New School
Diamond Shine hadn’t been having a good time at the School of Friendship, even recently. Ever since her ploy at the school play that happened not long ago, not many students were wanting to trust her because of that especially when she’ve given Silverstream the allergies which are nuts, but only a few of them would, two of which were Coral the hippogriff and Pyther the dragon, which they’ve been with her since she first came to the academy when they two wanted to experience ballet with her experience. Her stuck-up attitude was one of her worst attributes, and yet she couldn’t see that characteristic for herself. Until later that day, she’ll fully understand her actions.
One evening at the cafeteria, Diamond Shine was sitting on her spot alone eating her dinner with a grouchy-looking face. While she munched, she glanced at juniors passing by while mainly giving her distrustful expressions and turned away with their disappointed looks. She sighed as she watched them doing this over and over and over. Later that moment, she noticed from behind that Coral and Pyther were heading towards her spot while carrying their trays with their meals, thinking that they wanted to meet up with her, which they were. With Pyther sitting on her right and Coral on her left, they noticed her being cranky again.
“Hi there, Diamond,” Coral greeted meekly. “What is it this time?”
“…It’s Sulcus,” Diamond complained. “She keeps spacing out about fantasy stories… a lot!”
“Uhh… You mean ‘He’,” Pyther corrected.
“He!?”
“Yeah, Sulcus is a male.”
“Are you joking? He’s pink, and has long eyelashes, not to mention his voice is high-pitched. How can you blame me for mistaking him for a girl?”
“It’s not his fault he looks like that,” Coral noted. “He was born that way, and he’s proud.” She smiled afterward.
“Well, maybe he should pick a better-looking form. Since he’s a changeling, he can change into whatever he wants!” Diamond asserted.
Pyther laughed. “He can… unlike your attitude,” she mocked.
“EXCUSE ME?”
“It’s obvious. Do you wonder how we’re some of the only ones who enjoy spending time with you? Look around.” The dragoness drew her friend’s attention to the rest of the students that were giving her the stink eye.
“She has a point. It was mostly because of what happened at the play last time,” Coral guessed.
“Probably.”
“Well, I can’t help it,” Diamond Shine complained, while she was fidgeting with her spoon. “I had a bad start earlier this morning.”
“Oh? What happened a while ago?” Coral asked.
Diamond Shine then began to explain her situation, while Coral and Pyther listened. “Just this morning, right after I got out of my very relaxing shower while with my towel on my head, I remember seeing Trud and Orri running towards me with a bowl of their homemade Yakyakistan stew. They were so close to me, that in a split second when I saw them, I got bumped by them and they spilled their stew on me by accident. It was all over me, and I had just taken a shower! I can smell hay all over myself. I couldn’t get it all out before my first class, so I had to pick that out throughout the day.”
“Yikes…”
“Not just that. During gym class, Garry kept on pushing me to keep up with him. He and I have like between 25-30 full laps right outside the field running. In the end, I was drenched in sweat. I wanted some more time in the shower after that, but then I was told by Smolder to have the hot water for the boys… if they didn’t get themselves filthy every day!”
“They can’t help themselves, apparently,” Coral commented.
“It shouldn’t be hard,” Diamond Shine stated. “You know how proper we are when taking care of ourselves.”
“By barely lifting a hoof,” Pyther snarked.
Diamond Shine glared at her. “You’re not helping.”
“Hey, I’m just as helpful as you.” The Crystal Pony just growled.
“What are you suggesting for a solution?” Coral asked.
“I don’t know,” Diamond shrugged. “Maybe make this an all-girls school.” Coral and Pyther both looked at each other in confusion.
“Right… and that’s not going to happen,” Pyther commented. “I’m sure all boys here and their parents would be ticked that they got kicked out for no good reason.”
“Well, I can’t stand the boys being so… disgusting and loud.”
As if on cue, Gale, Moss, and Trud walked in. A record player was on the yak’s back, blasting some rock music, much to the annoyance of some of the students. Coral, Pyther, and Diamond covered their ears. “Hey, guys, have you heard this new music we found?” Gale shouted.
Diamond Shine groaned as she covered her ears. “And this is another reason why I’d like this school to be for girls only.”
“Doubt that gender would help fix issues like this,” Pyther, who also covered her ears, commented. Diamond Shine just groaned and left the cafeteria to get some peace and quiet. Little did she know, somebody was watching her and got some clever ideas.
