Chapter 4: The New Arrival
"Okay, children, let’s settle down," said Ms. Cheerilee as she trotted from her desk to the center of the classroom, overlooking the children.
When she did, all the talkative fillies and colts stopped their chatter and focused on the cerise earth pony in the front of the room, smiles on all their faces.
"Now children, we have a new student joining us today,” she said, pointing to the door with a hoof. All the foals looked at the door to see it open a little and a young colt slowly trot into the room, a saddlebag around his back.
He was a gray pony with a charcoal mane, lavender eyes and no Cutie Mark on his flank. As he trotted to the center of the room, next to the teacher, he took one quick glance at the ponies in the room before quickly averting his gaze to the floor. As he did, one of his fore-hooves began making tiny circles in the floorboards.
“Everypony,” said Ms. Cheerilee, slightly catching the young foal off guard, “This is Rumble. He just moved here from Cloudsdale. I hope each and every one of you will make him feel welcome. Now, Rumble, why don’t you take your seat.”
She pointed to one of the empty seats in the back of the room with a hoof, a smile still plastered on her face. He looked up at her, smiled a quick smile back, and began making his way past the other students. As he did, he saw that a few of them were smiling back while others were giving him a look, a look he was all too familiar with.
As he continued to make his way past the students, he thought he heard one of the fillies mutter to another, “Oh great, another ‘blank flank.’” The moment he heard this, he looked at the ground and sighed, taking his seat without saying a word.
When he looked up, he saw that few of the students were still looking at him, smiling at him and greeting them with hushed welcomes. He would smile and wave at them, but Rumble didn’t say anything to them; what could he say to a bunch of ponies he didn’t know and were, probably, silently judging him.
As he took a closer look at the ponies around him, he noticed that most of them were earth ponies. He began feeling even more insecure now that he realized he wasn’t the same species as the others. Rumble’s heart began beating faster and his cheeks started feeling warm on his face. However, when he caught a glance at an orange Pegasus that was a few seats in front of him, he let out a relaxed sigh; at least he wasn’t the only Pegasus in the room. Then, his eye caught a glimpse of a white unicorn filly. When he did, his heart began to slow to normal, slightly easing his tension, though not fully.
Soon, Ms. Cheerilee began her sermon for the day, teaching them about something to do with math. In all honesty, Rumble wasn’t really paying much attention to what she was saying; he was still extremely nervous about being in his new environment to really listen to her lesson on how to add numbers or whatever. He just looked around the room, catching a glimpse at the other students in the room.
He saw that two ponies were busy passing notes during the lecture, some were struggling to stay awake, while others were fully alert and mouth-writing the notes in their books. At some point, he decided to make himself less of a spectacle by taking out a notebook and a writing implement from his saddlebag. Now, if he could only direct his attention to the lesson at hoof, he’d be good.
The rest of the morning seemed to drag on like this for Rumble, him trying to pay attention to whatever the school teacher was teaching. However, try as he might, he was just too nervous to really take any notes on any of the lessons begin taught.
Soon, his heart jumped in his chest as the school bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch. When it did, all the fillies and colts in the room got up and slowly headed for the door to the playground, him being the last one to get up from his seat with his bagged lunch in his mouth.
Soon, he trotted outside and overlooked the other foals either munching on their lunch or playing around in the playgrounds. As he made his way down the steps and towards the benches that were all around, some of the other foals went up to him to greet him and introduce themselves. He would respond with quick responses before running out of things to say to them. Soon, he trotted to the nearest bench and sat down, getting ready to eat whatever it was his brother packed for him; something good, he hoped.
However, before he could open his lunch, he felt two pairs of eyes watching him, making him feel very uncomfortable. Rumble turned his head to see that two fillies were watching him with incredulous eyes. He offered them a smile and got ready to say hello when the pink one with a tiara on her head spoke up first.
“So, you’re the new pony on the block, huh?” she asked in what sounded like a snooty tone.
“Well...um...” he said, unsure of what to say to her, “Yeah, I...I guess I am...”
