An Earthling Earth Pony at Celestia's School of Magic: Year One

by Halira

Chapter 15

”RISE AND SHINE!! I’VE GOT BREAKFAST!!”

I opened my eyes and blinked at the sunlight pouring in through the window. This was quickly followed by disorientation about what time it was.

“She hollers as loud as mah Aunt Applejack,” Bright groaned from across the room.

“What time is it?” I asked, still blinking.

“Uh…nine,” Bright replied after a moment. “Ah turned off the alarm so we could sleep in.”

So we missed breakfast. Spring Fling must have noticed. I wondered if we were the only ones.

I sat up. “How are you feeling?”

Bright rolled over in his bed and stretched. “Headache’s gone and not so sore now.” His horn lit up with a pale yellow light, and his alarm clock lifted briefly before setting back down. “Ah can lift mah clock, and ah couldn’t last night, but it’s still a strain. Don’t wanna do too much of that.”

I rolled out of bed and put my hooves on the floor, testing to see how I was doing. There wasn’t any soreness, and I was confident walking wouldn’t be an issue, but I still felt weak.

“I’m doing better, but not a hundred percent yet,” I announced.

”SUMMER WUMMER, I MADE PANCAKES!!”

I chuckled. “Let’s hope that Summer and Hannah don’t still have headaches. Spring’s yelling might make it worse.”

“Not goin’ to make Summer feel better havin’ her ma yellin’ Summer Wummer,” Bright said as he got out of bed.

We left the room to see Spring Fling setting up a small table in the hall with four pancake-laden plates, a syrup pitcher, and four glasses of orange juice.

Spring finished setting up the table and smiled at it. She then turned towards the door at the end of the hall. “Summer! Come eat breakfast!”

“Um, Spring, ma’am, you might want to not single Summer out like that if you are preparing breakfast for all of us. It might embarrass her,” I said.

Spring blinked, and her ears sagged .”Oh.” Her ears perked again. “Foals! Hannah, Summer! Your friends are here already! You need to eat to regain your strength!”

That was better, but it was probably a bit late to make Summer feel less embarrassed.

It took a moment, but the door opened, and Hannah stepped out. She smiled and looked back into her room.

“Summer, come on. You know we missed breakfast,” Hannah instructed. She stood in the doorway for a minute before stepping aside while Summer came through, her tail tuff dragging across the floor.

Spring gave her daughter a tight smile. “Well, you’re all set. I’m going to go help out the other groundskeepers. It takes a lot to keep this place looking fancy, you know. I hope you enjoy. Don’t worry about cleaning up after. I’ll get it.”

As Spring turned to go, Summer looked up.

“Mom!” Summer called out. Spring looked back, and Summer smiled. “Thanks for breakfast.”

Spring smiled. “You’re welcome.” She then turned and headed down the stairs.

Bright sat down next to the table. “Looks good, blueberry buttermilk pancakes.”

I joined him at the table. Hannah and Summer came over as well and sat down.

“I forgot to put on my pony strap,” I said as I looked at the fork.

Hannah lit her horn, and a glow enveloped the fork near her plate. It lifted for a second before going back down.

“I need a pony strap too. I might be able to use my horn to do this, but I think I’d tire myself out trying,” she said, looking sad.

Bright used his horn to lift his fork and then put it down. “Yeah, meh, too.”

Summer lit her antler, and her fork lifted, twirled a few times, and set it down beside the plate.

“I can use mine with no problem, but I’ll feel bad using my magic when none of you can,” Summer said.

Hannah chuckled. “Wish I could recover as fast as you.”

Bright leaned over and looked at Summer’s flank. “Ya got a mark! Ah didn’t know kirin got marks! Did that happen after that there surge?”

Summer pulled the bush of her tail around to cover her mark from Brught’s view. “Yeah, it did.”

“It’s kind of a sore point for her,” Hannah said. She frowned at her pancakes. “I don’t have a pony strap. I haven’t needed one since I was able to start using my horn.”

“Ah never had one. Family said they didn’t need any funny Earth gizmos to use tools,” Bright said.

“What’s a pony strap?” Summer asked.

“It’s a strap that goes around your fetlock that you strap simple tools to. When humans first transformed into ponies back on Earth, they developed it to help ponies, particularly non-unicorns, use human tools. Many of them didn’t like using their mouths to do things,” I explained. “It’s a simple design, but it's different from any old strap. It’s able to stay secure and comfortable while keeping the tool secure. You might be able to use some other random strap, but it will either be uncomfortable, or it won’t be secure to your leg or keep the tool properly secure. You need a proper pony strap for that.”

