• Published 26th Nov 2012
  • 7,788 Views, 236 Comments

Winner - SouthernCross



A new Colt moves into town and starts stealing hearts... entirely by accident.

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He came from a Land Down Under

It was a typical day for the colts and fillies of Ponyville as they busied themselves entering the quaint little classroom of the town’s only schoolhouse. Their little hooves clip-clopped across the wooden floorboards as their gossip and chatter filled the air with an ambient warmth that only came from the familiar and routine.

Everything from the Crusaders’ chatting animatedly about their ideas for new ways to find their Cutie Marks, to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon gossiping about this and that with that air of superiority they always carried, and Snips yammering away to Snails about whatever was on his mind. Even that chubby colt with the fez hat that always read the newspaper was routine and normal to the foals.

Indeed, today was going to be just another great day to be a foal in Ponyville.

The first hint the foals had that the balance of their usual routine was to be shifted was the spring in their beloved teacher’s step as she practically pranced into the room with a large smile on her face. Granted, Cheerilee loved to teach and was always perky when she started classes for the day, but she was too practical to burn extra energy by prancing so early in the morning.

After she gave the class a cursory glance to ensure nopony was absent, all were present and accounted for, the purple mare grinned widely at her class of bright eyed and bushy tailed young minds. It was with a voice laced with excitement that she announced, “Good morning, class! I have wonderful news for all of you; today I get to introduce you all to a new classmate!”

And thus, routine left the building.

“Skywinder! That’s your cue, dear!” Cheerilee chimed animatedly as she gestured towards the door nearest her desk. After nearly a minute of silence and nopony entering through the door, the educator felt a small bead of sweat work its way down the back of her head. Her eyebrow descended into a miffed V shape even as she managed to maintain her grin before trotting over to the door and looking outside.

They hoped Routine had assassinated the interloper on the way out.

In the corridor Cheerilee quickly came face to face with a massive, rusty brown male gryphon with reddish brown hind-quarters, wearing a beat up old akubra hat on his head. Dangling from his mouth was a cheated looking colt with a mane the same colour as the gryphon’s plumage, only it appeared the colt disliked combs, judging by how messy it was, but with a coat as purple as the sky at dusk.

The adults exchanged a glance before the gryphon dropped the colt to the floor and looked the child in the eye, “I know you aren’t too happy about all this, mate, but there’s nothing we can do about it now,” he chided in his accented voice.

With a grunt, the colt just rolled his orange eyes while righting himself before replying with the same accent in his voice, “Don’t mean I have to like it.” He turned his gaze towards Cheerilee and sighed with defeat, “Alright, alright… let’s get this over with.”

Cheerilee glanced back at the gryphon before raising a questioning eyebrow. All she got in reply was the gryphon glancing at the colt and then at the exit and a few subtle motions of the male’s eyebrows telling her all she needed to know. The colt tried to make a run for it, and his father had been waiting just outside the front door, having known what his son was going to do.

She wondered if she would be able to do that when she had foals of her own.

“Alright then, come along now,” she chirped as she regained the spring in her step, and her wide smile returned. “Your new classmates are waiting.”

As she turned, the colt’s eyes fell over her mature form, tracing the line of her back to the lush curves of her flank and the smiling flower Cutie Mark emblazoned upon it. A primal part of the colt admired his new teacher’s firm thighs, which where obviously toned from years of chasing after energetic foals. Her tail seemed to sway mockingly, teasing at what lay hidden behind it yet never letting anypony lay eyes on its treasure.

The colt wondered why those thoughts had filtered into his mind as the two entered the classroom to be met by deafening silence as all chatter between its occupants ceased. All eyes turned to the colt as he trotted into the room before they all turned to his own flank.

His ever so blank flank.

He heard the snickering of two fillies in the middle row, both earth ponies. One was pink with a purple mane and a gaudy tiara on her head while her friend was grey with a white mane. Both looked to be irritatingly prissy and frou-frou in the eyes of the young colt.

Despite that, he couldn’t help but take in the way the pink one’s mane fell across her shoulder in such a way to promote how soft and well groomed it was, or the way her cheeks accentuated her snout and soft lips. Her eyes where slightly lidded, emphasising her baby blue irises while the line of her back disappeared from view behind her desk in an almost mocking curve.

The grey one’s mane barely brushed the blue rims of her glasses while her braid was gently draped across the curve of her shoulder. Her blue pearl necklace embraced her neck with a gentle touch of a lover, drawing attention to the smooth, delicate flesh of her throat.

Cheerilee coughed softly to draw the attention of her students before gesturing to the young colt beside her and announcing, “As I was saying, this is Skywinder, your new classmate!” The teacher had an unusual level of enthusiasm in the her voice as she continued. “He’s come a very long way to meet you all! All the way from the Great Southern Colony!”

Blank stares erupted across most of the class, save for the pink filly with a tiara, whose expression shifted to one of disdain. Skywinder could just barely make out her mumbling, “So he’s both a Blank Flank and a barbarian?”

