School Day
~Pure Rain~
“Mother would be stunned if she saw you now,” Rain commented as she and Silver worked in the kitchen assembling lunches, her nephew perched on the step stool that had become something of a permanent fixture in the room, his horn glowing. “Stunned, but also pleased.”
Turnip and carrots, hay rolls, peanut butter cookies and some of her infused water. Mint and peaches, in this case. Proud was attempting to learn her trick. So far he had only managed to puree the mango he was using. Silver had taken pleasure at laughing at him, but she had decided against calling him out on his actions, mostly because Proud had been teasing him for an hour about the ball that had launched into the bookshelf when Silver tried to use the colour change spell from his book on it.
Admittedly, both mishaps were amusing, though Silver had muttered something that sounded like ‘launch item’ and ‘level 1’ under his breath and scribbled something on the edge of the parchment he had been using in the odd script she spotted he and the other two using now and again. It was another thing she decided not to press them on until they were more settled.
“Do you mean mom or gran?” Silver asked, carefully setting the knife he was using to slice turnips down on the counter, releasing his magic from it with a slight sigh, rubbing his horn slightly.
“Gran,” Rain acknowledged. She paused before adding, “both, actually.”
After what happened the day before with his mishap with the spell, she had been somewhat uneasy when he offered to help with preparing their lunch, but he defended himself that the ball accident was because of the flaw in the colour change spell’s casting, nothing to do with his levitation. She still kept an eye on him in case of accidents. While her focus was on Earth Pony Magic, her courses had touched on all the tribes, even an anecdote on the rare nocturne pegasi magic. Unicorn foals were the most volatile and could have magic flares long after their early years. Memories of a mature ‘human’ or not, his magic was still prepubescent and held a possibility of flaring once more before it matured fully, particularly when one considered his new-found interest in learning magic.
“So… why, Aunt Rain?” Silver prompted.
“You might not realize it, but you are somewhat ahead of your peers with your… finesse,” Rain said, choosing her words carefully.
“I am?” Silver asked, a half smile on his face.
“You are. Within the average for a colt at your development level in terms of power, but your skill and control when it comes to telekinesis is remarkable,” Rain confirmed. She watched him swell with pride a bit, before distracting himself by dividing the chopped vegetables between the four lunch sacs. “I suppose that is where your newfound maturity is taking effect in your magic. Proud is proving to comprehend the principles behind Internal Mana Flow much more than I expected him to as well.”
“You taught Proud about Mana Flows?” Silver groaned. “I really don’t want to miss the next time you take him out for a lesson,” he muttered before picking up the two of the small lunch sacs in his mouth and hopping off his stool, pausing only to push it back into its corner. Rain picked up the remaining two and followed him to the dining room where four sets of saddle bags waited, the clasp of the green one recently exchanged for a gold and platinum shield that matched their owner’s new cutie mark.
“Speaking of your brother,” Rain commented, glancing at the clock ticking away. “Where are Flare and Proud?”
“I have first go at the bathroom,” Silver grinned as he checked his saddlebags, dropping his lunch in to sit beside his pencils and books. He snickered slightly. “Flare rolled for second slot, so Proud has to go last.”
“And Flare takes forever to get ready,” Proud added as he sulked down the stairs into the room. Flare glided over his head, having leapt off the stairs to get some air.
“Hey, wing care is very important,” Flare defended himself. Rain did have to admit his feathers looked clean and glossy.
“No jumping off the staircase, Flare,” Rain scolded. Flare grinned shyly and landed with a clop of hooves, folding his wings. Rain nodded at him before adding a thick stack of cards to Proud’s bag, bound with twine. “These are the invitations to your Mark-Mitzvah, Proud. Feel free to hand them out to some of your classmates today. ”
“Thanks, Aunty,” Proud said happily, skipping over to his bags and rifling through them for a few moments.
Rain noticed Silver waving a hoof at Flare where Proud couldn’t see. “Doesn’t care,” he said softly. It most have been an inside joke, for Flare snickered slightly before getting his own saddle bags and starting to strap them on.
“Are you sure the three of you will be fine getting to school on your own?” Rain asked again, not for the first time that morning.
