Short and Sweet

by Lestee

First published

Celeste is a small pony with big dreams, coming to Maretropolis for the first time. But will the perfect dream turn into the perfect nightmare?

Small, artsy and joyful, the only thing Celeste doesn't have is a future. Desperate for a dream to follow, she heads to Maretropolis, hoping to make her way, but will her dream turn out not to be what she hoped?

The School

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"Hey! Hey! HEY!"
I snapped back to reality and realized I was standing in the middle of the street, staring at something that wasn't there. Some pony trying to cross the street was waving at me.
"Get outta the way, kid!" Yelled the stallion.

"Sorry, sorry!" I hurried across the street and flew from the way there.
I'm not much of a pony. I keep my blond mane up in a ponytail, (get it? Pony? Pony-tail? Oh never mind.), my eyes are a dull grey-blue and my coat a pale brown. My cutie mark is a blue pencil crossing a green paint brush, so you can infer my talent is art. More specifically drawing.
Enough about me. I flew all the way to my new boarding school, were I would be staying. I flew almost half-way across the city, my saddle-bag weighing me down. When my hooves finally touched the concrete in front of the school, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I breathed in, and pushed open the glass double doors.

The inside was huge, with oak doors and stained glass windows on the ceiling, and a huge winding marble staircase. Glass display cases were inserted into the walls, showing off big golden and silver trophies. I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass, sighing at my boring complexion.

I pushed open a door labeled, "PRINCIPAL". I walked in silently.

"Hello! You must be our new student Celeste!" A blue mare with brown hair and purple eyes sat in a big leather chair. She adjusted her thin glasses on her muzzle, then started shuffling through scrolls.
"Now tell me, do you go by Celeste or something else?"
"Um-" I hesitated. "Ponies call me Celia, or Lestee, but Celeste is just fine."
"Alright then! Let me just give you your daily schedule and I'll show you to your dorm room so you can start unpacking."

"Now here's your key, and don't let anypony borrow it, no matter what, got it?"

I nodded and she left.
I pushed my key in the lock and turned. The door swung open with a creak and revealed my new home. In the room was a bunk bed, some shelves filled with books, and two desks. One desk was messy and littered with quills, scrolls and books. The other had nothing on it.

On the top bunk sat a white pegasus pony with light brown hair, ginger-colored glasses and a brown book for a cutie mark. She lifted her blue eyes from her book and gasped when she noticed me. She threw herself off the bed, flew towards me and started shaking my hoof.

"Hi, I'm Gillian! I'm guessing your my new roommate!"
I smiled and said, "Yup. My names Celeste. And I'm guessing you've got dibs on the top bunk?"
She laughed. "It doesn't matter, you can have it if you want." She flew over me and closed the door.
I noticed she was about as short as me.

"Nah, I'm not a fan of heights. Plus it looks like you've already made yourself comfortable,"
I pointed to her bed. The covers were falling off, the pillow was at the end of the bed, and tissues, drawings and books lay tangled in the covers.
She giggled a bit and took off her glasses.
"Since I'm not in class and you don't have a class, let me show you around," She offered.
"Sure, that'd be nice."
And then she led me out the door.

***

"And this is the mess hall," Gillian pushed open a set of double doors and led me in. Tons of ponies sat at tables, laughing, eating apples, unicorns grew mustaches on each other and pegasi flew around the lunch tables.
"And it's time for lunch. Let me get my lunch box, I'll be right back. I'll show you were to get food, okay?"
She led me to a little intersection in the lunch room with chips, drinks, sweets, and junk food.
After I got my food, she led me to a table in the far corner of the cafeteria.

"Sit here, and save a spot for me." She looked at the ponies sitting at the table. "Guys, this is Celeste. She's new here, so y'all introduce yourself, m'kay?"
They nodded and one unicorn said, "Sure, Gill."
Gillian left and the first to speak was mint green pegasus. She had blue eyes, brown hair tipped in green pulled back in a braid, and a cutie mark that I couldn't make out.
"Hi, my name is Emma! And I like pie!" She screamed.
"Shut up, Emma! Nobody cares!" Yelled an orange unicorn with pale brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Her cutie mark seemed to be an emerald.
"Sorry, she's wacko. I'm Sophie."
I nodded and said, "I'm Celeste."

"Celeste. That's a nice name." I looked to see who said that, and turned to find it was the unicorn sitting next to me. His cutie mark was a red cross, and his coat was just white. He had messy blond hair and striking blue eyes.
He was regarding me with a smile that melted my small pony heart.

"Yeah, that's Michael. Like every mare at this school has a crush on him." Said Gillian. She'd come back with a turquoise lunch box and she sat next to me.
"They do not!" Michael blushed.

"Shut up Michael. Did you see how Vivienne looked at you this morning? Flirty!" Sing-songed an olive green unicorn with brown hair and matching eyes. He seemed to have a bit of an accent.
"Shut up, Nicholas, I will kill you!" Growled Michael. Nicholas laughed and took a picture of the white unicorn with his phone.
Then he laughed very loud.

"What what show me, show me!" Screamed Gillian. Nicholas levitated the phone so Gillian and I could see. the picture had Michael screaming, which gave him a really funny face.