Later that evening, the Crystal Pony was in her dorm getting tucked in bed. She could hear Gale, Moss, and Trud laugh as they passed by her door. “Ugh, why couldn’t mom send me somewhere else? I wish this school is for girls only.” The spoiled Crystal Pony groaned as she tried her best to get to sleep.
Another morning arrives, and the sound of the school bell ringing spreads throughout the school. It is time for another day. Diamond, with her pillow sandwiched on her head, heard the bell, and she immediately opened her eyes, removed her pillow from her head, and got off the bed while she grumbled and yawned. After feeling awake, she went out to the door and made her way to the cafeteria to get breakfast. As she moved, she saw Silverstream and Yona walking past her with a familiar Minotaur. It looked to be like Terry, but it was a female and she had a school jersey on.
“I find it frustrating that I’m the only one in this school that needs to wear clothes,” the Minotaur complained.
“Yona sees why it’s frustrating,” the yak commented.
“I don’t see what the major issue is,” Silverstream admitted. As they carried on, Diamond Shine was confused.
“What? Terry isn’t…. Where did she…?” Diamond was speechless. She tried shrugging it off as she just woke up a while ago.
When she arrived at the cafeteria as she was about to get her breakfast, she then noticed something… unusual. She saw every student in this cafeteria was all girl. Not one boy in sight. It wasn’t because the boys weren’t present, all of them were girls. November Rain, Gus, Gallus, Sandbar, Rusty Wrench, Tanzanite, every male had somehow turned female. What was weirder to her is that nobody was questioning it, none of them were suspicious about the gender change of boys, they acted as if everything was normal. Not knowing what was going on, she instantly found Emerald who was about to get her morning meal. She caught up to her and whispered to her.
“Hey, Emma,” Diamond Shine whispered.
“Yeah?” Emerald whispered back.
“Does anything around you seem out of the ordinary?”
The green dragon then took a short glimpse around the room, seeing all girls. “What’re you talking about? Everything here seems normal,” Emerald admitted. “Nothing weird happened recently.” Diamond didn’t say a word and was shocked when Emerald said that. “Now, excuse me, Perri is waiting for me.” She picked her breakfast up and moved to her table where her twin sister was sitting, leaving the confused Crystal Pony behind.
“This ain’t right,” she murmured, and then went straight in line to get her breakfast.
After getting it, she went on to find Coral and Pyther. She found them who appeared to be sitting with Geena and what looked to be the female Garry. “So, do you believe we should have uniforms or jerseys for our school teams?” Pyther asked. “I was hoping that we might.”
“I mean, if they don’t slow us down, I’d be fine with it,” the female Garry said.
“If it’s just something like a t-shirt, then I’ll wear it,” Geena chuckled. They then looked over to Diamond Shine, who sat with them.
“Morning, Geena,” the Crystal Pony spoke. “…Sleep well?”
“Sure did,” she confirmed with an energetic grin. “Gina and I are pumped for what new sports outfits Professor Rarity has for us.” She and the female Garry shared a fist bump.
“I expect them to be good,” Gina, a female Garry, giggled.
Diamond still didn’t comprehend why every male was female, let alone them being completely okay with it. Still, this was something that she wanted. She decided to just roll with it, for the time being, thinking it’d be good to be at a girl’s school.
Right before class, Diamond Shine went inside the washroom to take a shower. She was lucky to be one of the first girls there. As she was about to begin, she noticed a female version of Sandbar in front of the sink and mirror having a hard time brushing her hair, likely because of her hair knots. Seeing her struggling made Diamond feel bad, and wanted to help her.
“Need some help?” Diamond asked.
“Please do,” Sandbar requested. “I’ve been here for minutes.”
She was given the hairbrush and began brushing Sandbar’s mane. However, this distracted them from the dragons using limited hot water in the shower area. When Diamond Shine finished helping Sandbar, she gave the brush back to her. “Done,” she confirmed.
“Ooh, I looked terrific,” a female Sandbar exclaimed. “Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome. Happy to help, Sandbar.”
“It’s Sandbank,” she corrected.
“Oh… right. Anyways, I’ll see you later.”
“You too.” Sandbank left the washroom to reach her classroom in time.
Now that she’s finished with that, it’s now time for her to take a nice shower. She got into the area, took a spot, and turned the faucet on, only to be met with freezing cold water. It rinsed onto her warm skin, and she immediately moved away after feeling that sensation. It felt like she was under the snowy weather without any winter clothing.
“GAH! What happened to the water?”