“Yes, we will, Auntie,” Silver insisted, nuzzling her foreleg. “Even if we weren’t older than we looked, Dinky, Rumble, Button and the rest said they were coming to take us with them. They should be showing up right about now.” He waved a hoof at the door and waited.
“Silver?” Rain asked as he held his posse motionlessly for a few seconds well.
“My timing is off…” Silver muttered. Proud snickered.
“You don’t have to worry about us,” Flare said, trying to sound reassuring. “It’s just school. We did before.”
“Very well.” Rain idly wondered if he was referring to their time in the Vanhoover school, or another reference to something from their ‘human’ memories. Somepony’s knock on the door prematurely ended her considerations and a set of familiar voices called out.
“So close,” Silver muttered.
Proud ran to the door and enthusiastically greeted the four foals there. Dinky, Rumble, Button and Liza this time. All four had broad grins for them. “Morning, Miss Pure Rain! We came to take your nephews to school.”
Rain inclined her head in acknowledgement. She supposed her worries really were unfounded. Inwardly, she shied away from the idea of becoming a doting parental figure. “Have a good day at school. And do well on your tests.”
Proud stumbled midstep. “Tests?”
----------
“How did you forget about the tests?” Silver asked with disbelief.
“Yeah, how did you?” Flare asked from the other side as Proud trudged on, looking slightly dejected.
“What tests?” Liza asked. “We don’t have any tests today.”
“You don’t,” Flare said, nudging Silver.
Silver groaned, giving Flare a half hidden stink eye. “The school system in Vanhoover is different from the one in Ponyville. We’re supposed to do an equivalency test so Miss Cheerilee can place our levels. Apparently Proud forgot to reread his notes last night. And his memory is horrible.”
“For everything except games,” Flare added.
“Hey!” Proud protested.
“So he’s like Button, then,” Dinky giggled.
“Hey!” the second colt in question complained. Proud slipped out from between his brothers of blood to stand beside his brother in gaming, adopting a haughty look as he surveyed the others.
“Let them throw their barbs,” Proud said. “You and I stand as the liberators of the Nazreen Empire. Their words, poisoned or not, shall fail to fell us!”
“Oh? Is this stance you choose to take, o brother of mine?” Silver said, matching Proud’s lofty tones.
“Um… what are they doing?” Liza asked, looking between the two foals who seemed to be play acting as Canterlot nobles or something.
“That it is, o brother of mine,” Proud replied loftily. “That it is.”
“It’s easier to just let them play it out,” Flare murmured back with a wing shrug.
“Then shall this one of poisoned words and silvered tongue test your resolve? Answer me this, proclaimed liberator; whence did the fair capitol of Canterlot become established?” Silver questioned.
“Er… why that must be year 2,” Proud said.
“No, that’s 5,” Dinky pointed out. “Year 2 was when they first started expanding the population of the original settlement. It didn’t become Canterlot until the castle’s construction began three years after that.”
“Waa?” Button asked.
“I like history and mom teaches me some,” Dinky giggled innocently.
“Shall we try another, Brave One?” Silver sneered with the arrogance of a true noble. “List for me the five most populous cities within our illustrious nation’s realm.”
“Foals play!” Proud declared, snobbing the question, sticking his muzzle in the air.
“In order,” Silver added with a sly grin. Proud faltered, but recovered his bearing with a posh clearing of his throat.
“Wow… they’re pretty good at this,” Rumble commented.
“They were both in our old school’s acting group,” Flare explained.
“Manehatten, Vanhoover, Baltimare, Cloudsdale, and Fillydelphia,” Proud listed, sounding faintly hopeful. Silver chuckled once. Twice. Three times. Proud swallowed. “Was I wrong?”
“O brother of mine; may Celestia have mercy on you,” Silver said soberly, resting a hoof on Proud’s shoulder gently. “For it hast become quite clear you will indeed need it.”
“Be that as it may,” Proud declared, shaking off the hoof to face the school house, which they had neared by this point, with fire burning in his eyes, “I… stand strong.”
Dinky, Liza and Rumble broke out into a mix of laughter and approving hoof stomps.
“Oh,you’re too kind,” Silver said, taking a bow.
