In the 5th year of the ponyville elementary, four new pony arrival broke the monotony of the school days...
An elementary school class is a fragil and complex family. What happens when a friendly and trusting earth pony, an almost always sad unicorn, a love maniac pegasus and an emotionless pegasus join them? Only time can tell...
Pleas note that this is my first story, also my mother language isn't english. I hope that someone will enjoy it.
The sun already high in the sky, as Cheerilee trotted towards her workplace, the Ponyville Elementary School. This will be her fifth year with this class. She already know everything about her class. Their personalities, habits, friends and enemies. This is her family. However, this year will be different. Four new pony will arrive to her class. She got this information two days ago. In such a short time, could not do a background check on them, so she is in the dark with the new arrivals.
As the schoolhouse appeared on the horizon, Cheerilee let out a sigh. She could only hope that everything is going to be fine...
Sweetie Belle tossed and turned in her bed, not wanting to get up. She know that this day is school day, the first one in this year. She was waited for this day, when she can meet with her friends and her teacher. She was in Canterlot the whole summer, with her parents and sister. Sweetie missed her friends greatly. She forced herself out of the bed, and went to the bathroom, to ready herself.
Fifteen minutes later she was down in the kitchen and started to make breakfast, cereal with milk. After she finished eating, Sweetie went to her bag. Yesterday she already packed everything, but better safe than sorry. When she finished, she closed the bag, and placed it in her back and started to walk towards the door.
Sweetie was halfway towards the school when she heard something. When she turned, she saw something she didn't see long time ago: An orange pegasus filly, with purple tail, and a helmet on her head. She's riding a scooter. Scootaloo, one of her best friends, and fellow Crusader. Her friend spotted her, smiled, and waved to her. When Scootaloo caught up with her, Sweetie greeted her:
"Morning Scoot, I missed you in the summer!" she said.
"Hi Sweetie, I missed you too!" Scoot's said, and grabbed her in a quick hug.
"How was the summer?"
"It was great! I got to hang out with Rainbow Dash all the time!" cheered Scootaloo, "And what about you, Sweetie?"
"Mine was greet too," she said, "but mostly sightseeing and shopping."
They continued talking about the summer when they arrived to the school, and went in. Most of their class mates were already in ther. Their teacher, Cheerliee, is sat on her chair behind her desk. She looked a little worried.
"Good morning, miss Cheerliee!" they said at the same time.
"Good morning girls," said Cheerilee " I hope your summer was good, now pick a seat and sit down."
That was the time when they noticed the empty desks. There were eight of them, but only four pony missed from the class, including them. They didn't understand it.
"Umm... miss Cherilee?" Sweetie asked.
"What's the problem, dear?" the teacher asked.
"Why are there so many empty desk?" she asked.
"I will tell all of you when everypony is here."
"Okay." Sweetie said, and started to walk towards the two empty desk next to Appel Bloom's.
"Hi girls," she greeted them, " it's nice to see you."
"It's nice to see you too, Apple Bloom!" said Sweetie.
They chatted and waited for the others to arrive. Some time later they arrived and Cheerilee started to speak:
"Welcome everypony! I'm glad that all of you here, healthy and happy. And I have good news for you! Today, four new student is going to join our little class. Please be friendly with them and help them fit in the class."
With that, the door of the classroom opened and the new students stepped in...
