What a wonderful world

by a touch of sparkles

Chapter 29: fantastic first impressions

There first day of school had come, the pair had the few things in their bags packed along with their lunch. They were trotting down the last stretch off path towards the school, the adults had just led them down so they knew where they were going. Opal wasn’t with them he was out scavenging for food. The pair walked down that same pathway, but instead they passed the reception into a pair of double doors further down. They were greeted by the head teacher and where lead to the hall just down the corridor. In the hall there were several rows of seats in front of the stage, they found a pair of seats to themselves.

“How many year sevens do you think there are?” Hope asked, there wasn’t many of them there, only about twenty seats were filled.

“They must of put enough chairs out for all of us, so probably the amount of chairs” slowly more new students came through the doors, a slow buzz of voices began to fill the hall. Hope and Sombra remained to themselves near the back, a lot of the students seemed to know each other.

“Do you know any of them?”

“Not as friends, they often bullied me”

“Why?”

“Because I’m dirty”

“But you have a bath every day”

“Not like that” the conversation ended, Sombra was left confused. He didn’t know what exactly bulling was, but Hope didn’t sound very happy about it. Their attention was turned to the headteacher standing in front of the stage before he banged his hoof on the hollow floor. The room went silent.

“Good morning year seven, it’s nice to see every pony has shown up, I’m sure that most of you have found friends from your primary school considering the grouping, but I hope you start to intermingle. Anyway…” Sombra drowned out most of the headteachers talk, he could just ask later. He was preoccupied with looking at faces or the backs of heads. Colours of all combinations where everywhere, when the sun broke through the clouds it was as if someone set a spotlight off with the sheer reflectiveness of everyone. Except him and Hope, who were still mostly alone, but there were kids closer to them now. One in front of them turned and their eyes caught his, she quickly turned back to her friend.

“Your form tutors will give you your timetables and the daily routine, when you leave go to one of the teachers and tell them your name and they’ll direct you where to go” the headteacher finished off. The kids started to move and shift towards the same doors they came in from. Hope and Sombra followed suit, approaching a male teacher.

“What are your names?” he asked, he had a cheerful voice, he wore a waist coat and shirt, in which his waist coat was a bright red plaid.

“Radiant Hope and Sombra” Hope told him, a little quiet. The teacher scanned his eyes down a list.

“Alright, you pair are in HI three, which is on the top floor” Hope and Sombra nodded and walked off down the corridor. They had seen the side of the building which had multiple floors, so they went that way. They went down a couple steps to the centre of that part, to the right they could see the reception at the end and to the left was just a bunch of classrooms. They found a staircase and started to make their way up.

“Shouldn’t there be other ponies?” Sombra asked.

“I think it’s just us today” they kept climbing up until they made it to the top floor. The classrooms were much larger here, and there were pipes across the walls. Each door had a number on it, but they didn’t seem to be in much order. But they were all SC.

“Maybe that way?” Hope walked to their right and Sombra followed her, in which they came across the right room, it seemed much smaller than the others. They poked their heads in to see Mrs Morning at her desk.

“Oh hello, just take a seat” they walked in and Sombra noticed how each wall was covered in papers, it was quite colourful. They sat down in front of her desk, mainly because Sombra felt the need to be close to her.

“I believe I have two more now, how are you two today?” she asked them, they both nodded and sat quietly.

“I may as well give you your timetables” she handed them a piece of paper each. On it there was a table printed on each side. A week A and B, then each day had eight rows each. The first, fourth and sixth were blank while the others had different lessons in. the next two kids came in the room, one was a filly who was red with yellow hair, the other was a colt who was white with purple hair.

“You two must be Rasin and Ginger, just have a seat” the pair sat on the desk closest to the door. Mrs Morning went and gave them their own timetables.

“Our timetables are identical” Hope said to Sombra, having examined their routines.

“They did say they’d put us together” Sombras eyes drifted to the wall next to him. It had a tittle that said, “history of Equestria”. There were posters with different events on. Sombra noticed a lot of words and names repeated, such as “Grogar”, “Windigos” and “Tirek”.