“Thank you, thank you,” Proud said, blowing kisses.
Flare rolled his eyes and kept on walking past the two drama princes.
----------
Cheerilee had them wait outside while she went through the typical start of a school day preliminaries before she could work her way up to the introduction of new students. Until then, they got to cool their hooves in the hall beside the door.
“School again, puberty again,” Silver sighed. They were talking softly, enough that they could still keep an ear open for Cheerilee’s summons while also not being loud enough to disturb those inside. “And pony puberty seems to hit earlier…”
“So you are going through it!” Proud grinned, bumping Silver’s shoulder. “Got your eyes on a special somepony already?”
“Proud… you take this far too lightly at times,” Silver said, using his hoof to push Proud away.
“At least he doesn’t hide in the library all the time,” Flare chimed in cheerfully.
“I was doing research,” Silver grumbled. “At least there’s one bright side to this. We’re still colts. I mean guys. Seriously. Imagine if we woke up as fillies.”
Proud and Flare stared blankly at him. It took a while, but Flare finally broke the silence. “Is that what you spend your time thinking about?”
“Not only that. I’ve also been trying to figure out if they have herding here like some people said.” Silver rolled his eyes at the expressions on his brother’s faces. “Again with those looks. We’re kids. It’s not like anypony would have really explained it to us yet. And who’s to say people we call aunt and uncle aren’t really other adults in a herd?”
“Silver…. Why?” Flare said, his wings twitching.
“If they do have herds… I’d be willing to try it,” Proud said suddenly.
“… Que?” Silver managed.
“So, do you think this placement tests will be hard?” Flare asked quickly, desperately switching the topic.
“Well, if you had looked over your notes it won’t be any issue at all,” Silver shrugged, going along with the change in topic because that really wasn’t something he wanted to address at the moment. Or anytime soon, to be honest.
“I just forgot, okay!” Proud grumbled.
“Didn’t you see me reading mine for like two hours last night?” Silver asked.
“Silver? Reading a book? That never happens! Never!” Proud said prodding Silver in the shoulder.
“He does have a point, this time,” Flare grinned.
“What do you mean this time?” Proud complained.
“You’re pretty much always reading something.” Flare continued as if Proud hadn’t spoken at all. He gave Silver a searching look. “Actually… did you return the library book you stole yet?”
“I’ll get around to it!” Silver said through gritted teeth, pressing a hoof over Flare’s mouth. “That’s far from the subject at hoof, after all.”
“What are we talking about anyway?” Proud asked. “We switched topics about eight times…”
“Well, we-” Silver started.
“Boys!” Cheerilee’s sharp voice cut into their discussion, making them yelp. They looked up at their new teacher as she stood over them, a hoof tapping somewhat impatiently.
“Um… hi Miss Cheerilee. I guess you’re ready for us now?” Silver asked with a sheepish smile. “ Flare was stuck in a shocked state again, staring at her with wide eyes with his wings quivering and half extended.
“Hello! We're fine now. We're here. We're fine now... and here... now. We're fine. Uhh... How are you?” Proud asked awkwardly.
Miss Cheerilee sighed and settled for motioning towards the door beside her. “Let’s just get you inside so you can introduce yourself to everypony.”
----------
The fact that they were foals was constantly being reinforced with little reminds around them, their size, or rather their lack of size, being the most frequent one. The school room, on the other hand, was the most poignant one thus far. With the furniture sized for foals, Cheerilee seems somewhat larger than life as she stood in front of the class.
The room itself was quite obviously for teaching younger minds. Cubbies lined the lower levels in a few places, many packed with the belonging of the students in the room. The walls were hung with learning aides, from a simple anatomy chart to parts of speech, to a multiplication table and even a large map of Equestria. Writing guides were mounted above the board, and three large scroll charts were hanging from the ceiling, their cords hooked to the wall until there was need for them.
While Proud didn’t seem to care, Flare, and to a lesser extent Silver, both got a case of the nerves as most of the eyes in the room focused on them. It did help that a few of them were faces they had met before, including the ones who walked them to school that morning. What didn’t help were the faces they knew but never met.
