School for the Young'ins

Nikki looked wearily back at her parents.

"Are you sure I can't be a ninja, today?" she asked for the thousandth time.

"It'll be alright," Calla said with a smile. "Today, you have to be a good student, okay?"

Nikki nodded and watched her parents disappear in a glowing green light. She wished she could teleport, too, but Mommy had said that teleporting could only be taught by magic teachers, and she had learned to teleport after Elementary School.

That was what Nikki was waiting for. She had her special school sweater and skirt on, her backpack across her shoulders, and a smile on her face. She wondered what new friends she'd meet today.

Sandy bounced excitedly into the school playground. He looked around at all the fillies and colts. Who to talk to first? His parents were watching him go, laughing at that little ball of energy they called a son. He quickly nuzzled his mum and high hooved his dad before galloping over to a random green filly who's parents had just disappeared.

"Hi! I'm Sandy. Wanna go play or something?"

He motioned to the see-saw (teeter totter to you yanks) and smiled. He liked the look of this filly. She seemed fun! He wondered if Oreo would be here too! Ooh, they'd all play and do classes together! 

At first, Sandy was reluctant to go to school. An adventurer only needed spirit and bravery! However, he realised he'd need to know languages and writing and stuff to do it properly, so he went like everypony else.

Nikki was excited to see the colt approach. Her smile widened at his suggestion.

"Hi!" she squealed in return. "I'm Nikki! Ooh, see-saws are so much fun! Let's go play!"

She had made a friend in her first minute of school! Oh, how excited the little filly was. She leaped up and down and sped for the equipment, sitting on the left side and looking expectantly at Sandy.

"Mommy said I couldn't be a ninja, today, but there's so much more to be!" she squeaked. "Royalty, turtles, rabbits, chocolatiers... Yay!"

Sandy giggled at Nikki's reaction. He'd guessed right- she seemed like a lot of fun. He zipped onto the right side of the see saw and started pushing up and down, as you do on those things. When she mentioned chocolate, his eyes widened.

"Chocolate? I love Chocolate! Lets be chocolatiers and make and eat tons and tons of delicious chocolate!"

He heard the school bell ring and bounced to his class, which turned out to be the same one as Nikki's. He squealed with excitement. He immediately sat down, looking expectantly at Nikki and the seat next to him.

Nikki bounced along, leaping into the seat next to Sandy and looking expectantly at the teacher.

Miss Cloud Dancer was taking a break from her dancing career and testing her skills at teaching. She was a young, pretty pegasus, and her smile warmed Nikki's big heart.

"Welcome, class," she said in a warm, soft voice. "My name is Cloud Dancer, but you can call me Miss Dancer. Today is the start of your school years, and I'm very happy to be teaching you all. Now, I want you to turn to the pony sitting in the desk beside you. He or she will be your partner for the year."

Nikki giggled and smiled widely at Sandy.

"Today, we'll be doing some simple math problems. Does anypony know what math is?"

Nikki raised her hoof quickly, but was ignored by the teacher as she picked on the colt next to her.

"Sandy, do you know what math is?"

Sandy grinned when he learned Nikki was going to be his partner for the year. Wow, just in school and already made a friend. Great! 

He liked the teacher but didn't listen to the introduction thing. He wanted to get going- sitting around was boring. Luckily, he was asked the first question, which would give him something to do at least.

"Math is numbers, right?"

He remembered there was something like that in a book he'd read when he was a little foal. Something about dragons and toothpaste. Sandy honestly couldn't remember.

On the bright side the class was nice. No bullies sighted yet.

"That's right!" Miss Dancer said, smiling warmly at the colt. "Thank you very much for your answer. What's your name, dear?"

Nikki fidgeted in her seat as Sandy answered the question. Math was so much more. Math was engineering, science, multiplication, addition, algebra...

She was just too hyped up on sugar and excitement to stay still. Mommy had told her what math was when Nikki was going through a "Starswirl" phase, wanting to be the smartest pony in history. Now, she was trying to fulfill her role of a "good student," but it was just so hard!

Oreo sat in the corner of the classroom. There were way too many ponies here. She watched the two very excited foals in awe. How could they be so happy? It was very strange but interesting. Oreo started talk to her imaginary friends, deciding whether or not to talk to them.

Sandy grinned. First question of school and he got it right. 

"I'm Sandy Hooves."

He noticed that Nikki was shifting about like crazy. And Sandy thought he had a lot of energy. He decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to lend her any chocolate. She'd probably wreck the place.

He also noticed another pony at the back looking a bit upset. He wanted to bounce over and talk to her but  didn't think that was allowed.

(I guess we'll disregard the earlier reference to Oreo)

Nikki looked over at the filly in the corner. She looked lonely. Did she have a partner?

"Miss Dancer?" she asked quietly. The pegasus ignored her for the moment, not hearing her speak so timidly.

"Miss Dancer?" she repeated, a little louder.

"Yes, dear?" Cloud asnwered, turning and looking at Nikki.

"Can we have a third partner?" Nikki asked curiously, looking over at the filly in the corner. "She looks lonely," she whispered.

