[Ponyville] Class Is In Session (Open to Ponyville Fillies and Colts)

[Lux]

"Oh, you're welcome," Guiding Light said as he managed to find his own lunch bag in the cubbyholes. It was easy as most of the classmates had already found their lunch and were eating outside. The yellow unicorn wasn't about to abandon Timid Star though as he returned to the colt and began to eat his lunch with him.

"So Timid, do you practice magic often? I try to when I can but find it hard to do."

It wasn't the best conversation starter, but Guiding Light knew it was one that they had in common being unicorns.

[SteelEagle]

Sweetie Belle had such a good, completely and terribly sad frowny face that Apple Bloom could almost imagine she was a lost little puppy, which was pretty good considering she was an awfully pretty pony and most lost little puppies tended to be the runts of the litter. Shealmost wanted to run over and hug her, so effective was the whole act. But she'd have to settle for doing something almost as good, if not nearly as adorable and fun. Miss Cheerilee was unimpressed by the tactic as she was well experienced with it from her youth- however, she did agree to let Apple Bloom help, so at least there was one small victory. It was a pile of failure in a failure pie that their little plan had backfired and Sweetie was going to have to go up there and give a report despite every little bone in her body shaking at the mention of it but that was the future, no use whining about it now. After Miss Cheerilee departed Apple Bloom didn't waste a second, starting to clean up the bathroom as she spoke.

"Well, Ah think we still have a little bit ta get yer flank ready for yer report before we end up with our projects," Apple Bloom started, tossing a few band aids in the trash bag, "wish we coulda done better for ya Sweetie Belle, but heck, at least we gave you's much time as we could. Oh, 'ere's a method that Granny Smith gave ta Big Mac 'bout public speakin': Imagine everypony has somethin' sill as a hat. You'll be tryin too hard not to laugh to worry 'bout being afraid, 'sides, you've got a really pretty voice. You'll do just dandy, Ah bet!" She laughed as she threw a few more away, having to wiggle her front right hoof like it was a concert before one came off, "COME OFF YOU MUD LOVIN' SON OF A MOOSE! Ah, thar ya go...y'know, Ah never took Rarity as much of a troublemaker when she was a filly. Then again, Ah wouldn't think Applejack was but heck, Granny Smith said it was like razing a herd of buffallo! Naw Ah can't get the image of Applejack, rarity, and Cheerilee bein' a bunch of troublemakin' fillies outa mah head," she giggled terribly, finally having to rest on her back haunches as she held her stomach in place with hearty, bullish laughs. After a few moments she calmed down, tossing another batch of band aids away.

[Bramble Rose]

Sweetie Belle stared off at the closed door for a moment, as Cheerilee let it close behind her, jaw dropped in disbelief. It... it hadn't worked?!

Cheerilee heard the wailing cry, muffled from behind the door. "Oh, COME ON!"

Sweetie sulked a bit, in frustration, in annoyance, in being so upset, but Apple Bloom's antics finally got a smirk to her lip, then a little giggle, and she was scrambling to try to pick up the sticky band-aids... *sigh* It was really hard, too! Why did they make them so sticky?! "Thank you so much, girls. I suppose I'll just have to ... " Deep breath now ... "Face the music..."

​

[Davroth]

Her juice box thoroughly emptied, and her friends still nowhere to be seen, Nursery Rhyme got up and tugged her book away again. The other 13 letters could wait. She trotted from her spot in the shadows to the entrance of the school house, entering a little timidly. She made her way to the classroom, where Miss Cheerilee was just starting to take her lunch. She stood in the doorway, waiting for Silver Spoon to finish her business with the teacher before speaking up.

She just stood there waiting, and looking outside the window wistfully once or twice. She liked sunny days, though admittedly, preferred to enjoy them from the safety of the inside. Like in at school. Or in the hospital. But she liked the warm sun a lot. It just made it pretty hard for her to read, since her eyes were a little sensitive. Without noticing, while being in her thoughts, she had started to hum one of the songs she had learned to entertain the patients at her volunteer job.