The first pony who stepped in, a light brown earthpony. He's got green eyes and darker brown mane and tail. He smiled when looked around, and stepped aside. Sweetie couldn't help but smiled as well. She liked his smile. It was friendly and warm. She stopped thinking about him when the next one stepped in. A dark purple unicorn with deep blue eyes and black mane and tail. As Sweetie eyed him closely, she noticed something. He looked so... sad. As he stepped next to his friend, the contrast was conspicuous. He looked so sad, she felt her heart sank. She can't continue the thinking however, because the next pony stepped in, now a pegasus mare. Her coat is white with brilliant red mane and tail. Her eyes were pink. She grinned and bounced next to her comrades. Sweetie tought she is going to be a good friend, if they can convince her to join them. When she looked back at the door, the last one already standed in the door. As Sweetie looked at him, she felt herself shiver a little. He was a black pegasus with dark blue mane and eyes. But his feathers was the most prominent thing. They were blood red, with one gold feather in the middle on each wing. He didn't show any emotion or anything except a cold stare as he eyed the class. When he finished, he just walked next to the others and waited. Then, miss Cheerilee spoken up:
"Alright class, they are your new classmates. Please, let them introduce themself."
The earthpony stepped forward.
"Hello, my name is Softstone, nice to meet you all!" he said, with his smile unabated.
"My name is Shadowself," said the unicorn as he stepped next to his friend.
"Hi! My name is Scarlet and I like to meet new ponies!" said the white pegasus as she bounced around the two colt.
"Darkgold," said firmly the last pegasus.
"Well class, let's all ask some question to get know them," said the teacher.
A couple of them raised their hooves and Cheerilee picked one, Diamond Tiara.
"Why all of them blank flank?" she asked with a smirk. The whole class burst out laughing. Sweetie couldn't help but looked on their flank. As her classmate said, they were blank flanks, just like she and her friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. She immediatly tought they could join in their club and be Crusaders. She paused when she heard Darkgold voice.
"And what makes you so special because you have one?" he asked in a dangerously low voice as he started to walk forward.
"Because my life already has a meaning, not like yours," she said flatly.
"And what is that 'meaning'? Your cutie mark is a tiara. So, your special talent is wearing them. How pathetic!" Darkgold finish it with a snort. Diamond Tiara just sat her some time, jaw dropped and eyes staring at the pegasus. Finally, she closed her mouth and looked at her hooves. Sweetie couldn't help but stare as well. The number one bully of the class just got bullied, and can't say anything in embarrassment. This is going to be an interesting day...
Cheerilee almost got a heart attack when she realized what she has done when she choosen Diamond Tiara. When the question was asked she had to sit down because she feared the she will fall is she didn't do it. She dosen't know what to except from the newcomers. They will be aggressive or incommunicative? When she heard the answer, she knew more than she had hoped about her new little ponies...
After the first shock of the class, the new students went to the empty desks. Softstone sit in front of Scootaloo, Scarlet get one between Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Shadowself went to the nearest desk to Cheerilee's, and Darkgold got the desk in the end of the class, between Snips and Snails. Sweetie watched all of them and thought wich one of them she should start with. After the his encounter with Diamond Tiara, she decided to leave the black pegasus later. The other two of them were too far, so that leave Softstone for first. She looked at her friends and nodded towards him. They nodded in approval. She bent forward and poked his back.
"Umm... Hi. My name is Sweetie Belle. Nice to meet you," she said with a smile. He turned back, eyed her suspiciously for a few seconds and smiled.
"Hello Sweetie, what can I do for you?"
"You look so friendly and I thought that maybe we can be friends," she said nervously.
"Of course! I like to make new friends! But my other friends will not be so fast about making new friends..." he said with a sight.
"So you are friends?"
"Yes, we came here together, with Dg's parents," said Softstone" and we know each other for a very long time."
"Dg? You mean Darkgold? And why do you come here for the first place?"
"We can continue this conversation after the class, because I don't like to get punished in the first day" he said smiling. Sweetie nodded and sat back to her chair. She looked at the other newcomers: Scarlet is grinning and chatting with the two girls next to her. Shadowself is sitting still and looking ahead of him and finally Darkgold trying to ignore the talking colts next to him. The talking ended when miss Cheerilee clapped her hooves.
"Alright class, lets start the lesson. Today, you will write down your experiences about the summer," she said, and started to give paper to everypony. The students started to write, and done this until the bell started to ring.