As he cast a glare at the pink filly, he realised Cheerilee had her hoof over his shoulders in a very friendly manner and a large, overly cheerful grin on her face. If nothing else, she lived up to her name. “Skywinder, would you please tell us all a little about yourself?”

The young pegasus blinked before looking at the class once more and inhaling deeply. “Well…” he began and immediately grimaced as every filly in the class, even the stuck up duo of Pinky and the Grey, leaned forward with a slight swoon at the sound of his accent. he needed some way to drive their attention elsewhere and fast! “I was raised by a tribe of Wedge-Tailed Gryphons called the Ninganarra Tribe!”

Surely, regular ponies would find such a revelation off-putting, right?

A chorus of “oohs” and “ahhs” rudely trampled all over that idea.

Immediately after, the room exploded with questions from every direction, ranging from what his tribe ate to the cruising speed of a Wedge-Tail. There were even some questions he wished he could unhear. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought one of the questions in the ‘cannot be unheared’ category had come from Cheerilee.

To his relief the Great Rainbow Serpent extended His blessings, and with His spectrum tail rang the bell that signalled the beginning of recess. The colt immediately used the distraction to make his getaway, darting out from under his new teacher’s grasp, sending her toppling to the floor, and dashed out the door in search of a place to hide.

---

Thankfully, at least in the colt’s mind, he managed to avoid any further questioning as he not only found a functional hiding place under a rock, but when class resumed Cheerilee started the lessons in earnest to make up for lost time. Skywinder found himself seated next to a grey pegasus colt with a dark mane named Rumble, in front of the orange pegasus filly with the purple mane and behind the silver earth pony filly.

From what he had gathered in the two minutes before Cheerilee started the lessons, Rumble was mostly disinterested about Skywinder and beyond being polite didn’t care about making friends with him. This suited him just fine as it allowed him to avoid getting caught up by anything, allowing him to focus on the lesson.

When the lunch bell rang, he disappeared to his hiding spot once more, and when class resumed, he dug into his school work with vigour to avoid conversation. There was, however, one thing he couldn’t avoid.

The infamous “final bell rush”.

The horde of tiny hooves thundered out the schoolhouse door as the myriad of colourful foals unleashed their savage battle cry, proclaiming all they had planned for the rest of the day to the unsuspecting town. A certain colt, however, attempted to use the excitement of the other foals to mask his escape, intent on simply getting home without getting intercepted and being forced to make friends.

Skywinder had nothing against the other ponies; his tribe taught him that feelings of hate and jealousy were useless and wasteful emotions that drain one more than what one would gain from acting on them. At least the abhorrence of violence made sense; in the tribe violence was only for hunting or protecting the tribe's lands from other tribes. Since no tribes had fought in generations, Skywinder himself had barely even had any training in fighting.

Granted, this was a gryphon's concept of “barely any training,” so by pony standards he was likely pretty tough.

What annoyed him the most about this town of Ponyville was all the green. His homeland was an arid, angry red desert with little vegetation, and rivers that would remain bone dry for generations only to flood entire plains after the rains came. The controlled weather systems of Equestria where an alien concept, even to someone who had taken naps on clouds before.

Casting his gaze around, he quickly darted between groups of foals as they dispersed out from the school grounds. He was almost at the point where he could take off at a gallop for home when a certain duo appeared in front of him with grins on their faces.

“Well, well, well! If it isn't the Blank Flank savage!” the pink earth pony crowed snobbishly while her eyes lingered across his lean form. She sneered as she and her partner circled him. “I guess you probably don't even know what a Cutie Mark is, being raised by some wild birds and all!”

Her grey partner snickered as she gave him a once over. “You're so right, Diamond Tiara! I'm surprised he can even read and write!” She gasped suddenly before grinning. “I bet he was just scribbling in his schoolbook!”

“How observant, Silver Spoon!” Diamond Tiara cooed darkly. “Why don't we take a look? We can't let the poor new pony be a Blank Flank and a bad student at the same time, right?”

As the two bullies moved in to grab his saddlebags, the colt mulled over his options. He was a male of the Ninganarra Tribe, so simply fleeing would be shameful, but attacking females was the act of a coward and would lead to him being shunned by the ancestors. However, letting them have their way was also against the Tribe's teachings as everyone must respect the rest of the Tribe.

As the two were almost upon him, he reached his conclusion and launched his counteraction against the instigator.

Diamond Tiara's eyes bulged as she felt a pair of lips meet her own with wild passion backing them. The colt's tongue grazed against her lips, and she instinctively parted them, allowing his tongue to dance and tease her own. She leaned back on her hind hooves as he pressed his advantage.

Hormones and chemicals reacted in her brain, sending neurons scrambling this way and that as the wild and unexpected kiss continued, confusing the startled filly even more. She felt like a passenger in her own body as she began to return the kiss while her heart began to flutter with excitement.

Then, all too soon, it was over, leaving her flushed and panting for breath. It took her over a minute to realise her best friend was staring at her in shock.

It took her another minute to realise Skywinder was gone.

Author's Note:

Got myself a proofreader, he's a pretty awesome guy.

Proofreader: Letedwend