Door's Graduation (EAW)

by The Cheeser

Door's Graduation

The year was 1052.

Door stood at the podium, she had just finished studying at Radiance University for interior design.
She needed to make a speech, and, in front of her, was a rather long, boring speech a friend had written for her.
"I stand here today, looking over the large crowd of fellow ponies and kirins, and I see many wonderful and supportive friends!" Then, a joke came into her mind.
"I was told by my teachers that I would never succeed if I kept procrastinating, but I told them just you wait!"
this gathered a large, collective sigh from the crowd.
Most ponies and kirins knew her jokester nature, however to most of the crowd, it was very unexpected for her to make a joke at her graduation!

She then continued like nothing had happened, "Many of us will go into interior design, because that's what we spent the last four years studying, I mean, if you wanted to go into engineering, you should've gone to Chrysanthemum."
Her joke was shortly interrupted by some unpleasant looks from teachers.
She figured she had said her limit of jokes. Although she wished she could squeeze in more.
The rest of her speech she felt was bland, going through how "Grateful" she was for the years she had put in, how much "Experience" and "Friendship" she had gained. Although these things were true, she still wanted to say a few puns.

Finally, the speech was over. Although it had only taken around five minutes, it had felt like a few hours.
The effort it took to not say a pun when she talked about doors was nearly insurmountable, but, it was over.
She shook hooves with her professor and trotted back to her seat.
Everypony and Kirin went up and made their speeches. She noticed a clock, as it ticked. She became more and more interested in it. As speeches came and went, she felt a dreariness befall her. And, she decided to close her eyes, just for a moment.

A weird, tapping feeling made her uncomfortable... She tried to ignore it, but it wouldn't stop for some reason.
Eventually, she groggily opened her eyes, to behold a Kirin lady who was practically bouncing with joy at her waking up.
"Hey there, I came back for my book, and then I saw you sitting there alone, and at first I thought "maybe she's asleep" but then when I poked you, you didn't say anything, so I got worried, so I kept poking you but you didn't get up, so I worried you might be hurt, and I was about to call an ambulance and then--" The extremely fast speaking Kirin stopped speaking for a second as she examined the pony she was talking to.

Door, not letting this small opportunity to speak escape her, Doors quickly stammered out
"Who are you?"
the reply was, "I'm Bubbly Burner, just call me Bubbly. I've never seen a Kirpone before!" she exclaimed excitedly

"A... What?" Door responded

"A kirpone, a pony mixed with a kirin!" Bubbly said with extreme energy

Then, Door saw the time. When the graduation had started, it was 1200, but now it was 1500
She had planned to meet with some of her friends at 1600 at a nice traditional Kirin noodle restaurant downtown.
Quickly, she rose from her seat, grabbed her bag, and her diploma, before she hastily trotted off, nearly forgetting the lady in her tunnel vision.

"Heya, where you going? Are you going to the park? Ooooh, I heard they put in sprinklers there!" Bubbly announced
But, Door didn't answer, as she was too focused on leaving
Finally, she pushed open the doors to the building with her magic and started trying to lose Bubbly in the large crowd of Kirins on the streets. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't lose her. She felt like she was ambushed by this mysterious mare on every corner.
She then saw a small alleyway. This wasn't at all the direction she needed to head, but there was a small chance she could shake her off her tail.

Taking her chance, she sprinted into the alleyway, making turns left and right to escape.
Unfortunately, once Door felt sound, she then realized that her rather undirected route had gotten her lost.
She left the deep alleyways of downtown Radiance and found herself completely disoriented.
Eventually, she took a path she thought looked familiar, however, the endless spiral of shops proved to be too much for her memory. Eventually, behind her, she heard a very familiar voice, "Hello! I found you again! You took that really sneaky path down the alleyway, and I almost lost you, but go-" Bubbly noticed Door's face

"Hey, you alright?" asked Bubbly

"No, I've been followed around by YOU all day, and now I can't meet up with my friends because of that!" she yelled, drawing only a small amount of attention from the nearby Kirins, her hoof was pointing at a clock, which read "1620" on it.

"Oh... I'm sorry... I just wanted, or, I just thought, we could be friends." Bubbly said disappointedly
But, Door didn't hear it, she had already stormed off into the crowd.
Eventually, she walked herself to a park.
She felt a little bad about yelling at that Kirin, she was very nice. But still, she felt it was right. She was being followed, and that just wasn't normal.