It took a few moments, but she eventually did notice, and made a sharp inhaling sound, looking rather embarrassed.

"Uh.. um. S-sorry."

[AlisonRose]

Silver giggled a bit as she listened to all the chatter and clamor of the school room. It was always at least interesting when the Cutie Mark Crusaders were involved, if not a source of comedy at the very least.

"I don't see how dropping perfectly good items off of a perfectly good building is going to teach us anything. That would be like jumping out of a perfectly good air balloon just to tumble to the ground." She tapped a hoof to her chin before she fixed her glasses a bit. It would be a good experiment should she ever need to figure out how to drop something worthy off of the school building or perhaps this could having some more...proper methods for including it in her world domination. Silver shook her head, now wasn't the time for such silly fantasies, that is what they made books for.

"At the least I will still be here for the experiment since my parents extended their business trip by another few days trying to drum up even more business for the company. Just means more time at home to myself." She lets out a soft sigh before dropping her head onto her desk and rolling it back and forth a bit trying to think of a way to describe her emotions at the moment but falling on no words.

[Imagination]

Her lunch secured, Ruby carried it in her mouth and happily trotted to... Wait, where was she going? She stopped and looked around. Sure there were some ponies she could eat with outside, but she'd hate to interrupt whatever important conversations they were having. What if one of her friends was about to have a great epitomy that would solve hunger?! What if she interrupted that and ponies everywhere were still hungry all the time!

CELESTIA she was hungry. She forgot to eat breakfast in the panic of sleeping in while her mother was out of the house. But ninjapinch was best ninja, and she hadn't been suspected of circumventing her tardiness...

Oh! There were the Crusaders picking up band-aids inside! What was the deal with band-aids today? Seriously. But she didn't mind it so much as she was intrigued by it. Why did so many ponies need band-aids? Did they have to do battle with giant trees trying to block the sun in the playground?! No, that would be silly. They wouldn't be able to get over the fense! Right?

She returned inside immediately to give her... greetings? Was that sentence structured right? She took a moment to think about it before snapping back ot reality. "Hrr ggrls!" the filly muffled out as she approached Apple Bloom and Smarty Belle. She had witnessed Sweetie's act out of the corner of her eye, but didn't quite make out what it was about. Did Sweetie Belle not do her report? Meh. She put the bag down and was all smiles. "You don't think Miss Cheerilee noticed I wasn't here, do you? My mom would kill me if she found out... So what's going on, Sweetie? Are you gonna tell us about your book?" she asked with genuine enthusiasm. She didn't hang with the Crusaders as much as she would've liked, but it was still neat to get to talk to them.

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee wasn't surprised that Silver Spoon found the upcoming project pointless. The little gray filly and her best friend, Diamond Tiara, have always been pretty dismissive of any school projects that didn't fit in with their persnickety interests. None the less she was going to have to suck it up because this was mandatory. "Well Silver Spoon, before you dismiss it, you may find the project fun once you try it. Besides it isn't pointless of course. The objective is to learn creativity in engineering. If you figure out how to land the tomato without breaking it, then you've learned at least one way to control nature. It'll be fun, trust me!" That was the best pitch Cheerilee could give at the moment, given how Silver was, it would have to be enough.

First thing was first though, one last book report. Cheerilee looked at the clock in the front of the classroom and realized it was about one in the afternoon, time for class to resume. "Alright everypony, please return to your seats. We have one more oral book report and then we can finally start on the big project for the week." Now all that was needed was Sweetie Belle to come to the front of the class and begin.

[Bramble Rose]

Sweetie's mind raced, and her friends tried to help, but all too swiftly, lunchtime was over, and there she was. Stepping up towards the front of the class. She nodded silently to Pinchy, unable to find any words to express herself.

It took her *hours* to get to the front of the room - it was miles and miles, and she could *feel* everypony's eyes staring at her! Ohno ... she turned around, swallowed, opened her mouth...

A tiny little squeek came out ...