Scootaloo was sitting in the second row from the back, near the window facing the fields outside town. Apple Bloom was on the other side of the room, Sweetie Belle was towards the middle. The Crusaders, pre-crusade. Even in his nervous state Silver started coming up with ideas as to why they were sitting where they were. Flare shivered and tried to stay behind his bothers as the other pair of the faces they knew glared appraisingly at them.
The two fillies with the bad reputation, even so that Button and Rumble had given warning about the pair, were sitting together near Apple Bloom. Diamond Tiara’s expression was thoughtful, though her eyes were narrowed as they watched them. Silver Spoon’s expression was more neutral over all, but something about it made Proud’s step falter. All in all, a very concerning moment.
“Okay everypony,” their new teacher said pleasantly. “These are the new students I was telling you about-”
“Hi Proud!” Button called out cheerfully and perhaps a bit cheekily, as he waved a hoof.
“Button Mash!” Miss Cheerilee scolded him firmly. His hoof quickly dropped, Rumble and the cold Green Daze, who they hadn’t seen since the welcome party, snickering behind him. “It’s very rude to interrupt somepony when they are talking.”
“Sorry Miss Cheerilee,” Button whimpered.
“As I was saying, they will be joining us for the rest of the school year,” Miss Cheerilee when on. “So, as usual, I’ll have them introduce themselves to the class.”
Silver and Flare froze up slightly, which gave Proud the opening to take the lead. “Hi, I’m Proud Defender. Me and my brothers are from Vanhoover and came to live in Ponyville with our aunt Rain. We live up the street from Dinky Doo and Button Mash! Oh! And I got my cutie mark fighting Timberwolves!”
The class simple exploded with noise and activity. The brother’s had to take a step back, ears splayed, from the intensity of it, not even able to pick out what was being yelled at them. Miss Cheerilee stomped her hoof a few times to regain order. “Children, that’s enough! If you have questions, raise your hoof to ask them.”
A dozen hooves shot into the air. Well, slightly less than a dozen. Miss Cheerilee looked around before pointing at Green Daze.
“How come you’re all different kinds of ponies?” Green Daze asked. It wasn’t surprising that he wouldn’t consider the implications of that kind of question.
“Well,” Miss Cheerilee looked a slight bit uncomfortable.
“We have a big family. A really big one, with aunts and uncles all over the place,” Silver responded. He grinned slightly. “None of our cousins have one of each kind as siblings though, so we’re special.”
“Snips?” Cheerilee called out, looking slightly relieved.
“What’s it like in Vanhoover? Is it cold? I bet it’s cold!” Snips said.
“Not as cold as Neighagra gets in winter,” Silver said thoughtfully. “We have a grand uncle in Whinneypeg. It get’s way colder up there. Way colder.”
“Uncle Sheer Feather says the weather ponies use the mountains and the sea to keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Makes it rain more, though,” Flare offered softly.
“Jus’ how big is your family?” Apple Bloom asked when Cheerilee pointed at her. “Is it as big as the Apple Clan?”
“No way!” Proud said, waving his hoof in denial. “But we have a lot of relatives in the North. Most of them. I think Aunt Rain lives the most south.”
“Why did you come to Ponyville anyway?” Diamond Tiara asked before being chosen.
“Mom and Dad travel a lot. We get to live with Aunt Rain this time,” Silver explained, narrowing his eyes slightly at her.
“We have time for one more question,” Cheerilee said. She looked around at the remaining hooves and pointed at Scootaloo, who was straining to get it as high as she could. “Yes, Scootaloo?”
“How’d you end up fighting Timberwolves!” she demanded.
“It was awesome!” Proud leapt at the chance to tell his cutie mark story again. Silver and Flare both sighed. Even the foals they already knew, who heard the story before, giggled. “After Nightmare Moon turned up, we when out to make sure our street and everypony on it were safe when they rang the alarm!”
“We snuck out and followed one of the militia ponies,” Silver explained before somepony’s tale could make the foal’s eyes glitter from the elaboration.
“That’s when we found a pack of timberwolves roaming the shadows, ready to eat ponies whole!”
“There were two of them,” Flare muttered.
“When ran to an alley and the pack of timberwolves cornered us!”
“Break Heavy, the militia pony, beat one so we got get away. The other one followed,” Silver said, rolling his eyes again.