Cheerilee collected the papers and started to read through them. She quickly went to the new ponies writings, and read them. First was Scarlet's. It was long, detailed and happy. She spend almost all the time with one of hers friends, a surprising one indeed. The second was Shadowself's paper. It was really sort but everything was there. He spend his time with his friends, but very little detail about his family, home. Then come Softstone's. He write like any other pony, but a little sorrow about some of his other friends was perceptible. The last one was the dark pegasus paper. It was medium length, detailed, and every little thing was there, except one thing. There were almost no emotion in the whole thing. It looked more like a report than essay. The only emotion what was there was hatred about an other feeling: love. Every time one of his old classmates fall in love, or somepony started to feel something for him, the text turned into a lecture about how folly thing is this. It was well hidden, but she noticed it. This was another thing she needs to confront him about. At least she have some information about them, and she know what to do with them...
Sweetie Belle trotted next to her two friend as they followed Softstone to a tree. He sat down and looked at them.
"There, now you can ask your questions, but I warn you, I'm not going to answer some of them." he said, as he gestured them to sit down as well.
"Why did you come here?" asked Scootaloo.
"All of us have his or her reason," came the answer.
"What was yours?" asked Apple Bloom.
"Before I answer, can you tell your names?"
"Ops, sorry. My name is Apple Bloom, nice to meet you!"
"And I'm Scootaloo!"
"Softstone, nice to meet you too. As for the question, I came here because my friends came here." he said, smiling.
"That was the only reason?" Sweetie asked confused.
"Of course not, but that was what you need to know."
"What do you mean?" asked Apple Bloom.
"I meant that I'm not going tell you everything about me just now, because I have bad experiences about this kind of things,"
"Okay..." she said, a little taken aback.
"Don't worry, if everything is going right you will know it, if not, well, it wouldn't matter." he said, thinking.
"And what about the others?" Sweetie asked.
" Wich one of them?"
Sweetie looked down and kicked some dirt. She stayed like this for a few minutes then said: "Darkgold"
Softstone eyed her for a few seconds, sighed, and started to talk.
"He come here because of his middle brother, and some things about his class, and that is all I tell you."
"And Scarlet? And the quiet unicorn?" asked Scootaloo.
"Scarlet came here to make new friends, SS because of his family,"
"And would you like to join our club?" asked Sweetie.
"What kind of club?"
"We want to find our cutie marks!" they said at the same time.
"That sounds interesting, however, only me and maybe Scarlet will be interested."
"Why is that?" asked Apple Bloom confused.
"Shadowself didn't good at making new friends, Dg just don't care about his cutie mark" he said.
"How is that even possible?!" Sweetie asked alarmed" Everypony want to find out what his or her special talent!"
"Well, he didn't. He knows that it will appear in time, so he didn't pay attention to it."
"Wow... he really weird..." Scootaloo said.
"You can put it that way, but that dosen't entirely true."
"Yeah, but..." Sweetie started, but the ringing of the bell stopped her. They get up and went back to the class, without a word.
The second half of the class went without any complication. After the school, they discussed a meeting with Softstone, about joining the Crusaders, and they agreed to meet at their clubhouse at four o'clock. After that, they all went home.
At four o'clock, they all gathered at the bottom of the tree. Sweetie nervously looked at them. They looked like when they stood in front of the class. Same faces and emotions. Finally, Sofstone broke the silence.
"All right guys, we came here to decide to join with their group or not. They call them self the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they want to find their cutie marks, hence the name. So, what do you think?
"YES!!" "I don't know" "No" came the answers.
"I think it's a good idea, we can make new friends, and have fun!" said Scarlet.
"I don't know if this is a good idea..." said Shadowself.
"You know my opinion" said Darkgold.
"Oh come on Darki, it will be fun!" said Scarlet as she leaned at his back.
"No. I don't care about what my special talent is. I will know it when I'm ready. It is no use to rush it." Darkgold said without a frown.