Hannah poked her pancakes with her hoof. “Guess we can just use our mouths and hooves. Will have to skip the syrup unless we want to get our hooves all sticky.”

“If you can’t finish making it up the stairs, I will pick you up and carry you, Miss Tape. We could also return to the nurse’s office and have you spend the day there.”

We all turned to look at the stairs. It took a moment, but Prim came into view, looking exhausted. Professor Newman was behind her, ducking under the ceiling. What was going on?

Prim gave us all a dirty look. “What are you staring at?”

“Miss Tape, they are simply concerned about what is happening,” Professor Newman said. She then looked at us. “Miss Tape also had a surge yesterday and failed to report it. I took note that she wasn’t using her magic in class and found that she was magically exhausted in addition to having muscle soreness. I took her to Headmaster, who checked her out, and he determined she was recovering from a surge. She has been given the day off from classes to recover.”

“How's that theory you had going, Hannah?” I asked.

“Uh…well…I guess it needs some work,” Hannah replied, bemused.

Prim shook her head. “This isn’t fair. I’m going to fall behind. I don’t care if these lowlifes do, but I can’t afford to fail.”

“Calling your classmate’s lowlives has just extended your detention with me later this week, Miss Tape,” Professor Newman said. “And your health matters more than a day in class. I admire your determination to succeed. I would not have taken you as such a hard worker by my first impression of you. If only you put as much hard work and determination into your manners. However, you will fall further behind if you hurt yourself by not allowing yourself to recover. Get some rest.”

Prim growled under her breath and went to her room. She slammed her door behind her.

“Guess we aren’t asking her if she wants to join us,” I remarked.

Professor Newman came to the top of the stairwell and continued to stoop so she didn’t hit her head on the ceiling.

“Miss Blaze, you must report to Professor Calm tonight at seven for a counseling session. The rest of you may join her for support, but only Miss Blaze is required to be there,” Professor Newman instructed.

“Why? Did I do something else wrong?” Summer asked, voice squeaking.

Professor Newman shook her head. “You’ve done nothing wrong, filly. Your mother explained that you were under a great deal of distress. The CMC normally deals with simple counseling issues, but they advised you might need a professional considering the layers of issues you might be dealing with. Professor Calm will see to it. His room is on the top floor of the fourth-year building. You’ll see a staircase at the end of the hall that leads into it.” She turned and looked at Prim’s door. “I’m scheduling you one as well, Miss Tape. You will report tomorrow night at seven. Missing this session will be frowned upon.” She looked back at Summer. “That goes for both of you.”

The door opened again, and Prim stuck her head out. “Why do I have to see him? I don’t have any mental or emotional deficiencies.”

“We had two instances of you pushing yourself when you should have stopped and rested in the last two days, both of which could have resulted in serious injury. This could be early signs of a pattern, which is unhealthy behavior. It is part of my job to assess problems students may have in reaching their full potential, and I have determined you need someone to help ease your overconcern with failure,” Professor Newman replied.

“You want me to fail?!” Prim asked in shock.

The professor smiled. “I’m not your enemy, Miss Tape. I would have you fail occasionally, but only so you can reach your highest potential, which I have assessed is quite high. Failure is something we must all face from time to time in our lives. We cannot grow properly without failure. It teaches us better than almost any other lesson if we take time to learn from it. This is what separates a master of a craft from an amateur. The master accepts failure and uses it to build. The amateur fails and gives up. You seem to have a debilitating fear of failure that leads you to reckless action, and I fear it would lead to you giving up once you suffer a large failure. That must be addressed.”

“IF I FLUNK OUT OF THIS LOSER SCHOOL, I’LL LOSE MY INHERITANCE!!” Prim screamed at the top of her lungs. She then slammed her door shut.

“Ah agree we won’t be invitin’ her to share breakfast with us,” Bright remarked.

Professor Newman sighed and walked, still crouching, over to Prim’s door and knocked. “Young mare, I’m required to see your room.”

“Why?!” Prim yelled from somewhere inside.

“To see if your surge caused any damage,” Professor Newman answered. “I advise you to cut down on the yelling as well. That uses a lot of energy, and you must rest and recover. Come, open the door, allow me to inspect, and I can leave you be for the rest of the day. I have had enough of your theatrics for today, and I hope you have also had enough of them.”