“The managed to beat the militia pony and came to get us!”
“Okay, that part did happen,” Silver admitted.
“But I said no! They weren’t gonna get my brothers! So I lured them into a trap! And when they were in the right place, I brought down a huge pile of barrels on all of them, saving everypony!”
“Again; two of them. And it was a lucky kick. He didn’t know what he was doing,” Silver said, snorting.
“And that’s how you get an awesome cutie mark!” Proud declared. Silver grumbled as a couple of their new classmates cheered.
“Okay, everypony,” Cheerilee said with a chuckle. “That’s enough for now. Silver, Proud, Flare? You three can go and have a seat at the back. I’ll bring you your worksheets in a moment.” The three nodded and made their way to the bag of the room. There were twenty bench and desk seats in the room, though the back row was empty, as was the seat beside Green Daze. Of course, the number of free seats fell with the addition of three new students.
Silver did a quick head count. Eighteen foals, including himself and his brothers. Considering it was a mixed grade class, it wasn’t as much as he expected. Eyes were still on them as they passed, but the novelty soon faded in light of Cheerilee starting a math lesson. Math first thing in the morning. That was a special type of horror. Of course, the fairly thick bundles of pages Cheerilee brought them were of the same kind. School never changed.
----------
Language and Writing. Science and Magic. Social Studies. History. And of course; Math. Ponies spoke Equestrian, not English, even if some of the rules were similar or intuitive. Magic did weird things to the local brand of science. Pony Society was its own. History included an immortal being that raised and lowered the sun and moon. Math used a base four system.
In short; the three foals with the minds of university students found that for all their maturity and extra-dimensional knowledge, they didn’t have that much of an advantage over everpony else in their class on these tests based on fundamentals. Sure, if it was essays, logic and reasoning, they would shine, but it wasn’t, and they sprawled out dejectedly on one of the lunch tables in the school yard, having gotten out a few minutes before the rest of the class.
Most of them anyway. Silver managed to hold on to some of his haughtiness, even as he rubbed his forehead lightly. “I ‘wasted my time hiding in the library,’ you said. ‘Should have gotten out more,’ you said. Laughed at me for avoiding the fillies, you did. Accused me of stealing library books, you did.” Silver grinned at Proud and Flare. “Who’s laughing now?”
“Shut up, Silver,” Flare grumbled. “At least I know I did better than Proud.”
“Eyup,” Silver agreed.
“Wait, how do you know that? Were you reading off my sheet?” Proud demanded. He put his hooves up on the table and jabbed one at the two of them accusingly. “That’s cheating! I should report you to Miss Cheerilee!”
“Who needed to see your paper?” Silver grinned smugly, pulling out his lunch.
“We could see it in how flustered you were. How far did you make it anyway?” Flare asked. “I did up to some of the level 8 stuff.”
“Same,” Proud muttered, dropping his head back to the table. There were twelve levels. Generally, a pony would manage to pass them all by age 14 or 15. Before the human thing, Proud was at level 7. Flare should have been level 5. Silver was level 6 going 7. Was.
“Most of the level 10, a few here and there in level 11 and 12,” Silver said, nonchalant as he sipped on his drink while his brother’s looked on in shock. “Sweet Celestia, Auntie’s stuff is awesome.”
“H-how?” Proud stuttered. “How in… everything did you do that? I’m not even level 8, and I’m older than you!”
“I spent the last few days in the library reading on relevant things to see how accurate speculation was on stuff. I always learned pretty fast, faster than you did. And I did enough science, both physical, living and social, to make educated guesses on most questions,” Silver grinned with an ever so mischievous edge to it. “Even if they are wrong, I proved I understood the questions, which makes me look smarter. The math was tricky, but I did a weird external thinking thing to translate local math to human math. I told you I made a base-13 math for that puzzle in the Lore Walker’s game. Even if you all just took a hammer to it.”
Flare burst out laughing. “Okay, that was a pretty good idea. Did it work?”
“I think so,” Silver shrugged, pressing the cool bottle of infused water to his head. “We’ll see when Miss Cheerilee finishes marking them.”
“Killer headache?” Flare guessed, watching him with a wry grin.