“You snooze, you lose,” Geena, who had finished brushing her teeth, commented. “They’ve used the remaining hot water. Now you have to deal with this.” She walked off as the yaks started using the cold water.
“Yak don’t know what pony complain about,” a female Trud, showering beside her, commented. Diamond Shine groaned as she knew this was going to be a very long shower.
Later that day, Diamond Shine continued with her school routine. As of the moment, she hadn’t run into many conflicts. The schedule was still the same, so presumably, there wasn’t anything different, except that she’s both bothered and doubtful when all boys were girls. When she arrived at Rarity’s classroom for her next session, she can hear gossip from her classmates, particularly Ocellus and female versions of Flare, Gus, and Terry.
“So, you’re saying that Crystal Ponies become translucent when the Crystal Heart hits them?” Terry asked.
“That’s right,” Ocellus confirmed. “The heart was lost a long time ago, but when Twilight Sparkle and Spike found it…”
“Just a minute,” a female Flare interrupted. “Do you see right through the ponies or do you see their internal organs.”
“I’m pretty sure you just see through them.”
“So, would you just see through Diamond Shine?”
“I supposed that she would have some visible fat,” Gus said, adding her opinion to the conversation.
“I’m sorry?” Diamond Shine blurted. She was offended since she heard her name and ‘fat’ in the same sentence.
“Hey, you never told us how the Crystalling works,” Flare stated. “How are we supposed to know?”
“Ask her since she’s the only one here,” Gus said, “Still don’t think Silverstream and Gally forgave you after that stunt you’ve made.”
“First of all, for starters, it’s the Crystal Heart that gives us our unique look; secondly, I’m not fat!”
“Uh-huh. So you’re not going to address the peanut allergy incident?”
“Ahem!” called a voice. The students faced Rarity coming in with her glasses and a rod, who heard their conversation. She stood in front of her desk and placed her stuff down. “Is there something important that you wanna say before we start our session?”
“They were talking rumors about me,” Diamond Shine stated.
“What sort of rumors specifically?”
“Ones about…… I don’t wanna say it…”
“Come on now, darling. You have our attention, it must be for a good reason. Go ahead.”
Diamond sighed. “It’s about my fat.” Several snickers and snorts of laughter could be heard around the classroom.
“Very nice, Diamond Shine. Keep those thoughts to yourself, would ya?” Rarity then began her lessons as the crystal pony heard other classmates trying to hold their laughter.
The bell rang, and classes have been dismissed. After that embarrassing faux pas, she, Coral, and Pyther went out of school. They were heading downtown towards Rarity’s boutique. “So, what’s the plan for today, Diamond?” Coral asked.
“I saw those dresses yesterday, and I knew that they were perfect for us,” Diamond Shine informed. “I also saw one that I think… that Pyther will adore.”
“Really?” Pyther exclaimed. “Well… I hope it’s unique. I’d see that for myself.”
They made it to the boutique where Diamond Shine was expecting to see the dresses. When they entered the shop, they can only see three naked mannequins where those dresses that Diamond talked about originated. They’re gone.
“Hey, these dresses were here yesterday. Where did they go?”
Rarity peeked out from her room to see the three girls inside her shop. “Oh, hi girls. Sorry, but I’m afraid that three others have beaten you to the punch.”
“Who bought the dresses then?”
“They’re inside the fitting rooms.”
The girls then took a peek inside the rooms to see Smolder and female versions of Gallus and Sandbar all wearing the dresses Diamond Shine wanted to purchase. They were checking themselves in the mirror with their new dresses.
“Hey, ladies,” Gallina, a female Gallus, called, then turned around to show off his flank. “Does this dress here make my flank look big for you?”
“Not at all,” Smolder admitted. “You looked amazing to us. I’d not mind seeing that flank of yours.”
“I agree,” Sandbank nodded. She turned back to the mirror to see a frustrated Diamond Shine coming in. “Oh, hello, Diamond. What do you think of these?”
“Very gorgeous,” she said bluntly. “I was going to buy them for me and my friends.”
Gallus just smirked. “We don’t see your names on them,” she stated. “I gotta say, this dress looks better on me than it would on you.”
Diamond Shine grumbled under her breath as Rarity looked around for another dress for the crystal pony. “I think I have a few other dresses in your size. I can search for them for you if you want.” The spoiled pony groaned as she went to look at the dresses, but they weren’t the dresses she wanted.
“I thought that having girls in town would be a good idea.” The crystal pony was regretting her wish now.