"You could at least try to be friendly!" shouted Sweetie Belle in rage, before she could control herself. Darkgold turned to her and watched her with his stony expression. Then he said.
"Why? I don't want to be your friend, you are the one who want us in your group. What the others do, that their business. But I. Don't. Care. About. You. Leave me alone, I do the same. Do we have an understanding?"
"No! Why are you doing this? You must have a reson to be so mean!" she shouted.
"Yes I have!" now he shouted too, his face twisted in anger. The others looked at him shocked. He exhaled quickly, trying to calm down. A few seconds later his stone mask was back on, turned around and gone without a word.
Sweetie, still paralyzed about what happened, just looked at the direction where the black pegasus has gone. Softstone was the one who broke the silence.
" Sweetie Belle, can we talk? Alone." he said. It was more like an order than a question.
"S-Sure" she said. They went into the woods. When they were out of earshot, he turned around and hugged her. She was so shocked, that she can't do anything just sit down. A few seconds later he released her and explained why he do it.
"This was the first time for almost a year that he showed some emotion except his cold stare. I don't know how did you do it, but thank you. Now we need to go back to the others, and please don't tell them what I said, it is a tabu between us." he said and started to walk back.
"Wait! Why is this tabu?" Sweetie asked as she got up and get next to him.
"You will know it in time..." he said. The rest of the way they were silent.
Cheerilee sat on her chair behind her desk. Across the table sat a brown earthpony colt. He looked happy, as always. Two weeks passed since he and his friends come to her class, and she decided that its time for the first teacher-student talk. She chosen Softstone because he is trying to make lot of frieds here. But not just with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, he is trying to be friendly with everypony. He is doing great, what she can't tell about the others. Scarlet, a member of the CMC too, but she is trying to be friends with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and that is simply impossible. And its looks like D.T. has bigger influence to her than the other three. Shadow Self isn't interacting with anypony except the Crusaders and his old friends. Darkgold isn't tried to interact with anypony and after what happened four days ago, she has every right to be worried. That was the day when Diamond Tiara trapped his desk to splash his face with paint when opened. He was pink all day. But he didn't say anything, his expression didn't changed a bit. After this, she thought she need to know more about them, and started the interviews with Softstone. He looked at her smiling, and finally said:
"It is because the painting incident? He is going to take grand revenge, but he plan it carfully, so maybe two or three weeks will need to finish it. You need not to worry, he won't cause any harm to anypony, just humiliation, and maybe some property damage," he said happily.
"Really? And why is he planning so long?"
"Revenge is his kind of thing. He is really good at it for better or worse. But he know his limits, and don't do anything drastic, just something big and embarrassing."
"And you are telling this me just like that?"
"Why not? You are going to find it out eventually, so why should I hide it?"
"I see your point, however, there is something I don't understand..."
"What is it?"
"How are you two friends? You are the complet opposite of each other in almost every possible way,"
"He wasn't always like this, just about half year ago,"
"What happened?"
"That isn't my place to tell, if he want to, he will,"
"And what about you?"
"What about me?"
"You look like a friendly kid, but you always watch what are you saying, select each word, paying attention not to tell your point of view."
His expression changed from happy to serious. He eyed her for a few seconds then said slowly.
"Bad things happened to every one of us, but the weight of them isn't equal. The worst is Shadow Self's. After that comes Darkgold's, but they are far from equal. Then comes Scarlet, finally me."
"And are you going to tell me?"
"Yes, I suppose I can tell you, because you can't tell anypony,"
"You are right, but that is the only reason you trust me?"
"I could say yes, but that wouldn't be entirely true, so I say no,"
"And how true is that?"
"95-5"
"And which one which?"
"I don't know,"
Cheerilee shook her head and smiled.
"Okay, now story,"
"Yes-yes. Actually, it's not just my story,"
"What do you mean?"
"You will see..."
Four years earlier...
