Serenity's Tale

by ElementofOrder

Chapter 5: Day: 1, Friends: 1

Serenity’s Tale- Chapter 5: Day: 1, Friends: 1

Ether the Wise sent Serenity home with simple instructions: practice basic spells, writing and math at home for the rest of the day. The next day, Serenity returned to the school for her first day. Winter Gaze guided her to a classroom and then looked down at her.

“Do not think for a moment that you will receive special treatment, young lady. Master Ether may have placed you ahead of your younger peers, but your teacher and I will hold you to the same standards as the other students at this level. Therefore I will be observing your grades very closely.”

Serenity stuck her tongue out at Winter after the mare departed and then entered the classroom. Two dozen eyes locked onto Serenity as she approached the teacher’s desk with light hoofsteps.

Why are they all staring at me? Is it because I’m a little smaller than them? Did I do something wrong?

“Are you Serenity?” asked the teacher.

Serenity stammered, then replied “yes, ma’am” and gave a shaky curtsy.

“Master Ether mentioned you. I’m Estrella Fortuna and I’ll be teaching you mid-level magic studies.”

“O-okay. Um…”

“No need to be shy, Serenity. Introduce yourself.”

A few fillies snickered as Serenity stuttered out a nervous introduction.

“Go and take a seat next to Wonderwick. Class will start in ten minutes.”

As Serenity walked over to her desk, she overheard some classmates whispering.

“She’s so tiny! She can’t be older than two.”

“Why’s she even in this school? Icy Eyes must be feeling extra mean to let her in.”

Serenity sat down with a huff and got out her parchment and ink.

“I’m not two, I’m four,” she grumbled.

After four more foals came into the room, Estrella started class with multiplication tables.

This isn’t so hard, thought Serenity. It’s just like adding, but with less numbers.

Something small hit Serenity in the back of the head, prompting her to turn around. Soon after turning back, she felt two tiny things hit her head, making her ear twitch. For two minutes, snickers and giggles resounded as Serenity’s head was pelted with tiny projectiles.

“Stop that already!”

Estrella turned around and set down her chalk.

“What’s going on, class? Yes, Serenity?”

“Somepony keeps throwing things at me and laughing!”

Foals in the front most rows looked back with curious eyes. Estrella demanded that the culprit speak up, but was met with a chorus of silence.

“Very well. If Nopony wants to fess up, then I suppose everypony is fine with having less recess today. Ten minutes is plenty, don’t you think?”

All of the fillies and colts protested and complained until a small pink hoof went into the air.

“Do you have something to say, Wonderwick?”

A tan and white colt shot a glare at Wonderwick. The pink filly coughed a few times, flicked her ears and then pointed at the colt giving her the evil eye.

“It was Runewelt, Ms. Fortuna. He was throwing bits of paper at Serenity and his friends were laughing.”

“She’s lying, Ms. Fortuna!” Runewelt objected with a stamp of his hoof.

His parchment and quill pen fell to the floor and he quickly picked up both items.

“Runewelt, would you mind showing me your sheet of parchment? Of course, I could just take away your recess time for, oh, two days.”

Runewelt thought about it for a few moments and then levitated his parchment over to Estrella.

“I see a rather big corner missing, Runewelt. Care to explain?”

He admitted to throwing paper at Serenity and as punishment, Estrella took away twenty minutes of his recess for the day.

“But that’s not fair!” he whined.

Serenity smirked with satisfaction. That’s what he gets. What’s recess, anyway?

Following math lessons was class reading, writing lessons, lunch and finally, recess. Serenity watched her classmates dash over to the toys in the room or to the door to go outside.

“Ms. Fortuna, is recess playtime?”

“That’s correct, Serenity. Everypony has thirty minutes to unwind, then class resumes. Go on and play. I’ll call everypony in with a bell.”

Serenity walked over t the toys in search of dolls, but saw that the only four dolls were already in the hooves of other fillies.

“Can—uh, may I play with the gray doll when you’re done? I really like her mane and dress.”

One filly glanced at her, but otherwise ignored her. The other levitated said doll away from Serenity and shot her a scornful look.

“I’m going to have to say no. I don’t want you breaking it or getting it dirty.”

“But—“

“This doll was hoof-stitched by a now-famous seamstress who graduated from this school. It’s really fancy and not for little babies. Besides, I said no and what I say goes. Now why don’t you go buzz off?”

Flinching from the filly’s harsh tone, Serenity walked away for another means of entertaining herself.

“Sorry. We get kind of rough when we play and you’re really little. We don’t want to get in trouble if you get hurt.”

“No can do, Serenity. Everypony in the game already has a character and we’ve gotten really far. You understand, right?”

“Why don’t you just play with somepony else?”

Serenity sighed with frustration as she trudged back to the classroom. She glanced at the filly she spoke to earlier.

“May I play with the doll now? Please?”

“What, do your ears not work? I said no,” she snapped.

She doesn’t have to be so mean about it, Serenity thought with a heated glare.

Fed up with the continuous denial of toys and playmates, Serenity returned to her desk and laid her head on the smooth wood.

“Don’t be too upset,” said Wonderwick. “Winter Solstice is mean and bossy to everypony.”

Serenity lifted her head, relief and delight in her eyes.

I can’t believe somepony’s finally talking nicely to me! Hey, she’s the filly who sits next to me. The one with the funny eye.

“Why is she so mean anyway? I just asked if I could play with a doll.”

Wonderwick looked around, then leaned over and whispered “Solstice is Headmistress Winter’s niece, so she thinks everypony has to do what she says or else. Ms. Winter gets mad if we say that, though. Something about a thing called “nebelism”, I think.”

“So she doesn’t hate me? What about everypony else? My father wants me to make friends and I can’t if all the foals hate me!”

Wonderwick’s left eye veered to the upper left and put a hoof on Serenity’s.

“I don’t hate you. And I don’t think the other fillies and colts hate you, either. They just don’t know you yet.”

I guess that makes sense. “Thanks for talking to me, Wonderwick. Um, why are you talking to me?”

Wonderwick coughed a few times, her left eye looking up.

“Well, I know what it’s like to want a friend. I stay home a lot ‘cause I get sick a lot and some foals make fun of my eye when I’m here.”

Oh. So that’s why she was sitting by herself.

Estrella rang the bell, signaling the end of recess. As foals streamed back into the classroom, Wonderwick rubbed her hooves together nervously.

“If you wanna make friends, maybe…I could be your first one?”

“Alright class, settle down and pay attention. We’re going to learn about disguise spells today.”

Serenity leaned over and whispered “I’d like that. Thanks for talking to me, new friend.”

The two fillies smiled at each other, both of their days a little brighter.