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

by Halira

Chapter 22

October 16, 2058

The first semester marched on. Things had been calm for the most part. Classes continued as usual, and I felt I was doing reasonably well. I wasn’t first in year’s class anymore; another colt who wasn’t one of our classmates was. I wasn’t even the best out of our class of ten. Twilight currently was way ahead of me, but I was ahead of Rocky, Onyx, Lunar, and Bright, which made me dead center in class rankings—not great, but not terrible. I was doing great in Professor Applebloom’s class and doing exceptionally well in Professor Neighsay’s, and those were the two most important classes. Professor Inkwell’s class was where I was struggling. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make math fun for me. I knew my grade in that class was bringing my ranking down. It was the only class I was struggling with.

Chess Club met every Saturday afternoon, and each meeting felt like a battle. Professor Newman always chose the matchups. While I did get to play against everyone in class, the majority of my games ended up being against Prim. There was no denying that the professor was trying to make us get along, and we kept our behavior in check, at least during our club meetings. The one good thing was that I did end up winning most of my games against Prim, and I knew constantly losing to an earth pony made her furious. She did win every once in a while, and she was always insufferable when she did—at least until I reminded her of our overall record, which always brought a familiar sneer to her face. She would then remind me her class ranking was higher. So our tit-for-tat continued every week. We kept cold and distant from each other in our classes. At least there were no further detentions.

A habit I had gotten into was studying early in the morning before leaving my room for breakfast. This morning, Bright was studying right along with me since there was a rumor Professor Newman was going to give a verbal pop quiz on various unconfirmed magical theories. That wouldn’t count towards the final grade, but it felt embarrassing to have her call on you, and you have no idea what the answer to her question was. It also gave the impression you weren’t retaining the lessons, which meant no aid on the final grade from her if you bombed the final.

“Starswirl’s Theory of Magical Growth,” I prompted Bright.

Bright scratched at his horn. “Uh…is that the one where havin’ a bunch active thaumic flows in a non-magical environment will eventually cause the active flows to change the non-magical stuff to magical over time?”

I shook my head. “No, try again.”

He scratched at his horn some more before shaking his head. “Ah don’ know. What is it?”

I put the flashcard aside. “Magic grows faster in a species when regularly exposed to new magics that are not part of the sources they evolved with. Magical species that isolate themselves and have little contact with new magics have their magical development as a species stagnate. The hows of that are pretty complicated, but I think she just wants you to know the basic theory, not the advanced stuff.”

Bright nodded. “Ah got it now. Ah’ll get it if she asks.”

I went to the next flashcard. “Remis’s Theory of Faith?”

“Um…ah know this one. Give meh a moment,” Bright said as he closed his eyes. “The more faith, trust, and belief a large body of ponies have for one pony can cause that pony’s power to grow far beyond their normal limits. That’s it, right?”

I nodded and set the card aside. “Technically, it is individuals and individual since it doesn’t apply to just ponies, but that is correct. That’s supposed to be partly why Celestia has so much power; all of Equestria has faith in her and her power, and if they lost that faith, her power would be weakened.”

“And any other pony could gain more magical power if enough ponies had faith in them, right?” Bright asked.

“It would have to be a lot, like hundreds of thousands or millions, but yes,” I answered.

He grinned. “So, we just got to go convince all Equestria we’re the greatest ponies ever, and we’ll get real powerful. Easy, right?”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah…no…I don’t think it is that easy. I don’t think that kind of faith is easy to get, and I think most ponies are skeptical of some nobodies having all that ability.”

He shrugged. “Ah can dream big. What’s the next question?”

There was a knock at one of the neighboring room doors so loud it interrupted me before I could continue.

“Foals! Every foal! I need everypony to gather in front of the building right away!” Spring Fling shouted.

Bright and I looked at each other, wondering what was happening, before getting up and doing as instructed.

It wasn’t just our floor; it was everyone in the dorm building that was being summoned. When we reached the outside, we saw similar gatherings happening at the other dorm buildings. Whatever this was, it was a school-wide issue. Had something happened? Something had to have happened.

Summer and Hannah had come out together, but Hail Storm had quickly headed over to Summer after we got outside. Hannah frowned and stepped slightly away as he did. She had not warmed up to the guy, and his relationship with Summer hadn't gone away. They didn’t do much for their dates. They went on walks or sometimes studied together. He didn’t seem that bad to me. He did like to brag…a lot, but he seemed to be legitimately nice to Summer and regularly complimented her, particularly her large flowing mane and tasseled tail. She hadn’t gone nirik with him, so he must be doing something right.

I spotted Prim over next to her noble friends. I wasn’t sure I would call the three friends, to tell the truth, more like ponies that tolerated one another because they thought the others had had enough social standing to hang around. Out of the group of three, Prim was not the queen bee; she was a flunky. One of the other fillies had a much higher social standing than the others, and Prim had to walk around giving lip service to how great that filly was. I imagined she hated it and had no idea why she put up with it. Still, Prim always smiled and simped about how right the filly was about everything and how pretty everything she wore was…even when it was obviously hideous. She could get along with people she didn’t like. She just didn’t get along with people she thought were below her, like me.

