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by Homeshine

Acceptance

"Wakey Wakey

Rise and Shine

Shake a leg

The weather's fine!"

Matronly Homeshine called out to the sleeping pegasi. The well-rehearsed assembly line of the morning had begun, with the occasional inevitable hiccup. The Pegasus bus would be here at dawn to take the little ones to school. Officially, it was all the little ones who hadn't gotten their cutie marks yet and couldn't fly. Homeshine was supposed to teach the older ones herself.

Today's lesson would include two more: the unicorns. Although they weren't "old enough to fly", (as much as such a phrase means for unicorns), there was no way they would be able to walk on the clouds up in Pegasopolis, even if their lack of wings could be explained somehow. They would simply need to stay with her. If questioned, Homeshine planned to claim they already had their cutie marks, and were therefore in her dominion.

Although why had they gotten their cutie marks so early? The question was in the back of her mind as they thought over breakfast cereals and toothbrushings. It must have something to do with their obviously high intelligence. Were all unicorns this smart, or were these two simply unusually gifted? She'd wondered how she would educate them before, but they would undoubtedly do fine alongside the older children.

"No, you can't hurry someone in the bathroom, wait your turn." Doing one thing at once was a luxury Homeshine couldn't afford. She was used to thinking about twelve things at once. "Is everyone ready for the bus?" She needed to introduce the unicorns to the others first, or at least the other older children.

Finally, the pegasus- drawn bus landed, and all the smallest of little ones filed on. Finally, the chaos was over for another day.

"Luna? Celestia?" The youngest was said first, as that would make her feel special. Generally, siblings were introduced the other way around. "I have some new friends for you to meet."

School was always done in the orphanage's makeshift classroom. It helped the children concentrate when there was a room specifically for that purpose. Homework for the littlest ones was done there, too; it made them feel more 'grown up'.

"This is Luna and Celestia. They're sisters."

"What happened to your wings?" A pink pegasus said, astonished.

"We are also unicorns." Celestia deadpanned, "Miss..."

"I'm a colt." The pink pegasus looked down at his right hoof, making small circles in the fabric of the carpet. "I know pink is a rare color for colts. And my name is …" he grumbled for a second "Pink Punch. Call me Punch. Don't you dare call me Pink!"

"I'm Integer Switch" the dark blue pegasus said.. "I'm good at math, if you need help. I seem to be the only one that is actually good at it. I can help you, if you want."

"I like you already," Celestia responded. She noticed that Integer Switch's glasses were almost the same shade as Homeshine's pale, light blue coat color, rather than Integer Switch's more dark hue. "Are those Homeshine's glasses? They're her color."

Integer blushed slightly, getting out naught but "yeah...", shyly.

Homeshine answered the question for her, "Integer's glasses arrived broken, so I loaned her mine. She needs them more than I do, anyway."

"I'm basically blind without them," Integer Switch confessed.

"See? Everyone is different." Homeshine summarized. "Switch is good at math, and needs glasses. Punch is a colt. And Luna and Celestia are unicorns. Respect your differences. I don't want to see anyone made fun of here. This is a safe place. Home goes both ways; treat the others nicely."

* * *

"The first derivative of the sine of x is the cosine of x," Celestia answered Homeshine's question.

That tears it, Celestia had gone all the way through the math book. She was firmly in integer Switch's territory, now. "What do you normally study at your school?" Homeshine asked.

"Magic, but you're probably kinda not good at that," Celestia put a hoof over her mouth to stifle a giggle. She looked down at the discarded math book and sighed "I sometimes wish I was a pegasus like you guys. Then you could teach me to fly out of here. It was a long walk from …" Celestia trailed off.

"Hey, look at me," Homeshine said. "Never ever ever feel guilty about what you are. I tell Punch the same thing. And Integer can barely see, poor dear. We all have our specialities. You two are really good at math, be glad of that. Some of the children really struggle with it, just as Integer struggles with seeing, as some of them struggle with reading. Everypony has a struggle."

* * *

Perhaps not surprising in trade for increased intelligence, the unicorns had almost no stamina. Homeshine had tried to get them to play a ground-based game in the after-lunch recess, so Luna and Celestia could play, too, but even that was too much activity, reducing them both to exhausted panting heaps, albeit smiling exhausted panting heaps, judging by the broad grins on their faces. Homeshine left the two older pegasi to flying practice laps, in order to give the fillies a proper tour by the light of day.