She looked out to her friends, closed her eyes, took a deep breath. Pretended they were next to her instead of out there watching her, leaving her ... all alone ...

"My book," she said, "For my book, I read my sister's favorite book. But we were supposed to read something inspiring, and .. um ... " She let out a soft whimper. "I didn't know it wasn't going to be."

She hung her head a bit. "Anyway, um ... m.. my report ... " she stammered, "For my report, I read My Twilight Immortal. But I really, really don't understand it!" She picked up her papers and tap-tapped them, then looked down at what she had written. "The book starts with the main character introducing herself as Raven Bell, and that she's a vampony, but that she's not a vampony yet, in fact she didn't know vamponies existed, but they did ... and then she goes on about school and how much she doesn't do anything there except there's this other vampony who is at her school and she doesn't know it and she gave his age as being older than Celestia except for some reason he's still at school and he loves her because she smells like a dandelion sandwich and he wants to eat her and she's a unicorn so she discovers he's a vampony and she casts a spell that gets rid of how he burns in the sun and instead of burning in the sun it all bounces off again so he shines like he's made of diamonds..."

She takes in a deeeeeeeep breath. "And that's pretty much the first three paragraphs. I tried really hard to keep reading, but I kept having to go back and re-reading. I don't understand why he's at school if he's an adult, and I don't understand, if Raven Bell is the one who made him shine like diamonds, why did the other vamponies start shining like diamonds, too? And then there's a timberwolf pony too, and he's made of wood, but for some reason all the other students at the school don't notice... they didn't notice any of the stuff happening."

Sweetie ran down and hung her head. "so I read a book and tried to do a report, but I don't understand it at ALL!"

​

[Mojo]

Lunch was over, class was now back in session, and Haywire was seated at her desk in the schoolhouse. In a room full of foals, the blank flank filly still felt alone.

She didn't eat much of her lunch, she wasn't very hungry because of all the guilt she was feeling. Whether she meant to or not, whether it was her intention or not, the rust colored filly had cause much trouble today, and there was nothing she could do to fix it. Some of her fellow students got injured due to her own negligance. No wonder none of them wanted to be around her anymore. Maybe this time, she'd finally gone too far.

Breathing out a heavy sigh, Haywire tried to listen to Sweetie Belle's book report, but the guilt-ridden filly just couldn't focus. She felt like just walking away and going home, but she knew that wasn't the answer. Although she felt horrible inside, she realized you can't just gallop away from your troubles.

So Haywire continued to sit, her young mind racing in all directions. It took all the energy she had not to burst into tears. All she could do was sit there and try to compose herself.

[Lux]

After the band-aid fiasco in the bathroom, Scootaloo grudgingly helped clean up the mess. She of course wanted to help her friends, but the call of the outdoors was hard to resist. Instead she was stuck in a bathroom with two other fillies, plucking sticky band-aids off of every imaginable surface, including her friends. She knew that Sweetie Belle was trying to stall as best as she could even using the filly's secret weapon with her cute pouty face which usually got the three out of a jam. But to Scootaloo's surprise Cheerilee was unfazed by this, like she had some kind of anti- pouty face spell cast of her. And so with lunch over Scootaloo returned to her seat as Sweetie Belle read her report.

The book sounded... confusing. The more Sweetie Belle read, the more Scootaloo's eyes glazed over. It wasn't her fault but the whole story sounded strange. Yet she tried to keep herself looking like she was interested for her friend's sake who looked really nervous standing in front of the class giving her report.

"So, this book is about a unicorn who's in love with a vampony that sparkles? Doesn't he still want to, I don't know, bite her like a vamponies in other books? And what's with the timberwolf? Is she, like a friend to her?"

Scootaloo hoped that giving questions would help her unicorn friend with her report and maybe help explain it more to the confused filly.

[RarityDash]

Lunch break had ended and class was set to resume. Diamond Tiara returned to her seat at Cheerilee's instruction and sat upright and attentively. There was one more book report to sit through, this one from that ridiculous little blank flank unicorn Sweetie Belle. Diamond had to admit she was rather curious how this would go. Complete and utter failure was often times an amusing thing, after all, and knowing this filly, there was nothing else to expect but a complete disaster.