“Foals! Your attention, please!” Spring Fling called out as she stepped into a clear area near us.

We all gathered in a semi-circle around her. I could see the other dorms were doing the same around their dorm heads.

“Foals, I have some very sad news,” Spring Fling began. “Last night, Professor Psychic Calm passed away. Classes will be canceled for today and tomorrow. I know some of you knew him, and there will be a viewing of his body tonight, one hour after sundown. He will be transported back to Earth tomorrow for burial.”

My ears flattened. He died? I’d never met anyone who died. Maybe I had, but not that I knew of. Sure, I’d only seen him for a few minutes and only spoken to him once, but he was still someone I had met. He’d also helped Summer when she was having a hard time. Despite how little I knew him, his death shook me up.

“He’d been ill and in declining health for a while but passed peacefully in his sleep, attended by Princess Luna,” Spring Fling continued. “I never met him, but I heard he was a great pony. Princess Luna is in mourning because she was very close to him and may be unavailable to tend to nightmares for the next few days. Please don’t be alarmed if you have a nightmare during this period. Luna shall return to attending to them soon. She has done this before during times of mourning. In addition, the AV club and chess club will not be meeting this week. If any students are having trouble due to nightmares or distress about the professor’s death, Professors Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, in addition to Coach Scootaloo, will all make themselves available to help, as will I.”

She levitated out a parchment from her saddlebag and looked it over, as if making sure she covered all the details, before setting it aside.

“One last thing,” Spring said. “Guests will be visiting the school tonight and tomorrow to pay their respects. Many of them are powerful and influential figures, so please be on your best behavior around these guests. We don’t want to embarrass the school. That covers everything that I know. If you have any questions, you can ask any professor.”

Spring walked over to Summer and hugged her. Summer was crying and didn’t resist her mother’s embrace. Hail Storm stepped back from the pair, head lowered, giving them space. I didn’t know if he should be doing that or making his own effort to comfort Summer.

I was surprised when Baxter Stockman came walking quickly over towards our dorm. However, before he could reach us, Hail Storm, of all ponies, ran to him and hugged him. The grumpy AV club leader seemed slightly taken aback but quickly wrapped a webbed wing around the colt, pulling him tighter into an embrace.

“Didn’t expect that,” Hannah quietly said. “I guess Hail Storm knew the old pony.”

Baxter held Hail tightly for a few more seconds before whispering something. Hail wiped his eyes, sniffling, and nodded before allowing himself to be led away towards the school building.

“And I guess Baxter was coming here just for him,” I said, wondering what connection the pair shared. I’d never seen them around each other before, but they behaved like they were very close. It was even odder because Baxter was seldom the gentle and kind type, and Hail’s ego would never let himself be seen crying under normal circumstances.

“Goes to show there’s more to ponies than ya might think,” Bright said. He lifted his leg just a tiny bit as if trying to hide the gesture while still trying to get our attention. When Hannah and I looked in the direction he indicated, we saw Prim retreating, head also bowed, towards the dorm building.

“Maybe she had some counseling sessions with him as well,” Hannah said as we watched Prim retreat. “I feel kinda bad. Nobody is going to try to comfort her, and I don’t think she’d lower herself to seeing one of the CMC for that kind of thing.”

I was still shaken as well, and I didn’t know if I could explain what I was feeling to my friends. I could really use someone to talk to right at that moment, but I didn’t feel like I had the right to be so shaken up by this. I barely knew the professor, and he hadn’t ever done anything for me. Bright and Hannah didn’t seem as shaken, nor did most of our classmates. I didn’t want to explain how upset I was or show them; it felt selfish to feel sad.

Gosh darn it. I was going to regret this.

I wordlessly, and probably to my friends’ shock, hurried after Prim.

“Prim! Wait up!” I yelled.

She paused, wiped her face, and turned to look at me. Her eyes were red from crying. “What do you want, commoner?”

I caught up to her and looked her in the eyes. I had started crying while running, but I still held her gaze.

“I want to play a game of chess,” I said.

She looked at me in a mix of outrage and bewilderment. “Chess? Now?! What are you even thinking?!”

I set my jaw. “I’m thinking I want to focus on something other than what I’m feeling right now, and class is canceled for today. I don’t want to try to be happy, and I’m not really sure I want to be comforted, either. I want to focus on something else. I think you might feel the same way. You and I aren’t going to lie to each other and tell the other that being upset is okay or try to make the other feel better. Right now, I don’t need my friends; I need my nemesis. I need my nemesis so I can feel angry and don’t have to think about how bad I feel when I don't have the right to feel bad.”

She stared at me, still in disbelief, then shook her head.

“You are such an idiot,” she growled.

She looked past me, maybe to see how the other ponies were taking today’s news, and then she gave a resigned shake of her head.

“Fine. It’s a dumb idea that only a stupid alien earth pony could come up with,” she hissed, ears sagging as she did, “but if you are so eager to let me prove how superior I am by beating your incompetent flank, I won’t begrudge you that. Let’s go find a board.”

And so, somepony died, and Prim and I went to play chess to pretend we didn’t care.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

THERES ALWAYS TIME FOR CHESS.

SQUEAK.

[Raistlin]

11934227

We need to introduce Gwent into that school