Sitting down on a bench, beside a tree, Door enjoyed the waning light. It was starting to become early fall.
The leaves were starting to change color, ever so slightly, and the oppressive summer heat was starting to wear down, leaving a nice breeze in its stead.
She sat there for a long time, she had long given up on making it to her graduation party.
She let out an audible sigh, and asked audibly "How am I even going to get home?"
Then, she heard a rustling in the leaves, and a kirin head, Bubbly's to be exact, popped out and said, clearly in a fake voice,
"Just follow Matriarch's pathway and you'll get home." before her head disappeared into the tree.

"Woah woah, how did you know where I live?" exclaimed Door

"Oh, simple! You dropped your business card when you yelled at me. You really shouldn't put your address on those things." said Bubbly

"Oh... Then what should I put on it?" Door asked

"I dunno... Anyway, I'll leave you alone now!" Bubbly's head then popped back into the tree.

Door was very confused, but, since she had no other way home, she decided to follow Bubbly's advice.
Leaving the small park, she found Matriarch's pathway and followed the street.
She quickly realized this was the street she had excited the alleyway onto before. But, she had simply taken the wrong turn.
After walking awhile on the path, she took Thorn Street to her apartment.
Since college was over, she would need to find a job. But today, she was just tired from all of the walking.

Grabbing her house key from her bag, she attempted to open the apartment door. But, her key got stuck.
In frustration, she pushed on the door, while turning the key. Unfortunately, the door fell, and so did Door.
"Oh for Celestia's..." She swore to herself.
She got back up, put down her bag inside, and propped back up her door, before screwing back in the hinges, and then the door.

Finally, she was done for the day. She read the clock on her wall, it was 1800.
Although she enjoyed staying up late into the night, joking with her friends, or studying, tonight she had no energy for such things today.
All of that running and walking, oh, and that crazy mare had completely drained her.
After making herself some instant noodles, and eating them heartily, she decided to check if there was anything on the TV.

Laying down on her couch, she used her levitation magic to turn on the TV.
"Border disputes over the city of Blossom-" she promptly turned off the TV.
Politics never concerned her that much. As long as nopony, and nokirin were getting killed, she would leave them to their petty squabbles.
So, tonight, she decided to engross herself in a book. She rarely did this, but, tonight it felt right.

She grabbed a book about interior design. She knew much about it, but she still could learn a little more, couldn't she?
But, as she read, her eyelids slowly started to fall, and then she fell asleep.

Author's Note:

I wrote this short story for a friend of mine. I liked her OC, and, honestly, I had no ideas of what to write. So, I hope y'all enjoyed this short, and unusually happy story. (for me at least)
I don't really know if I should continue this story or not. She has a group of friends, plus Bubbly Burner. Although, this does work fine as a one-shot too!

Comments

[C_II_R]

Puns are a cornerstone of Ponysh and all Equine languages!

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

I've just read your story & I have

No Clue Whatsoever

why you posted it in the Equestria At War group.

Can you explain? Or, did it just seem like a good idea at the time?

[The Cheeser]

11777561
I posted it under EAW because I make use of the names of cities, and some after-war Kirin political stuff, like the annexation of Blossom in EAW when you do harmonic Kiria. So, I put it in there because it's a plausible story in a harmonic Kiria. I hope that clears it up for ya

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

11777570
Well, yeah, OK. I just tend to think of "post war" as closer to the conflict.

[The Cheeser]

11777770
That's pretty fair! I will remove it from that section. I don't know why, but in my brain I thought "Hey, it was after all of the great wars, so it must be postwar" and I can see how that is... Flawed logic.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

11777779
Well, now, don't be too hasty. You can fix it just by having Door consider if she wants to take a job with the Reconstruction Agency. Government work is traditionally underpaid but having a REAL job on your resume helps a lot.

Depends on "How ripped up WAS this place? Historically, it can take decades to recover.

[The Cheeser]

11777786
This is a bit out of the scope of this fic. In addition to this, democratic Kiria never really faced a conflict in it's lore. (Unless if that one Nirik nation one in the south. Which I could use, but I've already said there were border tensions between Sen Kenh and Kiria. )
So, the best I could do is a random invasion from the north, but that'd be hard to justify.
So, I will probably have Kiria as a refuge nation from a war-stricken world, which would explain why Door would be half-kirin and half-pony. (A Kirpone?)
Thank you for the idea, though!