Sure enough, that's exactly what they got. Sweetie Belle began a nervous, awkward report on My Twilight Immortal, which the ridiculous blank flank professed to not understanding at all. Of course not! Sweetie Belle clearly wasn't mature enough to understand the subtleties of such a modern classic. The drama, the compelling characters, the perfect blend of romance and horror, surely it only went without saying that it would be beyond such a simple-minded blank flank.

"Ha, great report, blank flank," Diamond mumbled sarcastically under her breath where Miss Cheerilee wouldn't hear.

​

[SteelEagle]

Sweetie Belle dragged her hooves on her approach to the front like it was the gallows and she was reading her last will and testament. Poor filly looked more frightened than sapling in a tornado and she moved like it too. When Sweetie looked to her fellow Crusaders, it was all that Apple Bloom could do to summon a big smile and nod emphatically to try and give Sweetie Belle all the courage she needed to get through it. What followed was a not so brief summation of the opening three paragraphs of My Twilight Immortal, which Apple Bloom couldn't blame Sweetie Belle for dropping. Apple Bloom had read the majority of it and Sweetie simply hadn't missed a single piece of anything even remotely interesting. But what was interesting was that other book, which she found out had just been a fanfiction turned novel with some names changed.

"Ah remember that book! Ah stole it- err, borrowed it from Applejack's room at night often enough ta read it most of the way through. It was awfully boring. And since when did vamponies sparkle or attend high school? Thar sup'sed ta be big'ol ancient monsters, powerful, scary, and smart and not whiny boring, and dumb. Ah reckon we should read something about vamponies, on account of it being Nightmare Night an' all. And isn't that the book that inspired Fifty Shades of Neigh? Ah was bored by Immortal but Applejack looked mighty interested by it!" Apple Bloom finished, considering all the possibiliies that could have enticed her sister so. Lacking anything solid, maybe it was an adventure yarn or a farming guide. Knowing her sister, as pure as morning snow, it would be something very wholesome!

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee listened attentively as little Sweetie Belle awkwardly gave her book report. The poor unicorn filly had such trouble speaking in front of others, more so than the average foal. Still, this was for the best, ponies needed to learn public speaking; it was an essential skill of adulthood. Hopefully someday Sweetie Belle could learn to control her shyness, she had such a talented singing voice, it would a shame if she was never able to share it with folks.

As she continued to listen, Cheerilee's smile went away as she raised one of her eyebrows as it dawned on her what book Sweetie Belle was actually giving a report on. How did Sweetie find? Oh.... It's Rarity's.... Suddenly it all made sense. Even when she and Rarity were just fillies, Cheerilee always remembered her classmate having a thing for poorly written, cliché, shallow bit store romance novels, and My Twilight Immortal was above and beyond when it came to the worst aspects of those kind of books. "it's alright Sweetie Belle, if it helps at all, it didn't make any sense to me either." Maybe the filly's special talent was in literary criticism; at the very least she had more taste in fiction than her older sister.

The awkward went right up to eleven though when Applebloom spoke up and started to talk about Fifty Shades of Neigh! My Twilight Immortal was bad enough, but Fifty Shades was one of those books you could only find at one of those Equestria After Dark stores! Certainly no book a little filly should be reading and, definitely not 'classroom appropriate'! Cheerilee gave a blushed, panicked smile, "Let's keep the discussion to the book at hoof, shall we? Does anypony else have any questions for Sweetie?"

In that light Cheerilee gave the most encouraging smile she could towards Sweetie Belle as she did have one question of her own based on sheer curiosity, "so Sweetie Belle, did you manage to read through the whole book?"

If so, that alone should be a gold star just for having endure such awful tripe.