"Make it your background, make it your background!" I shouted to him.
I already felt like part of the group.
"So Emma....." I asked. "What's your cutie mark? I can't see it well."
"It's a Minecraft block! My talent is playing Minecraft."
"And mine is playing Sims!" Said Sophie.
"Mine is reading," Gillian raised her hoof, a daisy sandwich half shoved in her mouth.
"I'm good with healing animals," Michael said.
"Hacking Video Games!" Screamed Nicholas. I realized his cutie mark was a microchip.
"Halo, WHOOP WHOOP!" Shouted a blond unicorn sitting next to Emma.
"Oh yeah! This is Eli, Emma's boyfriend." Said Nicholas.
"SHUT UP, NICHOLAS!" Yelled Emma.

Eli didn't seem to mind. His coat was turquoise and his eyes pale blue.
The rest of lunch we threw things around, laughed, took pictures of angry supervisors, and once, Sophie actually grew a beard on Eli.

***

We walked out of the lunch room, with Gillian riding on my back. I walked over to our room then asked her to get off.
She fell off and opened the door with the number written 232. She flew into our room, up to her bead, covered herself with her blankets and mass of tissues and papers and moaned.

I took the time to unpack and make myself comfortable. I put my drawing supplies in the drawers of my new desk, I put some of my books on the shelves, and then put up some of my favorite drawings and pictures up on the wall next to my bed. When I was done, I looked out our window and realized it was actually nighttime.

I moved my eyes to the top bunk and saw Gillian with a sketch pad on her lap, a pencil in her hoof, and headphones over her ears. There was a knock on our door, then silence.
Gillian didn't seem to notice.
"Um, hey Gillian?" I asked.
"Yeah?" She took off one side of her headphones.
"There was a random knock at our door."
"What? Oh yeah! It's the signal for curfew. They'll check back in ten minutes, so we better get to bed."
Gillian flew over to her desk, put down her headphones and sketch pad, then started to fly up to her bed too, when I asked, "Wait, you like drawing?"
"Yeah! It's a hobby, but not my super-duper special talent. That's reading."

She turned of the light at the top of her bed, and I did the same. I huddled under my blankets and clutched a stuffed animal from home, making me feel homesick. But that didn't matter, because guess what?
These ponies made me feel right at home.

Re-assembled Heart

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It had already been two months since I'd arrived at the Maretropolis Boarding school, and I was already in touch with my classes, had messed up my side of the room, and developed a major crush on Michael. He'd shown no interest in being my colt friend, but I still liked him.

And it wasn't just because he was good looking! He was also smart, funny, crazy in the best of ways, and charming. He always poked my cheeks and sing-songed, "Freckles!" It was cute. It was a cloudy February morning that I woke up to a knock on our door. I heard Gillian moan in her bed, and I got up and trudged over to the door. I realized I looked horrible so I quickly brushed my hair and teeth, then leaped for the door.

I opened the door, and some pony tumbled in, pressed their mouth against mine, then ran away giggling. I lay on our carpet floor on my back, flabbergasted. I looked up at Gillian and said,
"Whaaaaat?"
"Ooo, girrrrrl," She grinned.
"What?" I asked.
"That was Michael, you silly filly!"
"WHAT, IT WAS?!" I screamed.
All these years I'd felt like my heart was in puzzle pieces, and now it felt like he just re-assembled my heart. I felt my face go crimson and my hooves sweaty.


My first class was Equestrian History. I walked in and saw Michael sitting at his desk, smiling at me. I smiled back and hurried to my desk. After that he started walking towards me in the hallway. I started flying away, but a teacher yelled,
"No flying in the hallways!"
So I stopped. Michael ran up to me and lifted my muzzle so I was facing him. I realized tears were rushing down my cheeks.
"Hey, hey," He said, brushing tears out of my face. "What's wrong?"
"W- Why do you like me? I'm a mess!" I asked in between sobs.
"I- I guess- I guess because your almost as messed up as I am." He told me.
I looked around to see a crowd had gathered around us. Among them were our friends. I could tell what they were all thinking: kiss.
Michael nudged his muzzle with mine. Then he walked away. I sat there, tears drying on my face, while the crowd went to their following classes.
I felt so confused.
I sighed and trudged to my next class.


"We're Equestria Girls, standin' side-by-side, with the magic of friendship-"
"Stop singing!" I screamed to Gillian.
She stared at me.
"Sorry," I sighed. "I'm just stressed out."

Now you might be thinking, oh, she's still confused about her sudden colt-friend. Well no, that is not the case. I was so sick and tired of being locked up inside, I just wanted fresh air.
"Tomorrow's the weekend!" She squealed. "See? On weekends or we go home, or we stay here and hang! Let's stay here with all of our friends and chill!" She giggled and pointed at the snowy weather outside. "So to speak,"
"Gill, that's actually kinda brilliant!"
"Thanks! It's an original idea, by me."
Over the last two months I'd gotten to become great friends with my roommate. I already felt like we were sisters. We were in our room already in our beds, Me drawing, and Gillian reading while listening to music. The Curfew Knock (as we called it) sounded, and we turned out the lights. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I would have free time with my friends.

***