your cutie mark for! Writing! That would be cool I guess, but I wanna do something with a little more energy to it!" she replied.

Anything involving energy you would be great at, Polaris thought, but not in a spiteful way as she stowed cutie mark away in a list of words she needed to find the definition to. "I'm fine with something a little less loud." she told her simply.

The filly shrugged and again said, "Whatever you think."

"I do like writing though." she offered trying to engage properly in conversation to observe more of this culture.

"I don't really know what I wanna do yet. My parents say I'm pretty agile so I was thinking I might be able to do something with that. It's cool that you already know what you wanna do though. You might be the first pony to get their cutie mark! That would be amazing! I mean I suppose you're really good about making the letters look pretty, and that's different from actually writing stuff." she told her trailing off into thought at the end. She gasped as an idea came to her, "Maybe you could be an artist!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Aren't we supposed to not let Ms. Rule hear us?" Polaris asked worriedly.

"Oh… right." she apologized significantly lowering her volume, "I forgot." she mumbled looking slightly ashamed.

"It's fine." she reassured her, rather upset by the look on the filly's face.

"I know. I get a little too loud sometimes, sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"Thanks." Kara finished with a genuine smile. Polaris returned the favor a little less sure, but happy all the same.

Author's Note:

Chapter 4 is out! Well... it's out a day late. Sorry, I was pretty busy and didn't get a chance to sit down at my computer. I tried to make this one longer and more eventful and I hope I delivered!

^_^ Thanks, BlondeSky