(Brrrriiiiinnnnng) The bell signaling the end of class sounded throughout the halls of Canterlot High School, as the student’s briskly walked out of one class, and on their way to the next. A system which one Sunset Shimmer still thought was quite silly.
“Why not just have all our classes in one classroom with one teacher?” she had once asked Fluttershy. “Seems like kind of a waste of time to have to walk from one classroom to another when we are already in one.”
Fluttershy had explained that it was because certain teachers were more suited for certain subject’s then others. Sunset tried arguing that a good teacher should be capable of tackling every subject taught, but Fluttershy had just shrugged in response.
However the bizarre methods of Canterlot High School was the least thing currently on Sunset’s mind, as she walked through the halls toward her next class. She had recently been approached by a school guidance counselor about choosing her electives for the school year, and one of the ones she had chosen was Painting. Sunset still was not sure as to what she was planning to do after graduation (her original life plans certainly were now out of question), so not sure of what to do, she had closed her eyes and picked two electives at random. Painting had been one of them.
Reaching the classroom she walked in and took her seat. In front of her stood a long wooden easel, some white acrylic paper, and a large assortment of paint’s. After the rest of the class had filed in, the teacher stood up and addressed the class. He was one of the weirdest looking teacher’s Sunset had ever seen, sporting long black hair with a goatee, and a white lab coat.
“Welcome to Painting class” he started in a deep monotone voice. “There will be absolutely zero talking or socialization of any kind in this class.” He glared around the room as though daring someone to speak up, and give him a reason to set an example of them. “I don’t expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is Painting, but for those select few” he glanced around the room again, his gaze lingering longer on the few students who were of higher class. “I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the sense, I can teach you how to bottle fame, paint glory, even beyond death.”
Sunset took out a pen and some paper, and began writing down everything he was saying.
“However” he continued “Maybe some of you have come to CHS with abilities so formidable that they feel confident enough to not pay ATTENTION!”
He banged his hands against his desk startling Sunset from her notes.
“Well, well, well, Sunset Shimmer” he said “Our, new, celebrity”
Sunset looked around embarrassed as the class turned to stare at her, wondering if he was referring to her helping her friends defeat The Sirens, or the time she turned into a raging She-Demon and attempted to turn the entire school into her own personal slave army.
He took a few steps forward until he was right up against her desk glaring down at her. “Tell me Miss Shimmer, who was the famous painter who painted the Sistine Chapel?”
“I don’t know sir” She said, feeling even more embarrassed by the minute.
“A pity” he said with a cracked smirk “Clearly fame isn’t everything, is it Miss Sunset?” With that he walked back to his desk, leaving Sunset to wonder if taking Painting was such a good idea after all.
Upon reaching his desk he turned around and addressed the class. “For those of you who are not complete imbeciles” he glanced at Sunset again “You may have noticed an easel and some paint in front of you.”
Sunset turned her attention to her easel thinking to herself that it was kind of a hard thing not to notice.
“Your first assignment today you will be attempting to paint” he paused and reached down to pull something from under his desk, pull out a pot full of flowers, and setting them on his desk “this bouquet of flowers. You are to paint to flowers EXACTLY as they are, and you will be graded on exactness, including the proper lighting and texture. You have thirty minutes exactly, you may begin”.
Sunset picked up her paintbrush and paint’s, and began setting up her paint pallet wondering how in the world she was going to pull this off without any prior training on how to paint. After laying out all her assorted colors onto the pallet, she leaned over to glance at the bouquet of flowers. There was a mixture of Roses, Sunflowers, and Dandelions in there. She started with the vase they were in, grabbing some Brown paint, and first outlining the vase, before filling in the color. Then she started painting in the vines, followed by some red for the roses, yellow for the sunflowers, and so on. Once she had the basic colors in she began trying to add texture and lighting. Glancing at the clock, she realized she only had ten minutes left, and quickly set to work using a thin black brush to add textures to the petals of the flowers, and a thin fan brush to add lighting. When the thirty minutes was up, the teacher shouted for them to lay down their supplies, and began walking around the class critiquing their work. He was much harsher on those of poor or middle class then on those of higher class, regardless of the work they had created.
Looking at her own work, Sunset could only imagine the harsh critic she was about to get. At last he finally came to her easel, the last one of the class, and gave it a snide smirk.
“Well, well, well what have we here?” he asked. Sunset’s picture was far from perfect, it was chalk full of messy brush strokes, the lines where uneven, and it looked nothing like the bouquet on the table.
“Tell me Miss Shimmer, do you have poor eyesight or are just extremely hard of hearing?” He asked “I thought I made it quite clear I wanted it to look EXACTLY like the bouquet on the table?”
Sunset slid down her seat ashamed. She could hear some of the High class student’s snickering around her.
The teacher took hold of one of her smallest brushes, loaded it with red paint, and painted a large F on Sunset’s painting. He then walked away leaving Sunset to stare in disbelief at the giant red F on her paper. How could she possibly have failed an assignment on the first day?
Suddenly to her relief the bell rang again signally the end of class. Sunset gout of her seat quick as a flash and bolted for the door, determined to get as far away from their teacher as she possibly could. Upon making it back to her locker, she shoved her books into it and slammed the door hard, leaning back against its cold surface, and making a mental note to never pick another elective blindly again.
“Time to find another elective.” She sighed to herself, and started making her way back to Vice Principle Luna’s office.
Sunset tries Theater.
Sunset Shimmer walked out of Principal Lunas office the next day, after receiving her new elective, or electives as she had been granted the choice normally only given to new foreign student’s to try several electives in one year, in order to choose the one that best fits them. Looking down at today’s schedule, her current elective was theater. Sunset made her way to her class hoping heavily her next teacher would end up being a little nicer than her last one.