[Imagination]

Poor Sweetie! She seemed nervous as a... a... a nervous thing? She couldn't think of anything she could attribute with being naturally nervous at the time of her sympathy. But what was this? She'd heard of the book before, but not in the praising sort of way. My Twilight Immortal? She listened to what Sweetie had to say, knowing that even if she didn't have a full-quality presentation, she knew she was going to give it her best!

Vamponies and Timberwolves and sparkles, oh my!

Pinchy waved her hoof in the air, but blurted out her question before she could be called on anyway. That, and Diamond was being a meany-pants again, and she wanted to help Sweetie get her mind off it. "I never read it, but I heard a lot about it! My mom says I wouldn't like it... But somepony said that it's all in the girl's imagination...? Is that true? And-And what about the Vampony? Why is he in high-school? Aren't they, like, really really really REALLY old?"

They seemed like good questions to her, anyway. And she was genuinely curious. Mommy knew best, so she probably wasn't going to read it... "Ooo!" she interrupted before there was too much of a pause- "And aren't there plays of it and stuff?" She heard they were lame. Then again, she only heard that from colts. Young mares seemed to like it. Now she was at a crossroads.

[SilverSwirl]

Timid glanced at Guiding Light and nodded. He practiced magic a whole lot! It was one of the few things he was strong at, even with the occasional miscue like the marshmallow that caught fire/blew up in his face. "Yeah! Almost every day! Well maybe not for a few days now with this headache...", he replied softly as the lunch break ended. His classmates poured back into the classroom, some nameless fillies and colts offering him some words of commiseration as the filed back into their seats.

Cheerilee called up Sweetie Belle for her report on a book that his own mother had said was atrocious. He tuned Sweetie Belle out as her report grated on his nerves and his headache returned with a vengeance. Some pony said words couldn't hurt you but when it causes a headache, that little saying loses its meaning. Groaning, he covered his ears and shut his eyes, waiting for it to end so they could toss objects off the roof to learn about physics.

[AlisonRose]

Silver Spoon sat there with a small grin on her face, this was the kind of book that her mother would read or something. Quite interesting to see that a filly got her hands on it and tried reading it though. She leans back in her chair and just waits for this train wreck to wreck itself. But like always Cheerilee has some sort of magical ability to save every situation from utter disaster.

"Oh yes dear Sweetie Belle, please tell us if you finished it." She says quietly before she giggles and looks over to Apple Bloom as soon as she mentions Fifty Shades of Neigh. Oh great now they were getting into more of that sappy 'romance' novel stuff. That wasn't to say that Silver didn't have her fair share of romance novels but everything she had heard about both of these two suggested that they were just trashy and porely written. It was quite interesting to see that a pair of blank flanks were talking about having read them. A full on grin crosses Silvers face as she simply sits and waits for now.

[Bramble Rose]

Sweetie Belle gulped nervously at the barrage of questions from all over. "Um... " she started, deciding to answer Miss Cheerilee first ..."I read ... a lot of it? Several times? I had to keep re-reading parts cause I didn't understand a lot of it ... I kinda ... skimmed the last few chapters really quick, because I was running out of time." It couldn't be that bad that she didn't finish, right? Cause Miss Cheerilee said she didn't understand it either? "Sorry, Miss Cheerilee. I know I was supposed to read an inspiring book..."

She turned back to the class. "Um. I don't know exactly, Scootaloo! He kinda hates the Vampony a whole lot, because... vamponies and timberwolves hate each other, I guess? Timberwolves can totally stake a vampony just like that but they don't because vamponies are just so goff that they get out of the way in less than a second, it says... But they both like Raven Bell ... in fact, pretty much everypony at school likes Raven, and even some of the teachers want to be her special somepony... But she's especially interested in the vampony, because yes, he wants to bite her because she tastes like a dandelion sammich ... except, um..." She flipped through her written report, and says, "She's got like, a whole two long paragraphs about how this is amazing and so sweet because dandelion sammiches are proven to be the best sammiches in the history of sammiches and they're really amazing but you have to let the petals start to wilt first becuase it's totally goff to have a wilted dandelion sammich and I'm not sure what goff means but apparently EVERYTHING she likes is goff because she says that about a hundred times but it's not in the dictionary..." Sweetie takes a deep breath, then lets it out. "So I hope that answers your questions?"