“So now that I have all of you I can start telling you things you need to know, first I’ll tell you when each lesson starts and finishes, there are bells to tell you but it’s just in case, if you get a pencil out, don’t worry about using your quill unless you know how to use them” Sombra pulled his pencil case out his bag and grabbed a pencil. Mrs Morning began telling them when each lesson started and finished, along with the break and lunches where the empty gaps were.

“Now these are planners which you can use to write your homework in, it also has some useful stuff in the back” she gave them a wire bound book which had the school logo on the front. Flicking through it was mostly a calendar, but at the back was some things about Ponish and maths. Along with a strange table with letters and words. Sombra found himself counting the squares, eighty off them. Underneath the letters, there were names. Such as Mg had magnesium under it.

“By the way you’re not going to your first two lessons today, as your having a two hour lesson on quill writing. I believe you four are going to PN two, which is the first floor” just as she said that a bell rung.

“Off you go, you’re in here every day for form so I’ll see you tomorrow” the four of them stood up after putting their stuff in their bags and made their way out. They headed back down the stairs again, but only halfway this time. They walked past rooms, one was a large library, until they found the correct place. There were a lot more students waiting outside the door, a mix of red and blue ribbons around their necks. Just as they arrived the teacher let those students in. They all filed in with Hope and Sombra at the back of the line. The teacher was making the students fill in from the front, which meant they ended up near the back of the classroom.

The teacher spent the next twenty minutes handing out papers and explaining how to write with a quill. Sombra didn’t quite understand the purpose of the quill, it seemed a pain to even have in your mouth for a second, let alone trying to wite with it. Eventually the teacher stopped talking and they were left to practice. Sombra fought with his quill, it was unwieldy in comparison to the pencil. He looked over to find Hope just effortlessly using her magic, neat cursive writing being left on the paper.

“You’re a unicorn, you know that right?” Hope told him, Sombra stared at his quill. Nothing happened.

“Just think about lifting it” he thought about lifting it, nothing happened. He stared a hole through the feather and still nothing happened.

(“Oi”) Sombra near jumped out of his skin.

(“let me in”) Sombra looked outside to see a small figure of Opal on the gym across the playground.

(“how?”)

(“the window”)

(“but the teacher-”)

(“just let me in”)

(“I cant”)

(“just open the window and say your hot, which is reasonable considering the weather your built for”)

(“cant you just wait? We have break after this”)

(“sure”) he watched Opal fly over to the giant tree covering the benches just outside the hall. He perched on one of the middle branches, allowing him to look right into the classroom.

(“are you eating feathers?”)

(“we have to wright with them, I wish my magic worked”) Opal seemed quiet for a bit.

(“can your parents use magic?”)

(“I don’t think so”)

(“then you can’t, most cant, umbrum horns aren’t built to control magic”)

(“what do they do then”)

(“charge stabbing and cutting, what else would a hunter use a horn for”) Sombra picked the quill up in his mouth again, attempting to right his name. What came from it was a barely readable S and the rest was chicken scratch.

“I think you should stick to pencil” Hope said to him, she had now copied out the paragraph on the board neatly. Sombra grabbed his pencil and proceeded to wright his name out. The line was a consistent width, and the letters were the same hight.

“Definitely stick to the pencil”

“yeah”

“How are you two doing?” the teacher had made her way around the classroom without them noticing. She eyed up their writing in which she kept her eyes on Sombra’s the most.

“Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who’s struggling, but you’ll learn with practice” the teacher walked off to go check on the next students. The pair looked at each other, Hope shrugged and Sombra huffed as he picked his quill up again.

When break finally came, they all rushed down to where they were told to eat, which was the hall, and it was attached to outdoor area. They headed to a bench under the tree, where they could just make out Opal’s tail drifting underneath. They sat down and grabbed their break time snack. Which for Sombra, was a mostly whole cooked rabbit, very different to all the salads he could see. Opal made them jump by falling straight down to land between them.

(“don’t do that”) Sombra complained.

(“I can do what I want”)

(“no”)

(“yes, now give”) Opal gripped the edge of his lunch box.