It was a sunny afternoon when six kids sat on the grass in front of a school. There were three colts and three fillies, and they played a game called 'Truth or Dare'. One of them was a brown earthpony. When the count stopped at him, he looked really happy. An caramell unicorn filli with snow white mane and light blue eyes asked.
"Truth or Dare, Softstone?"
The called pony looked at her and said in a cheerful tone.
"I think now I say true!"
"Okay... What is your most embarrassing secret?"
"Umm... Do you all promise not to tell?"
A pale blue unicorn colt with blonde and brown mane and green/gold/blue eyes. Yes, those eyes are definitely unique. He spoke with a grin.
"Of course! We are friends, right?"
"Okay... Two years ago, my parents send me to kindergarden in a fluffy girl dress, because they thought I was cute..."
There was silenc for a minute as everypony looked at Softstone with mouths hang open. Then the silenc was replaced with laughter. Stone sat there, bright red, as everypony laughed. After the laughter died down, he said.
"Don't forget, you promised not to tell anypony!"
"Yes-yes, we know. Now it's getting late, we need to go home, bye everypony!" the blue unicorn said.
"Okay, goodbye everypony!" Softstone said as he got up and started to walk home...
The next morning, he arrived last at class. When he stepped in, everypony started to smile, but none of them said anyrhing. He didn't understand it, and he went to his desk. After the lesson, in the backyard some of the ponies from the went to him.
"What happened Stone, you cant find girly enough dress?" one of the colts asked.
"What are you talking about?" he asked confused.
"I'm sure you know, princess," this time a filly spoken.
"Princess!Princess!Princess!" they chanted.
"What's going on? How... What..." he said, almost crying.
"Do you really thought they will keep it in secret?" a colt in the front asked.
"B-But... they are my friends..."
"And? They just wanted to laugh a good, that is why they invited you,"
He can't hold it any longer. He started to sob, then cry as he laid down in the grass.
"Look, he is crying! What a filly!"
"Alright, you have your fun, now get lost!" said a new voice. Softstone never heard it before, but it was a colt's.
"And why should we? Who do you think you are?" asked the blue unicorn as he came foward from the crowd.
"Somepony who has more brain than you, Sea Lacrim," the new pony said.
"Oh really, Goldie? You are just as much joke as he is,"
"Then laugh, I don't care about a pony words who's only magic is a sewing spell!"
Now Sea Lacrim was the one who turned bright red as everypony turned to him and started laughing. He muttered somthing and run off, the crowd following him. When Softstone looked up, he saw his savior. A little black pegasus with bule mane and red feathers. As he turned he saw that his eyes were blue too. He looked at him, then smiled.
"That will teach him!" he said happily.
"W-Who are you?"
"My name is Darkgold, but my friends call me Goldie. You want to be my friend? You don't have to tell me anything you don't want, and if you tell something, I wont tell it anypony, promise!"
"S-Sure" Softstone said, as he got up, and smiled. He didn't know why, but he felt he can trust in this pegasus more than anypony befor...
"... and that is the story," Softsone said as he finished. Miss Cheerilee just sat there and watched him, unable to say anything. Most of the parts made sense to her, however, one little detail bothered her.
"He smiled? And he opened up to some stranger who he just met? Do we really talk about the same Darkgold?"
"Yes, as I said, he changed half year ago, before that, he was a different person,"
"And what about the others? When did they change?"
"Shadow a year ago, Scarlet two years ago. I don't know what was she like before, one day, he just walked in, beaten up, with her by his side. Shadow was pretty much like he is now, without the sadness and the sorrow. That is all I can tell,"
"It's alright, thank you for the talk, you can go now,"
"Okay, goodbye miss Cheerilee!" he said as he started walk towards the door
"Goodbye, Softstone," she said as she watched he go. She wrote down some more things before she placed the papers in a dossie. Now she has some clues about their past, but not close enough. However, she had a plan...