Cloud looked over at the filly and saw that she was, indeed, partnerless. It's what happens in a room of odd-numbered foals.

"Alright," Cloud said. "We're starting our numbers lesson, so go ahead and tell her to bring her chair over. Then you three can work together."

Nikki grinned at Sandy, then over at the filly as she made her way over.

"I'm a friendmaker!" she whispered, happy.

Oreo slowly trotted up with her chair towards the two, not looking up from the ground as she sat down. She could hear the teacher perfectly.

"H-hello I'm Oreo."

Oreo smiled as she stared at her feet that were rocking back and forth. Maybe she would make some friends! She wondered what her imaginary friends would think (at the time she didn't know they were imaginary).

Sandy laughed at Nikki's little comment. Friendmaker. It's like a matchmaker, as his mum used to call one of her friends. Didn't know what the word meant. Still, Sandy liked this filly too. She seemed nice- the shy ones usually are. He smiled at her and said:

"Well hiya Oreo! I'm Sandy and this is Nikki! Wanna be friends?"

To anypony else that'd be strange to say- just asking outright to be friends is a little weird. Then again, Sandy was weird if his energetic persona was anything to go by.

Oreo looked kinda sad though. Was she OK? Sandy passed her some chocolate. That'd cheer her up.

Cloud passed around sheets of paper to the foals. The activity had to do with cutting out numbers and putting them in the right order, from one to ten, and Nikki couldn't wait to get started.

She stared for a moment at the paper. She had seen numbers before, but she didn't know which was bigger than the other.

"Any ideas, guys?" she asked. "I'm stumped."

Oreo took the chocolate Sandy had offered her. She nommed on it as the teacher passed them papers. She cut out the pieces and arranged them how they were suppose to be in about one minute. She helped Nikki out too. The orphanage had already taught her these things.

Sandy copied off Oreo and Nikki. He was just in and he was supposed to know this stuff? Weird. Still, two friends and he'd only been in school for a few minutes! This was great so far. At least if he could count it would be. He couldn't really tell the difference between each number. They all looked the same to Sandy.


He looked over at Oreo and Nikki. They seemed like they were getting along pretty well. Sandy liked Oreo but he hadn't yet talked enough to her to really understand what she was like. Still, he felt good with helping the clearly shy little filly make some friends.
 
He liked the cutting and sticking as well. It was messy, frustrating and led to Sandy watching the other colts flick bits of paper at each other.

Nikki was hoping for some help, and not for the filly to just be able to do it. She felt red rise in her cheeks. When she got home, she would ask her mother to teach her math, and quickly. Maybe her older brother Kid could teach her, too, even though he was so tiny... like a baby!

The green filly hated being wrong. It was in her nature to always want to be right, and she was extremely competitive, though she hid it well. Right now, she was smiling and waiting for the next assignment, but the bell rang just as she was about to ask Miss Dancer for more assignments.

"Alright, kids," Miss Dancer said. "It's time for morning recess. Everypony leave your papers on your desk and head on outside!"

"Come on!" Nikki said, leaping out of her chair and starting out first at the door. "It's time to play!"

Oreo didn't hear Nikki because she was already out the door. She was very fast too because they were farthest from the door. Oreo didn't wait for the "line" that was just too slow for her! She climbed up the slide and waited for Sandy and Nikki.

Sandy was off like a rocket alongside the other two. He waited behind Oreo at the slide, going down after her. He was suprised at the speed she ran off at- normally a shy filly would be a bit slow, trying to go unnoticed. Still, he liked watching he run- it was pretty funny the speed she went at.

He went down the slide. Wasn't that great. It was fun but the line to go down was too long. Still, he looked around and saw other fun stuff to do. He climbed around on this spider's web igloo thingy (don't think we have those  in Scotland, or at least my area). That was good- it was like adventuring practice! He needed to learn to climb after all!

Sandy then bounced off it and went back to his friends.

"So, whaddaya wanna do now?"

He was enjoying school so far. He'd already made friends and liked the teacher, so things were going well for him.

A smile spread on Nikki's little face, slowly appearing but stretching across her face in a beautiful grin.

"Let's be ninjas!" she announced clearly. She had been waiting all day for the chance, and it had appeared. She was the best at being a ninja, and demonstrated it clearly when she was suddenly cloaked in the traditional black jumpsuit of Neighpon.

"Hiya!" she cried, doing a kickflip off the slide and landing on her hooves. "Come on, let me teach you how to do it!"

Suddenly, with a burst of magic, the other two were wearing ninja suits as well, and she hoped they were excited as ever to play with her.

Oreo giggled and played along. She did barrel roll, ninja kicks, and ninja chops. Oreo climbed the net rope thing and did a back flip off landing on her hooves. She hadn't been this happy (or crazy) since she had gotten adopted.

Sandy laughed. Well, ninjas sounded fun. He preferred pirates but what the hay. He kept up with Nikki, his practice with climbing and running helping him. He actually bounced on the other two's heads for a joke, keeping light on his hooves so nopony got hurt or anything. He bounced across the playground, agile as a very agile thing (shut up it's late alright)

(Sowwy if it's short, but I can't really think of anything.)