“Hmph,” she said, as she and her friend began walking around his backside, almost as if they were checking him out. Not sure what they were doing, all he did was sit there and watch.
Soon, the other one with the white glasses on her nose said, “Looks like you don’t have your Cutie Mark, either.”
Looking at his bare flank, Rumble lowered his head in shame, trying to cover it up with his tail.
“Well, don’t you worry your little head about it, Rumble,” said the pink one as she ran a hoof through his slicked back mane, “You’re not the only one without their Cutie Mark in the school, you know. Right, Silver Spoon?”
Silver Spoon nodded and said, “It’s not like you’re the only one who isn’t, like, special.”
Rumble felt his heart begin to crumble as the two ponies continued to torment him. Although he was saddened and feeling more and more depressed with every word that came out of their mouths, a part of him couldn’t help but say “I told you so”; he had received this kind of ridicule when he used to live in Cloudsdale, though not to this extent, he must admit. Getting a similar kind of treatment here was nothing new to him, but no matter how used to it he was, it still hurt.
However, the mood all changed when another voice yelled out, “Hey, leave him alone!”
The moment he heard the voice call out, Rumble turned his head to see that three fillies were standing behind them, all of them with angry looks on their faces. In the center was a yellow earth pony with a red bow on her head. To her left was the orange Pegasus from before while, to the earth pony’s right, was a white unicorn.
“Leave him alone, Diamond Tiara!” said the yellow filly, who appeared to have a Southwestern accent.
“Yeah, do you have to pick on everypony without a Cutie Mark?” asked the orange Pegasus.
“What’s it to you?” shot back Diamond Tiara.
“Leave him alone!” said the white unicorn, whose voice appeared to crack as she spoke.
It was then that the two bullies looked around them to see that most of the other foals were looking at their commotion. Many of them were just staring at the scene playing out while others sided with the three fillies that stood up to them. The moment they saw they were outnumbered, the two bullies muttered something under their breath, stuck their noses in the air and trotted away, leaving him alone.
When they were out of earshot, the three fillies walked up to him, all of them with smiles on their faces. The other speculators went back to whatever is was they were doing prior to the spats that just happened.
“Are you okay?” asked the yellow earth pony.
“I’m fine,” he said, looking at the table before him.
“Don’t worry,” said the orange Pegasus, “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are always picking on everypony.”
“Well...um...” he said, feeling his cheeks beginning to feel warm, “Thanks.”
“No problem!” said the yellow filly.
With that, he directed his attention back to his lunch, unsure of what to say next. As he began eating his food, he couldn’t help but feel the three fillies’ eyes still watching him. Occasionally, he would look at them with his peripheral vision to see them with smiles on their faces. When he did, he’d quickly look away.
Why are they staring at me? Rumble couldn’t help but ask himself as he ate his lunch. However, he figured it was best to let them be and ignore them; they’d stop staring at him, eventually.
Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, Sweetie Belle looked at her fellow crusaders, all of them shrugging at each other.
Clearing her throat, Scootaloo asked, “So, your name is Rumble, right?”
Since he had food in his mouth, Rumble looked back at them and nodded, chewing a little faster to be able to speak. Unfortunately for him, he must have taken too big a bite because he needed to chew a lot longer than he really should be.
“My name’s Scootaloo,” she said, offering her hoof to him. Seeing the gesture, he extended his hoof and shook it.
“The name’s Apple Bloom,” said the earth pony, following the same motion as Scootaloo.
When he turned his attention to the unicorn, she smiled, extended her hoof to him and said, “I’m Sweetie Belle.”
He shook her hoof, finally swallowed his food and said, “Hi.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Rumble,” said Apple Bloom, as the three of them began trotting away.
“Nice to meet you, too,” said the colt. As they left, he called out, “And thanks, again!”
When he did, Sweetie Belle looked back at him and smiled, waving a hoof at him. When she did, Rumble could have sworn his heart sped up a few beats. The moment he did, he turned his head away and looked back at the table. Taking a deep breath, he could have sworn he felt his cheeks were beginning to get warm.