“Like I got bucked in the face,” Silver grinned weakly. “Mixing Headspaces wasn’t meant to be sustained like that.”
“Serves you right,” Proud muttered, pulling out his own lunch. “You know you’re gonna get more work because of it, right?”
“We’ve been through university. I think I can handle a little extra school work,” Silver said, rolling his eyes. “It also means I get to learn the more interesting stuff faster.”
“You could have at least let us in on your idea,” Flare pointed out.
“Ah, don’t be bitter. Cheer up,” Silver teased. He shifted to a relaxed posture and softly, almost absently started singing. “Just because you didn’t note, the date of the test we just wrote. Don’t worry. Be happy.”
Flare raised an eyebrow at Silver as a few musical chords softly built in the air around them as the unicorn kept singing, rapping his hoof on the wooden table. “Though this challenge has some scope, I’m very certain I can cope. So don't worry. Be happy. Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh ooooo-NO!” Silver stomped his hoof on the table. “I refuse to break out into song again. Especially over something stupid like playing the school system.”
Proud let out the laugh he had been holding in. “Come on, bro. I wanted to hear you sing the whole thing!”
“No,” Silver repeated firmly. “And why do you want to hear a song about exploiting the school system?”
“I dunno. I just wanted to hear you sing,” Proud shrugged, biting into a hayroll. “What if you got your cutie mark from it?”
“… Singing?” Silver said, raising an eyebrow to express just how thrilled he was at that suggestion.
“Maybe in exploiting systems?” Flare suggested.
“I… can’t even begin to list what’s wrong with that,” Silver said, facehooving. “What would that look like anyway?”
“What would what look like?” a filly asked.
“A cutie mark in exploit-uy-uy-HI!” Silver said, his voice jumping up an octave as he whirled. Dinky was behind him, a curious look on her face. She had the regular group with her; Button, Rumble, Coronet and Liza, with four new ones; Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and a blue pegasus filly they didn’t recognize. Silver chuckled nervously. “Hu-hu-how long have you been here?”
“Just got here,” Dinky said happily, taking a seat behind Silver. The rest of the gaggle spread themselves out as best they could, pulling out their own lunches as they got settled. “We just got let out of class. How was the test?”
“Fine! Just fine!” Silver said, ducking his head.
“It was? So, do ya want a cutie mark in test taking?” Apple Bloom asked. “Oh, I’m Apple Bloom, jus’ so ya know.” She started everypony off, and they all introduced themselves. The filly they didn’t know turned out to be Farshot. Her father was one of the spotters in the milita and she was happy to meet more foals with family members in it. That done, they got back to the discussion.
“No, Flare was just saying I might get a cutie mark in exploiting rules,” Silver said weakly.
“Exploiting?” Liza asked. “What’s that?”
“Um…” Silver started.
“To make the best use of something,” Sweetie Belle defined. “What would a cutie mark like that look like?”
“Um… Apple Puree maybe?” Apple Bloom suggested.
“A game with 100% completion?” Button offered.
“A package delivered early?” Dinky put in.
“A cloud ring?” Rumble said after a moment.
“A polished crown?” Coronet asked. She ducked her head sheepishly when Liza and Dinky looked at her. That was her cutie mark. “Sorry.”
“Look, I don’t want one anyway!” Silver said, burying his head under his hooves. Proud and Flare snickered as everypony else gasped.
“Silver claims he’s in no rush to find his cutie mark,” Proud explained.
“Well why not?” Apple Bloom asked. “Getting your cutie mark would be the best thing ever.”
“I know!” Proud exclaimed, happy to find somepony else who though Silver was being crazy as well. “I don’t get him either. You even get a party when you find it!”
“I’ll get it when I get it,” Silver muttered.
“We could help you get it,” Proud offered. “I mean, we could all work together! I got mine helping you and Flare.”
“Look at all of you crowding the new kids!” someone cut in. Not surprising to the brothers, it was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
Dinky sighed. “What do you want, Diamond Tiara?”
“Nothing from you, Dinky Do,” Diamond Tiara said testily. She pointed a pink hoof at Proud, Silver and Flare. “Them. Just letting them know she need to watch who they hang out with.”