(“you just ate!”)

(“shut”) Sombra moved his box away, trying to eat his rabbit in piece.

“What are you two doing?” Hope asked, confused while she peacefully ate her salad. After a short time, Sombra pined Opal down with one leg and used the other to eat.

“What do we have next?” Hope asked to herself and Sombra, grabbing her timetable at the same time.

“Science in…Sc7” she said. Twenty minutes went by fast and soon enough they were back on the top floor in science, which Hope blazed through easily, the lesson being biology, while the rest of the class silently died inside. Sombra thought it was bad until he got to maths, which was a pain enough to get to being in a different building. The teacher stared him down with icy eyes through half-moons before he was even at the door. She cleared her throat.

“I was not informed that students are allowed…creatures in the classroom” her voice was stiff, not a hint of empathy.

“he’s my friend” Sombra felt small despite being eye level with her.

“It can stay outside where it belongs, and next time leave it at home, we don’t need every student bringing their ‘friends’ to school with them as well”

(“I’ll wait outside, again, good luck with her”) Opal fluttered of his back and around the corner to the door, which he somehow opened the giant push bar to get out. With his head low Sombra walked into the class which he found all of the others at the back as the board said.

The whole class was sat in specific spots, unlike the science teachers plan, who seemed holy in comparison. He thought he might have a chance to sit next to Hope, that was until the teacher saw them stuck to each other and split them up. He ended up next to a filly called Fleur de Verre. She gave him a small smile and she had the same red and black ribbon as he did.

The class was dead silent, first impressions didn’t go down to well, although it was most likely what this teacher wanted. She was trigger happy with putting warnings on the board, within a quarter of the lesson one poor kid got a paddle to the shoulder. The sound of the wood on the skin and cracking on the colts skin stones echoed in his ears, his focus went. The teacher had sat down yet he could still here that cracking, he couldn’t get a decent lungful of air in, he felt Fleurs hoof on his for leg, attempting some form of silent comfort.

(“Are you ok?”) the calm voice of Opal came to him. His mind was chaos, he felt like he was seeing things, old memories and yet they were a swirling blackness of things he couldn’t remember. All he could hear from it was sounds of cracking, flesh and sobs.

(“you have every right to leave if you need to”) in which Sombra left. He burst through the same door which opal got through and cowered in the corner between the building and steps. Opal fluttered down in front of him.

(“what happened?”)

(“she hit someone”)

(“I assume the sound set you off”)

(“I don’t know”)

(“follow me, I found a place you can hide if you want-“)

“ahem” the pair looked up to see the teacher standing above them.

(“lets go”) Sombra scampered off with him, around to the side of the school and into some trees and bushes behind an out building. It was filled with mostly nettles and large unkept shrubs, fern arch ways which had grown to extremes under the shade of the trees.

(“I doubt she’d go this far from the class, I’ll go find Mr Missy”)

(“don’t leave”)

(“I wont be long”) He flew away, Sombra curled into a ball and hid in some shrubs, he is away from her, he will be all right. He didn’t understand why he was so scared, she didn’t hurt him, in fact she was on the other side of the room. He’s never felt like that before, he didn’t like it.

(“I’m back”)

“Are you alright? Come on, get out the bushes” said the head teacher who had followed Opal to him. Sombra dragged himself back up, his legs seemed tired now that the adrenalin had worn off. Weakly he walked towards the head teacher, feeling small despite their equal height.

“There should be an office we can talk in somewhere” he said to him, starting to lead him back to the main school building. They found a small office that was free by the reception.

“Tell me what happened” Sombra explained what happened, from what he could pick out among the blur. As he spoke, he noticed the head teachers’ eyes occasionally twitching. A face that was the definition of keeping in control for professionalism, yet the anger was still seeping through in his breathing.

“Alright, you can stay with pastoral for the rest of the lesson, I wont send you back to her. And don’t worry about having her again” the silence that followed was only filled by the hoof steps as he took Sombra to the pastoral to wait for the rest of the lesson.