However, he decided to let the thought slide and finish his lunch. As he did, he couldn’t help but look back at the three fillies that had helped him with the bullies. As he watched the three fillies, standing together and talking amongst themselves, Rumble couldn’t help but focus his attention on the white filly, Sweetie Belle. There was something about her that made him stare at her, barely blinking as he did.
As she spoke with her friends, her mane bounced around with its tiny curls and dual color. He recalled how she spoke and couldn’t help but smile, remembering how her voice had cracked in a way that made it sound cute. Then, he recalled the smile she had given him as she trotted away with her friends. The other fillies in the classroom smiled at him, sure, but there was something about the way that this filly smiled that made his cheeks turn an interesting shade of crimson.
However, when the filly turned her head in his direction, he quickly looked away, looking back at the table where his lunch was sitting.
What’s going on? Rumble asked himself. This has never happened to me before.
As the thoughts kept floating around in his mind, he continued eating his lunch, trying against himself to keep his eyes focused on what he was doing without looking back at the unicorn filly. Although he was successful at keeping his gaze away, that wasn’t enough to keep his thoughts off of her.
As the image of the unicorn crossed his mind again, he felt something get caught in his throat, causing him to cough. As he began coughing uncontrollably, he grabbed his drink as fast as he could and began drinking it, clearing his throat. At some point, he forgot to completely chew his food and swallowed it whole by mistake. After he was done with his temporary choking, the only thing that kept coming to his mind was one simple question: what’s happening to me?
When the school bell rang, he quickly packed up his trash, threw it away and made his way back into the classroom. As Rumble made his way up the stairs, he decided to shake the thoughts of the unicorn from his mind and focus on getting through the rest of the day.
The rest of the school day seemed to liven up for him ever since then. He was able to pay attention to Ms. Cheerilee and to what she was teaching. However, every now and then, he kept looking back at Sweetie Belle for a moment before looking away. It went on like this until the last bell rang, ending school for the day.
“Have a good day, everypony,” said Ms. Cheerilee, “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
As all the fillies and colts began leaving, Rumble began packing his things and left with the others as opposed to leaving last. When he trotted outside, he saw his older brother, Thunderlane, standing there waiting for him, a smile on his face.
“Hey, little guy,” he said, patting his hoof on his back, “How was school?”
“Great,” Rumble said, as the two of them began making their way down the dirt path.
“How’s your new teacher?” he asked, “Is she nice?”
“Yeah, she’s nice,” said Rumble, looking at the ground for a moment
“How about the other kids in your class?” he asked, “Did you make any new friends?”
Before he answered, Rumble looked behind him to see the three fillies from before getting into some sort of wagon that was attached to a scooter. When he saw the white filly putting on her helmet and getting in the wagon, he turned to his brother and said, “I think I did.”
“See, what did I tell you?” Thunderlane said, “I told you you’d make friends here.”
Rumble nodded his head at his brother, smiling as he did. However, it was short lived as his thoughts focused back on Sweetie Belle and what had happened to him earlier. Should he tell his brother about what happened or wait until he, himself, knew what happened?
“Come on, Rumble,” called out Thunderlane, “We have to hurry if we’re going to make it on time.”
Snapping out of his thoughts, he noticed that he was falling behind a little bit. He trotted faster until he caught up with the older Pegasus.
“On time for what?” he asked when he was next to Thunderlane again.
“While you were at school, we got an invitation to a place called, ‘Sugar Cube Corner’,” he explained, “Some sort of party is being held for us later, so we need to hurry home and get ready.”
“A party?” asked Rumble, raising an eyebrow.
“That’s what it said,” said Thunderlane as he smiled at him, “Who knows, maybe it’s some sort of welcoming party or something.”
The colt nodded in understanding as the two of them neared the inn. As they entered the building and headed towards their room, Rumble still couldn’t shake the filly from his mind.