Arriving at the Theater department, she entered the class and took a seat. This time they were seated in chairs all facing a small make shift stage at the front. As the final bell rang signaling the beginning of class, their teacher waltzed in. This teacher had one of the weirdest wardrobes Sunset had ever seen in her entire time at CHS, no check that, her entire life including her time in Equestria. She was wearing a long black dress that was filled with bats of every kind from vampire bat’s to fruit bat’s, and she wore a funny little hat, that had what looked to be a stuffed bat hanging off the front held in by a spring.
“Well so much for a normal teacher” Sunset thought to herself, rolling her eyes “This one is clearly gone batty.”
“Greetings my young student’s, my name is Professor Wompkins” Their teacher greeted them with an eerie smile. “Welcome to Theater class, in this room we shall journey together into the world of fantasy, in this room we shall learn to see BEYOND” she shouted, attempting to flail an arm around the room and tripping over her long dress in response.
“Ok forget batty, more like loopier then a bowl of fruit loops” Sunset thought rolling her eyes again.
“For our first lesson today, we shall be working in pairs. So please find a partner and take a seat next to them.”
Luckily for Sunset she was taking this class along with Rarity, who was taking it as a full time elective. Having already sat down next to each other, they waited for everyone else to choose their partner’s and take a seat. When everyone was seated, Professor Wompkins continued.
“Now then” she said “This first exercise is a little something I call The Mirror” she threw up her hands waving them dramatically, causing Sunset to wonder if she had forgotten to take some serious mental medication before class. “You are to face your partner standing up, and take turn’s mimicking each other’s movement’s, each of you has five minutes to mimic the other. Off you go then”
“What in the world does this have to do with acting again?” Sunset asked turning to Rarity. Rarity only shrugged in response, and the two of them began trying to mimic each other’s movement. After a while they each began to try and think of the most ridiculous and bizarre things to make the other one mimic, which began to make it kind of fun. Sunset made Rarity mimic her jumping up and down like a monkey, while Rarity made Sunset wave her hands around like Professor Wompkins and make funny facial expressions while doing so. Ten minutes later Professor Wompkins called for them to stop and return to their seats.
“Now then” she said again, leaping spectacularly onto the stage in front of them “We shall start our journey onto the wide wonderful world of STAGE ACTING, starting with the amazing and awe inspiring works of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE” she said waving her hands around and doing a little jig on stage as she spoke.
“They must be related” Sunset joked in a whisper to Rarity” They’re both complete loons!!”
“Now, can someone give me an example of something he wrote?” she asked the class.
“How about that story where two people have relationship problems and then someone dies? “Sunset replied “OH wait, that’s all he ever wrote about.” She added, causing everyone in the class to snicker into their hands other than Professor Wompkins.
“Well that may be how you younger people interpret his works” Professor Wompkins said crossing her arms in slight annoyance. “But that’s just because it’s hard for younger folk to understand the mind of a true literary and theatrical genius.”
“Wait, literary genius? I thought we were talking about William Shakespeare?” Sunset replied before she could stop herself, causing half the class to fall out of their chairs laughing.
“So Miss Shimmer, you think YOU can write better plays then Shakespeare?” Professor Wompkins asked her sternly.
“I’m pretty sure a dozen monkey with typewriters could write better stuff then he could, in fact I believe that is actually a scientifically proven fact.” Sunset responded.
“I see then, does anyone else here feel they too could write better then Shakespeare?” she asked the entire class, looking around the room sternly. Everyone in the class raised their hand, Sunset was pretty sure even the mouse who was nibbling on something in the back corner also raised his hand. “In that case” she said with a huff “You all have ten minutes to write a short play in pairs you think is better than anything Shakespeare wrote, you will then perform it near the end of class. Off you go then.” She waved them of with her hands and everyone got into groups of pairs, Sunset of course pairing with Rarity again.
“Well this shouldn't be too hard.” Sunset said confidently, taking out some paper and pen. “Any ideas?” she asked Rarity. Rarity just shrugged, so Sunset was left to write the entire thing herself, with only a little input from Rarity here and there. Luckily for her she had been taught some about play writing back in Equestria by Princess Celestia. When the ten minutes was up, she put down her pen having completed their script, and gave it to Rarity to quickly copy off so she could have her own script to read off of while they awaited their turn to go up.
The last ones to go up, they finally climbed onto the stage, and faced the class to perform their play. Sunset had written a summarized version of the events of Nightmare Moon and the fall of Princess Luna The entire class seemed enthralled by their play, and gave them a standing ovation at the end. Sunset could catch Professor Wompkins at the back of the class, pretending to look un-impressed.
As Sunset and Rarity returned to their seats, Professor Wombat walked up the front and addressed the class. “Those where all fairly good attempts” she told the class “But I’m afraid none of them came even close to the brilliance of William Shakespeare.” A small piece of cheese suddenly came flying at her from the back of the room, hitting her square in the face. Sunset swore she could hear the mouse at the back of the room booing at Professor Wompkins.
At long last the bell signally the end of class rang out, and the whole class filed out, Sunset again being the first to leave in a hurry.
“So what did you think of the class?” Rarity asked, catching up to her in the hall.
“I don’t know, the teacher seems a bit off her rocker” Sunset replied. “Are they ALL like this?”
“Some, but certainly not all.” Was Rarity’s response. “What class are you trying tomorrow?”
“Computer’s with Professor Dippet” Sunset replied checking her list.
“Oh, I heard he is a scream to have as a teacher.” Rarity told her smiling.
“Would that be a scream of terror, or of insane laughter?” was Sunset’s response as the two of them headed to the cafeteria laughing.
Sitting down to eat her lunch, Sunset hoped her next few teachers would not be as much eccentric as her last two ones. Unfortunately, she would soon find out her hopes would be sadly unfounded.