“Damn final straw that is” the head teacher whispered under his breath as he tried not to stomp out the room. Sombra rested his head n the table and Opal sat next to him, his talons clacked on the wood.

(“I don’t think anyone likes her”) Sombra stated.

(“It really is a great first impression”) Opal remarked sourly while preening a few wing feathers. They sat in the room, not talking to the pastoral mare who seemed busy with paperwork. Sombra was still confused on what had happened, he felt like he should be panicked or distressed for longer.

(“I feel like I should still be upset”)

(“it’s a little quirk mental chords give, it’s a bit like if you get hurt I’ll get weak, emotions sort of leak into the other end. So by me being calm you relaxed quicker…of course its not always a good thing”)

(“what would make it bad?”)

(“well death, you die I die, that’s the worst. There’s something else as well, which I think you’ll be told about soon”)

(“what is it?”)

(“I’ll let you hate the teacher not me”)

(“ok)” the waited quietly for what seemed like forever, until eventually they were let go for lunch. He trotted his way down through the corridors which were still empty from the lack of students. He found Hope in the hall along with Fleur from maths.

“Are you okay? What happened? Why’d you run out?” Hope flustered over him, nearly leaping from her chair.

“I’m fine”

“Well, your clearly not, you broke the hinge on the door”

“What?”

“You broke the door hinge when you left class” Sombra stood a little dumb founded.

“…oh” Sombra sat down on the floor, slightly surprised. Fleur passed his bag over the table to him. He didn’t have a lunch, the whole rabbit was his daytime meal unless he got hungry later, so he just drank. Hope fussed continuously over him for the next ten minutes, until eventually she realised he was fine and she just shut up. Once the other pair had finished their lunch they returned to basic conversations, and Sombra marvelled at the stack of homework they had got of the math teacher.

“She changed everything we learned in primary as well” Fleur whined as she shuffled the papers.

“Why not do it later?” Sombra wondered, wasn’t lunch a break?

“I don’t want to forget stuff she sets” Hope said.

(“I get the feeling she won’t be back”) opal silently replied.

(“whys that?”)

(“well, I saw Mr Missy head off to the maths place and considering how he looked I doubt there’s a polite conversation going on right now”)

Lunch went by and they headed of to their old Ponish class, which consisted of them figuring out how one writes with shapes. The pronunciations were something.

“Is this even speaking?” Hope whispered confused as they listened to the teacher, who sounded like he forgot what vowels were.

(“I thought umbrum was bad with its hisses and snarls and ponies used to speak like this…how…”) Opal faded out into his own thoughts.

(“how what?”)

(“I’m a hundred percent sure umbrum is the first spoken language, so how is it more speech like than this, how did this branch of from umbrum?”)

(“maybe Mrs morning knows”) they continued to sit confused with the rest of the class for the last, long, drawn out hour of school, before hurrying out of the building to go home. When they got home of course Miss Chestnut was waiting for specifically Sombra.

“The head teacher phoned, is everything alright?” so sombra explained again what happened, she was mad, but he managed to calm her down by telling her that head teacher was sorting stuff out.

The next few school days were significantly uneventful in comparison. The maths teacher was gone and with the older students and siblings back the rumours spread around what happened, what he heard was about an explosive argument at lunch and an on the spot firing. He also heard stuff about himself as whispers when he walked past.

Author's Note:

well that was doozy of a chapter, i think it might be the longest one so far

Comments

[ARandomLonelyDude]

[img]file:///C:/Users/megan/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif[/img] Lunch went by and they headed of to their old Ponish class, which consisted of them figuring out how one writes with shapes. The pronunciations were something.

uh i dont think you should try adding the image directly. you have to upload to imgur and then get the bbcode version of the share link and put that in

“The head teacher phoned, is everything alright?” so sombra explained again what happened, she was mad, but he managed to calm her down by telling her that head teacher was sorting stuff out.

I dont think that there should be phones yet

[a touch of sparkles]

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i don't know how that image got there, i didn't intend for one, i'll remove it. i'm also going for a sort of industrial revolution era, there not cells phones there like really old block phone things that i wasn't around for. it makes more sense in later chapters