It’s probably nothing, Rumble thought to himself as the two of them entered their room. It probably means that we’ll be good friends or something. I haven’t made too many friends before, so that’s what it must be. Besides, she’s not the only filly I’ve talked to today. I shouldn’t think too deeply into this.
As he placed his saddlebags down in his room, a thought kept resurfacing in the back of his head, a thought that told him that “good friends” was a really big understatement. However, he shook the thought from his mind and focused on the welcome party that they were invited to. He was just friends with Sweetie Belle, as he was with the other students in the class, like Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. There was no reason he should feel any different towards her than anypony else.
Finally convincing himself that they were just friends, Rumble began getting ready for the party they were invited to, hoping that it wouldn’t be anything too extravagant.
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I liked the chapter, got Rumble thrown into the mix effectively, but now to the important stuff.
Where is my cookie?
2250000
here you go:
finecooking.com/assets/uploads/posts/9995/rainbowCookieBlog2_lg.jpg
Uh oh. Rumble, you best stay away from there.
2250015, whoa... those look delicious, but... are those cookies? They look more like slices of cake or cake-like pastry.
Edit: Also how would you hold those without making a mess of yourself?
Called it.
Oooh boy.
Here we go.
I'm a little worried that Rarity is going to be the one to find out about Rumble's crush and then start pushing him on Sweetie Belle in hopes of getting her over her "phase." That would suck, particularly because Rumble would probably end up with most of the fallout for ending up as Rarity's tool.
greeeeeeeat. Yeah, what moguera said.
plus little rumble's gonna get his heart broken cuz she likes girls. Either that or it IS a phase and she's gonna switch and leave scoots all confused and alone.
2250082
eeyup!
2250086
technically, they're a type of pastry, despite their names: rainbow cookies. They're bite-sized, so you can pop one in your mouth without it being messy!
2250188
A lot of people did. I guess it was too obvious
2250189>>2253331
I R not sure. Only time will tell!
2254992
You did. Personally I think a lot of fans were hoping for Babs instead of Rumble but I digress.
2255000 2254992 From just the description of the story when it first came out I was thinking it may be Babs, but with the chapter with Rumble it specified it was a colt with an older brother. So it was limited to a character with a character tab that is male and has an older brother, assuming of course not OC or "other". Not so much obvious in the story, but through clues and logic.
2255017 Meh, schematics. Besides I do have a point in the fact that Babs should've replaced Rumble to make a new ship for the CMC.
I for one feel kinda conflicted about this.
On one hand, part of me hopes this becomes a polyamory/herd group, so that Everyone involved can be happy.
On the other hand, when it comes to pair shipping, doing something like that almost seems like cheating (not infidelity, but breaking the rules).
In either sense, this story is good as I'm feeling invested in how this turns out. I can't tell which route this will go, nor which is actually the "best" one. Keep up the good work.
2255041
That really doesn't work in terms of what the story is setting up, which is a conflict between being "normal" and being homosexual. Babs is another girl, so that conflict wouldn't have anywhere to go if the conflict was between Babs and Scootaloo.
So, here we are. We've climbed to the first peak of the emotional rollercoaster. There is nowhere to go from here but down and hope that the story pulls out of a nosedive before the end.
Regarding the whole idea of Rarity encouraging Rumble to pursue Sweetie Belle, I certainly hope not. That would invalidate all of the character growth she's gone through in the first chapters of this story and the last chapters of the previous one, and would squarely place her in the "repugnant" category on the moral scale.
2250000 I also demand my cookie.
2290456
sure sure. help yourself, mate!
finecooking.com/assets/uploads/posts/9995/rainbowCookieBlog2_lg.jpg
Worse would be if Scootaloo start to feel something for Rumble. (Just because the readers comments)
I hope you don't mind I bring my own cookies.
media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/2f/ef/ea/argentine-cooking-classes.jpg
As soon as I read the name 'Rumble' I went "OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT" loud enough to wake up my neighbor (It'd be more impressive if I didn't live in a dorm)