“Why?” Proud asked, though he sounded somewhat distracted and kept glancing at Silver Spoon. “Dinky’s our friend. And so are the rest. So what’s wrong with that?”
“My father is one of the more important ponies in town,” Diamond Tiara said loftily. “He once told me that your Aunt, Pure Rain, had a sister who acted in shows from Vanhoover.”
“Aunt Jasmine, yeah?” Silver smiled slowly. He could see where this was going. Flare might have shrunk some, but the roll of his eyes showed he did too.
“Even if you’re just her nephews, you’re related to someone famous. I would think that ponies like that would stick to certain others,” Diamond Tiara said, narrowing her eyes slightly.
“Oh, you expected us to want to get close to you since you’re rich?” Proud asked. “Don’t worry, we won’t try to use you or anything. That would be mean.”
“I… uh… what?” Diamond Tiara blinked, thrown off her game at the subversion.
“Don’t worry. We won’t. Oh! Right!” He fumbled in his saddle bags and pulled out the invitations, separating too and trotting over the Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. “Will ‘ou come to my Murk-mizz’ah?” he asked, the invitation in his mouth.
Diamond Tiara was still frazzled, so Silver Spoon took them. “Um, sure.” She quickly turned and nudged Diamond, brushing Proud accidentally as she did. “Come one, DT, we can figure this out later.”
Proud watched them leave, a wide grin on his face. He reared up and waved at them. “Okay! See you there, Silver Spoon!”
Behind him, at the table, Apple Bloom watched with confusion. “Did yer brother just confuse the biggest bullies in the school and invite them to a party?”
Flare nodded.
“Cool,” Scootaloo said. “Is that what having a cutie mark does to a pony?”
“I want mine!” Sweetie Belle said. “Then I can be confident and mature like my sister too!”
“Wait, I don’t think it works like that,” Silver said, trying to defuse their enthusiasm and failing as they ignored him.
“We can help each other out, like Proud and his brothers!” Scootaloo said.
“A secret society!” Sweetie Belle nodded. “We can all it… The Destiny Gainers!”
“We’ll call it something else,” Apple Bloom said, gagging at the name. She jumped up from the table. “Come on, let’s work this out!”
“Maybe after lunch,” Dinky said, looking down at her muffin.
“Your loss!” Scootaloo said as she and Sweetie Belle leap up to join Apple Bloom. Since Dinky was staying, Liza, Coronet and Farshot did as well. Proud was still watching the corner Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon vanished around when the three energetic fillies ran past him, knocking him over and still chattering.
“How about… Cutastically Fanstastic?” Sweetie Belle was saying.
“Ew! No!” Scootaloo said as they ran off. “Awesome Markers?”
Proud watched them with some confusion, picking himself up and heading back to the table as Sweetie Belle’s voice floating back, calling out something about ‘Flank Statement’. “What’s with them?”
“No clue,” Rumble said, eating his own sandwich. “They just got all excited about getting their cutie marks after you got rid of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.”
“It’s our fault,” Silver said, glaring at Proud. Flare was shaking his head slowly.
“Wha- oh. OH! Oh…” Proud realized. He grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry?”
“For what?” Coronet asked.
“For… um…” Proud fumbled.
“Party,” Silver suggested.
“Right! Not inviting you to my party first! I have enough invitations for everypony!” Proud said, pouncing on the distraction. And trying hard not to think about what causing the formation of the Cutie Mark Crusaders early would lead to.
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
1,004 users online
112,074 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
thehomeplanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/really.gif
Really. I hadn't noticed. The clashing, garish colors and ass-tacular background hadn't tipped me off.
Interested in seeing the test results. Are they over-confident in their abilities or are they justified in thinking they managed to pass to a higher level than their colt brains? Looking forward to it! :D
So they just doomed Equestria as a whole. This is going to be fun to read.
5432781 Well technically their very presence throws things out of whack. That's kind of the big problem with time travel, everything you know is now wrong since you aren't supposed to even be there.
A base four number system really makes sense; you can count on hooves:
One..... Two....... Three......Four *falls*
In all seriousness, though, way to avoid the whole "dazzling grade schoolers with calculus" cliche.
