The Misadventures of Fanta Shock

by Feathers and Fanfics

Chapter 2: School run.

Fanta arrived at the schoolhouse with seconds to spare, panting heavily as Cheerilee placed a check list and pencil in her hooves. The purple earth pony disappeared inside the red building, presumably to finish preparing her lessons for the day ahead. Fanta sat next to the gate leading in and out of the schoolyard, gripping her list and pencil in her magic, awaiting the hordes of offspring that were soon to become her charges. She was not disappointed, as within a few minutes, a pair of earth pony fillies came into view.

One had a dull grey colour scheme, while the other was pink, purple and white. Fanta checked their cutie marks and located them on her checklist, ticking the boxes that represented their attendance. The two fillies kept their distance from the intimidating-looking unicorn, but Fanta didn't care. She'd never got on with kids, they were just bundles of hyperactive energy that would later grow into bigger bundles of significantly less energy. Fanta momentarily entertained the thought of writing a book to keep her deep thoughts in, but extinguished it when she remembered that she hated writing. Over the next 10 minutes, clusters of happy colts and fillies slowly streamed into the schoolhouse, all giving the unicorn a wide berth. Fanta wondered if it was her eyepatch or her grumpy expression that made her look so scary. This chain of thought was rudely interrupted by a white unicorn filly galloping down the lane, trying to reach school before the bell went, and not looking where she was going.

Fanta lay dazed for a moment, before jumping up and looking around, eventually noticing the filly. She trotted over to her, and gently nudged her with a hoof.

"Hey - you alright?"

The foal nodded, groaning and getting up. She then looked up at Fanta, who had her cold, steely gaze set on her. This proved to be a mistake, and the poor filly started to well up.

"I-I'm s-sorry.."

If Fanta was any other colour, she'd have gone pale. Not only was she bad at comforting ponies, she could get into trouble with Cheerilee. And she did not want to be in trouble with Cheerilee. Anyone who commands the respect of hyper foals probably hunts dragons and demons for sport.

"Uhh.. H-hey, kid! Want to hear a joke?"

Fanta put on her 'winning smile', which loosely translated to 'desperate grimace', and the tiny unicorn looked up.

"O-okay.. *sniffle*"

A bead of sweat trickled down Fanta'a forehead. She had to make this joke good, before the little angel started crying again.

"U-uhh.. Why did the colt bring a ruler to cooking class? To measure out his ingredients!"

The unicorn filly gave Fanta a poker face so good, she could probably beat every champion in Las Pegasus. Fanta gulped. Now she was the one feeling intimidated.

Thankfully, the little foal broke into a grin, giggling as she said,
"That joke was no good, but my sister might like it – she has no sense of humour."

Fanta inwardly made the decision to avoid this filly. She was obviously of some higher intelligence.

The filly opened her mouth to speak, but quickly thought better of it and bounded into the schoolhouse. Fanta checked her on the list as present, and headed inside to give Cheerilee her equipment back.

She was hoping she could go home now, but in the back of her mind, she knew her day had just begun.