That evening, Diamond Shine was back in her dorm room alone sitting in front of her desk, wanting some time for herself. She was still down in the dumps from the dresses she wanted to buy a while ago. As she stares at the ceiling with silence filling the air, a knocking could be heard from her door. “What do you want?” she yelled.
“Diamond? It’s me, Sandbank,” said the voice belonging to the female Sandbar. “Can we have a chat for a while?” She stood up from her chair and headed towards the door. She opened up and saw Sandbank standing in front of her, carrying the dress that she was wearing at the boutique earlier. “Hey, uhh… I’ve heard that you wanted this dress and… I was curious about getting one of those new swimsuits Professor Rarity talked about.”
“Oh, for real?”
“Yes. I was thinking that you deserved this dress more than I did. I felt that Gallina bought it out of spite.” The earth pony handed the crystal pony the dress, which made Diamond Shine feel better.
“Uhh… Thanks a lot, Sandy. I’ve… had a bad day today.”
“A smidgen of kindness always helps. And you’re truly welcome. You can come and hang out with us anytime you want.” Sandbank smiled and walked away, leaving Diamond Shine with the dress, which she was happy with it now. She closed the door and hung the dress up in the closet as she began thinking about her wish.
“I wished this school had boys again,” she muttered. She decided to sleep on this issue as whatever caused it in the first place would hopefully be solved in the morning.
Another morning arrived, and the bell rang its melody. Diamond Shine got up from bed, rubbed her eyes to clear her vision, and hopped off. She immediately headed down the hall to Pyther and Coral’s dorm room. Along the way, she passed by Rusty and Kelpie, which both were still girls again. This was a disappointment to Diamond. She wasn’t sure what to do at this point as it looked like her wish was here to stay. She made it to the dorm room of her friends anyway, so she might as well talk to them. She knocked on the door and walked inside.
“Pyther, Coral, I was hoping we can…” Diamond Shine paused in shock when she walked inside the dorm room. She noticed that both Pyther and Coral’s features were different. Pyther has bigger horns and the body was bulkier than the regular skinny one; Coral has a bigger beak like an average male hippogriff, and the mane was shorter and round. Their dorm room also appeared to have some exercise equipment in it and not one thing average girls would own. Both of them were lifting weights before they noticed their friend walking in.
“Good morning, Shine,” the male Coral greeted while being sweaty. “Pyro thought it would be a good idea to do some training out of the way today.”
“T… Training?” Diamond Shine said with her jaw dropped.
“Yeah, how else do you think I got these muscles?” the dragon name Pyro asked. He placed his barbell down to give his arms a flex.
“Um… You do that… I’ll meet you at breakfast.” The crystal pony ran out of the room, leaving both boys fairly confused.
Running down the corridor, Diamond was more confused than ever. It would get worse as she ran into a female version of Pate. She wasn’t alone as she looked to be talking with the cheer squad… at least the gender-flipped versions of them.
The male version of Lighthoof looked at the crystal pony. “Oh, hi, Diamond,” he said. “You’re looking good this morning.”
“Um… Thank you?” Diamond said, not too sure what to say about this. She looked towards Pate, who was nuzzling Shimmy Shake, who was giving the changeling an arm hug.
“Oh, Quake,” Pate cooed. “Your love is so sweet.”
“Thank you,” the cheerleader-turned-colt said.
“Say, you think we’ll have time to practice today?” a male Silverstream asked. “I want to try that new pass technique.”
“Eh, we’ve got plenty of time,” a male Smolder shrugged. “I’m not going to miss breakfast.” The dragon walked away. Most of the team followed him.
“What are you guys practicing?” Diamond Shine asked.
“Buckball,” a male Lighthoof replied. “We’ve gotta go now.” Everyone walked away from Diamond Shine who was looking very confused.
She turned around when she saw female Gale, Moss, and Trud looking at her. “What do you want?” she asked.
“Hey there, Diamond,” a female Gale said.
“Wanna hang out sometime?” a female Moss asked.
“Shine handsome stallion,” a female Trud commented.
“Stallion?” Diamond Shine repeated as she heard her voice become deeper. She blushed at the sound of it. Panicking, she hurriedly ran back to her dorm to find a mirror. When she did she saw she had the body of a colt. Diamond Shine let out a scream of horror as he couldn’t believe this. “No! No! NOOOOO!!!!”
He ran out of the school where he kept running into several girls trying to talk with him. This wasn’t what he wanted, he wanted to have things back to normal. He wanted to be a mare again!