"You've seen the kitchen, of course, and the schoolroom. This is the rumpus room, although if you want anything truly rumpus, you should do it outside,"Homeshine smiled as the fillies laughed at that. She didn't think it would be a problem, but you never knew. Speaking of... "Also, I want to warn you about the bridge over the canal. The thing is ancient and won't support even a pegasus's weight, let alone a unicorn."

Celestia thought for a second, "Isn't that the road to Pegasopolis proper? At least, the landed bits?"

Homeshine nodded, "Yes, but since the addition of the school bus service, no one needs to go over it over who can't fly, so it's fallen into disrepair. All efforts are going towards the war against..." Homeshine stopped.

"Us." Luna looked down. "We overheard the guard telling you not to let us leave. Is that why we mustn't cross the bridge? We have to stay here?"

Oh, what they must have thought. Homeshine quickly replied, "No, no. I would never lie to you. And where else would you go? If you have family somewhere, I'd certainly take you to them."

Luna looked backed up, hey eyes clinched questioningly, "Even if you're not supposed to?"

"Even so. You're more important."

"What if... what if we don't want to leave?"

"Then you can stay. Come, I'll lead you upstairs to your room. You got here quite early, so you must be tired. You'll need to share; we have many rooms, but never enough, I'm afraid."

* * *

One of the downsides to going to bed in the middle of the afternoon is waking up early in the morning. The sisters were whispering to each other conspiratorially.

"What do you think of this place?" Celestia asked Luna.

"Homeshine seems nice. And the other students."

"But the guard Pegasi didn't seem to like us," Celestia replied. "We're not like them."

"She doesn't care. And that's all that matters."

"I want to see what's across that bridge," Celestia said. "I should know why they're so against us crossing it. Come on."

* * *

Celestia remembered Homeshine's words to stay off that old rickety bridge. 'It wouldn't do for someone who couldn't fly to try crossing it, it's due to break any day now.' But was the warning real? The bridge certainly SEEMED sturdy enough, although it was very creaky. She was determined to cross it, anyway.

"See? No problems," Luna jumped up and down on the bridge as it creaked, making it even creakier, and creakier, and ... creakier.

"No!" Celestia shouted and dived towards Luna in a leap even Celestia herself didn't know she was capable of, splatting directly into her sister, towards the other side.

And with a crack, and terrifying screech, the bridge accordion-ed in on itself, and fell into the gorge.

"Wow. Homeshine was right." Luna admitted. "Thank you for saving me. I would be down there... but... you could have been down there, too, if you'd missed. And it would be my fault..." Luna's eyes got wide.

"It was kind of instinct," Celestia admitted, "and I couldn't let anything happen to my sister. If I had to die to save you, well, so be it."

"Don't do that; I'd risk my life to save you, too." And with that, Celestia noticed an eerie white glow that was engulfing them both, more visible in the dark of the night. It was as if they were getting their cutie marks, but they'd gotten their cutie marks already. Were they getting a second? As the glow subsided, they looked at their flanks. No, only the one cutie mark was there, but...

They had wings.

"I'm a pegasus," Celestia said breathlessly stroking her newformed downy wings. They tickled and tingled. Amazing. Was that how she managed to dive across the entire bridge at once? Did she glide? Did they appear as she realized her devotion to other ponies? Was it some kind of mix?

They were interrupted by Homeshine streaking to their side like a meteor, faster than they'd ever seen her, "Are you okay?! Please tell me they're okay."

"We're fine, but, well... now you can teach us to fly."

Homeshine smiled, even wider "I would love to. Just … in the morning, okay?"

"And I still have a horn! I'm … both? Oh, Princess Platinum is going to KILL me!"

"You're related to the leader of all the unicorns?! Oh, that would explain why the guards were so eager to keep you from escaping.

"Oh, it also means These Two are next in line for the unicorn throne.

"Oh. Oh. OH!

.

"oh...."

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I'm not sure if I'm impressed or disappointed that you resisted the urge to call the vehicle a pegabus.

I would never lie to you.

I have the distinct sense that at some point, she's going to have to lie to them.

Huh. That was a rather understated ascension. I mean, they can't all open with the Particle Accelerator of Harmony, but this read more like Pokémon evolution. Still, this will greatly complicate matters. Poor Homeshine. She never asked for this.

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

Interesting. I didn't think that Celestia would ascend so fast here, but I'm not exactly complaining. I did get a kick out of her and Luna deciding to test the bridge after being told not to cross it - that is SO what kids do XD