I also now realized that now, nobody other than your main characters can talk about "hundreds" or "thousands" anymore. Unless Equestrians have an odd fixation with the numbers 1210 and 33220.
5432718 5436009 The dazzling with calculus thing always bugged me. I tended to forget everything about calculus five minutes after I walked out of the class room. Right now, the best I can do without a textbook or reference is pretty much look at something and nod and say 'yep, that's calculus.'
As for the base-4, I've never been able to find any rational for them having a base-5/base-10 system in their culture. Base-4, base-3, maybe base-6 with the pegasi, but not base-5/10. The closest I could get was four hooves and a horn with unicorns, and that was a bit awkward to work with. As for 'hundreds' and 'thousands', it would be a translation thing. I would rather think Equestria's 'thousand years' works out roughly the same, which would just be math complications that make my head hurt from the spiral of societal and historical implication, so I smile and nod and say yes. They just have other important numbers between 4 and 1000.
As for the test results, they tried to do stuff over their level, Silver more than the rest for the reasons he listed. Next chapter will mention the test results (it's a bit of both). Even with their colt brains, they've got adult minds kicking. A lot of simple questions have simple answers if you reason them out, particularly since they do now enough to pass their level. The equivalency tests aren't that complicated. Just a long pop quiz to see if they are up to speed.
5432781 5433102 Causality is a bitch. What if Silver steps on a caterpillar that was supposed to turn into the butterfly that was supposed to audition to be Rainbow Dash's pet? Tank might have won the daring competition, altering RD's opinion of his to a more favourable one, would might lead to her not learning the valuable lesson of that episode and actually doing with the falcon as her pet! Then Spike wouldn't get to baby sit tank in Just for Sidekicks, and he would never get knocked out so things wouldn't escalate as quickly! Because of that, they never made it to the Crystal Empire in time and Miss Peachbottom wouldn't give the glowing review to the Crystal Empire! They wouldn't get to host the game!
Okay, maybe not that bad, but really, Causality is a bitch. Of course, there might always be some form of Temporal Inertia or Fixed Points in Time in effect (like how things seemed to work out in the earlier chapters), so things can go either way.
Also, I'm pretty sure causality is the right term. If it's not, I apologize.
5434569 Getting the Crusade started early might just get Ponyville's Contruction and Repair Industry kick started a bit earlier. Or cause the entire town to get infected with poison joke when Apple Bloom brings friends to solve the Mystery of Zecora (Cutie Mark Crusader's Evil Enchantress Slayers! Yay!)
DT does lack her cutie mark, which led to me turning to the 'I'm rich and you're not' angle for her bullying at the moment. Who knows. Proud might reform her before she completely turns to the dark side. Alternatively, Equestria's Fate might need DT as a lesser evil to keep Pinkie Pie on the path of good, for where there is a pink for good, there must be a pink for evil.
And yes, Silver's developing a crush, much to his chagrin, and the humour of all his family members.
(Huh... much longer response than I expected...)
5436219 I always preferred Timey Wimey stuff over causality.
This story is really my guilty pleasure for BiE. It's good -- really good. The slice of life thing with OCs with full memories (and families!) is just such an interesting twist that no other story to my knowledge does. In fact, one could argue that the main characters are effectively reincarnated (as opposed to a body swap or simply transformation with all other ponified BiE stories are). It gets further points for actually being and *staying* a comedy where they don't have drama for drama's sake, or overly relying on 'getting home'. Especially glad they aren't wallowing in depression, but at the same time aren't trying to forget who they are. Finally, the family/friend dynamics (which really have merged into one about halfway through) between the three main characters is absolutely perfect. It wouldn't have worked with only one or even two of them, had to go with three. Not to say the story wouldn't have worked with only two, but the comedy would be worse off for it.
Didn't they convert to pony language?
I usually don't see and point this stuff out but occasionally...
5603057 Bah... and I was so sure I got them all too... Thanks for the spotting. I'mma go dope slap my prereader when I get done (and myself too..)
Silver ALMOST Channeled Bobby McFerrin
.
2:42 that's all I'm saying... 
Ack. That part alone hurts my head.
6531563
I was actually totally thinking of nora in that moment too!