Just then, the sound of laughter could be heard. Everyone suddenly vanished from Diamond’s sight as her body suddenly changed back into her old one, including her voice, making her feel relieved after the change. She heard the laughter again. The background around her changed into one that looked like the night sky, with Diamond standing on a starry path. Looking around, Diamond Shine then saw Princess Luna and… a strange hodgepodge of a creature. While she didn’t know what it was, he was laughing along with the former princess.
“I told you this would be a riot!” the creature cackled.
Luna wiped a tear as she was laughing so hard. “I almost said no to you,” she wheezed, “But I’m glad I didn’t.” They let out the last of their laughter as Diamond Shine wanted answers.
“What is going on here?!” the Crystal Pony doubted with confusion.
Both Luna and the creature managed to stop laughing before the hodgepodge explained himself. “Allow me to introduce myself,” he said. “I am the being of chaos known as Discord. Yesterday, I heard that you were tired of boys and I wanted to see how a day at an all-girls school. Though… there possibly won’t be a way for me to do that without Starlight Glimmer being involved.”
“That’s where I come in,” Luna explained. “With some help from Discord, we were able to make a dream scenario where every boy at your school is a girl.”
“Then we tried out the idea with boys and girls switching places,” Discord added. “Wish we could’ve let that go on longer.”
“But…. why did you do it on me?” Diamond asked. “There should be a reason.”
Luna smirked. “I’m glad you asked. Months ago, your school held their theater play called “Mare & the Monster. Moments before that, you wanted to be in the lead role.” Diamond Shine then reflected on her time when she did anything to be doing her part as the main character. “So, you made your stunt, which you know what you’ve done.” Diamond looked away as she remembered going overboard with her plan. “Do you realize what you’ve done? All just to get a role?”
She sighed with guilt. “It’s true…” she guiltily admitted. “I felt so stupid when I did that. It was asinine of me.”
“Sure enough. I hope you learned your lesson.”
“You’re right, I’ll never do such a thing like that.” Diamond sighed again. “I can’t believe that it felt so real!”
Luna chuckled. “That’s what dreams are for, despite I’m already retired as a princess.”
“Now, Diamond Shine, Discord added, “with this scenario we have made, we hope that this would be a good way of showing you to be more careful on what you wished for. You asked for it before you took a slumber.”
Diamond Shine remembered. “I know, and I regretted it afterward.”
“Also, take Sandbank’s advice on being a nicer creature. Like she said: a smidgen of kindness always helps. You don’t have to be grumpy every day, smile and be happy that you have friends with you.” Discord smiled at her and Luna nodded. “Now then, since it’s almost morning, it’s time for you to wake up. Luna?”
“Will do!”
“Wait, hold on…” Before Diamond could continue asking anything else, Luna’s horn glowed and Discord snapped his claw creating a bright flash.
Her eyes shot wide open, her body sprung up like a catapult, and her lungs ventilated like crazy. She saw that she was back in her dorm still on her bed. She felt fully relieved knowing that it was a dream. Getting out of bed, she went to the mirror and, once again, she was no longer a stallion like the one in her dream. As she stared, Diamond reflected on what Luna and Discord has said to her, she knows that it was wrong and foolish to do such an act. Realizing the mistake, she’s ready to make a change.
Going out of the door and walking down the corridor, she saw Silverstream and Terry having a chat with each other, feeling eased to know that they were back to their normal selves.
“Good morning, Diamond,” called a voice. She turned back to see Pyther and Coral approaching her.
“You looked good this morning,” Pyther said. Before she could continue, Diamond Shine quickly gave Pyther and Coral a group hug with a delighted look, which made them feel puzzled.
“Oh, girls,” she sighed. “I’m so glad you’re back to normal.”
The hippogriff and dragon faced each other in confusion. “Back to normal?” Coral parroted.
“It was a very weird dream. I’ll tell you about it over breakfast.” Diamond Shine, Coral, and Pyther left together towards the cafeteria to have their breakfast. As they head off, a certain draconequus leaned against the wall watching her.
“I hope that you watch yourself, Diamond,” he chuckled. “You’ll progress soon.”
He then looked to see Sandbar and Gallus walk past him. “Morning, Discord,” Sandbar said.
“Hi, boys.”
“What’re you doing here?” Gallus asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Discord replied. “I was only seeing how things going here. And I see it’s doing fine at best.” Not wanting to be caught by anyone else, especially one of the professors, Discord teleported away. Gallus and Sandbar shrugged as they too are heading to the cafeteria as well.