“Wouldn’t my dear bootlicking brother have alerted you if there had been any damage?!” Prim yelled.

“It is days like this I regret giving up using the Lord’s name in vain,” Professor Newman muttered in English.

“What she say?” Bright whispered.

“She was complaining in a religious sort of way,” Hannah answered.

“She callin’ on some god to smite Prim?” Bright asked.

I shook my head. “More like complaining that she gave up the practice of calling on a god to smite people.”

“Oh…ah see. It must be one of them strange Earth customs. Can’t blame her. If ah knew any god, ah’d might ask them real polite-like to smite Prim,” Bright said.

“That’s horrible!” Summer protested.

“Well, ah said ah’d be all polite-like ‘bout it.”

Professor Newman gave us an unamused look and knocked on Prim’s door again. “Do I need to get Headmaster here to deal with this, Miss Tape?”

The door handle slowly turned, and the door cracked open. Professor Newman pushed it the rest of the way open and stepped inside.

“I feel a little sorry for Prim. Professor Newman is being kinda mean,” Summer said in a low voice.

“It’s for Prim’s own good,” I replied.

“Yeah, but she could be nicer about it,” Summer countered.

“She strikes me as one of those fair but no-nonsense types, and I’m sure she was dealing with Prim’s nonsense from the classroom all the way here,” Hannah said. “Would you be able to keep your patience that long with Prim?”

Summer gave Prim’s doorway a long look. “I don’t know.”

Professor Newman emerged from the room after a few minutes and looked at us once more. “Mister Pear, you will be sharing a one-hour detention with the others at the end of the week.”

“What ah do?” Bright asked in disbelief.

“Figure that out between now and then,” Professor Newman said.

“Am I getting detention?” Summer asked.

Professor Newman raised an eyebrow at her. “Did you or your roommate do something to earn a detention?”

“Damage at the park?” Summer suggested.

Professor Newman shook her head. “That wasn’t your fault. I find no reason to give you detention. Make sure to make it to your counseling session tonight. I expect to see you all in class, bright and early, tomorrow.”

Professor Newman then pulled the door shut and headed down the stairs. She’d never mentioned if she found anything, and I doubted Prim would share if she did.

“Ah’m so confused,” Bright said, dejectedly.

“If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t figured out why I got detention either,” I told him.

“Not particularly,” Bright muttered.

Summer suddenly got up from her seat and walked towards Prim’s door.

“What are you doing?!” Hannah gasped.

“I’ve got to try,” Summer asked as she reached Prim’s door. She knocked twice. “Prim? Do you want to have breakfast with us? Food will help you recover your strength.”

“I don’t need any generosity or pity from a half-dragon freak!” Prim shouted from within.

Summer briefly started to steam, and I inched farther away from her in fear of the possibly coming blaze, but she gave herself a shake, and the smoke disappeared. Her ears were sagging again.

“Okay. Hope you feel better soon then,” Summer replied before returning to the table.

Hannah gave Summer a sympathetic pat on the back as Summer sat beside her.

“You’re right, Turnip. I don’t think my Elements of Harmony theory holds water. Prim is no Element of Harmony. She’s just despicable,” Hannah said.

There was certainly nothing harmonious about Prim, yet it was still odd that the rainboom had impacted her. That made a full half of our class that had been affected while seemingly no one else had. It couldn’t be a coincidence. There was no way the odds of something like that happening were feasible. If it was specific to our class, why just the five of us and not the other half of the class? Four of us were closer friends together with each other than the rest, but Prim was a major…and I mean major…break in that pattern, and Red was close to being a member of our close friend circle, yet he hadn’t surged. Summer and Prim had the most potent magic in class, but I was among the weakest. There had to be something we were missing, something that tied it all together to make it make sense.

I didn’t have enough information to solve that mystery. It was something to set aside, along with the mystery of who Headmaster was, where that staff came from, and why the Chinese were after a few people in Equestria. There were a lot of mysteries to solve, and all I could do was go through my days and hope to gather more information where I could.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Maybe theres chinese Water chestnut noodle dragons that souped off?

[AvoidingFever17]

“It is days like this I regret giving up using the Lord’s name in vain,” Professor Newman muttered in English.

Eh I sometimes still do it myself
I just think using it in vain is more of using it against his word

[AvoidingFever17]

“You’re right, Turnip. I don’t think my Elements of Harmony theory holds water. Prim is no Element of Harmony. She’s just despicable,” Hannah said.

Heh
Then why do i detect some Reaction with the elements?