She looked over to Apple Bloom, then. "And this vampony sparkles because Raven Bell cast a spell to make him not burn in the sun anymore, even though that's totally goff, because it's better to have him sparkle instead... which is also goff? But only because she did it. Otherwise it'd be preppy... I don't know about, um ... fifty shades of hay or whatever you said. I didn't hear about that book. And I don't know about why he was at high school when he was, like, REALLY old... they never explained that."

She looked over to Pinchy. "Which, I hope, answers part of your question, too? And ... I guess all stories are really in our imaginations. I don't think it was supposed to be in Raven Bell's imagination, exactly ... it never said that, anyway. You mean, like, she was daydreaming everything?" She pondered a moment. "That would kinda make sense, but why wouldn't she daydream something more fun? Like fighting vamponies and riding real timberwolves across the treetops while wearing a really neat hat?"

​

[Lux]

Guiding Light nodded in recognition of Timid Star's comment as they went to their seats. It was good to hear from a fellow unicorn about how he learned magic. Hopefully later he could speak to him more, but for now it was back to class and learning.

***

Scootaloo could see that Sweetie Belle was getting even more nervous at the barrage of questions. The unicorn tried to desperately answer her question, but it appeared that even the simplest ones were hard to explain. It wasn't Sweetie's fault as the book sounded very difficult to understand, and filled with sparkling and dandelion sandwiches. The orange Pegasus felt that this wasn't a book she would be reading, that maybe a good Daring Do novel would work. Still she nodded to her friend to show that Sweetie Belle answered her question to the best of her ability.

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee listened as Sweetie Belle did her best to answer questions about a book that the little filly clearly was confused by. Not that Cheerilee could blame her, the book was a jumbled wreck of cliches, contradictions, and plot holes, what could Rarity possibly have seen in such a story? Oh right, the mysterious, brooding, dark prince of a stallion…. Some things never change.

"Well thank you Sweetie Belle for an… " Cheerilee winched as she gave her best encouraging smile to the unicorn filly, "eh, interesting report, that certainly was umm, an educational experience! You may take your seat." Poor filly, she had no idea what she was getting into when she read the book based no-doubt, on her sister's recommendation. Cheerilee wanted to salute her just for having the wherewithal to read it multiple times in trying to comprehend the jumbled mess. Well at least she could do the next best thing, pencil an 'A' next to Sweetie Belle's name.

"Well, I'm afraid we have no more time for book reports today class. For those show weren't able to give their reports today, be ready to give yours first thing tomorrow morning." There were a few moans of protest in response but it was important that every student had their turn; learning to speak in front of others in a formal setting was an important skill every young pony needed no matter what their destiny was in life.

Time to change gears though, it was time for the weekly classroom project, one she was sure the foals would enjoy. "Alright class, it is time for our big project! Today we will be doing a Tomato Drop! Now you may ask what that is.. Well, the question really should be: Can you create a system that will protect a tomato from becoming damaged if its dropped from the schoolhouse roof using nothing more than common classroom items?" Cherrilee walked over from her desk to a table in the back of the room where a few boxes sat holding all the items each group of students would get to use. "So using your own ingenuity, imagination, and these common items in each box, each team will attempt to make a container that will protect the tomato from splitting, or splattering on the ground, won't that be fun?" Cheerilee gave a big smile in the hopes that offering the students such a creative oppertunity, they genuinely would look forward to the project. "Don't worry, you won't fail if your tomato breaks, but I am sure you all will surely figure out a way to prevent that!"

Cheerilee picked up another box from the floor with her mouth that contained some tomatoes and placed it on the table next to the building materials. "Now each team will have one tomato and will use one box of materials to build the container to place the tomato inside; you all can work indoors or outside. You all may pick your own teams, but only two or three ponies per team, kay?"

With an enthusiastic grin, Cheerilee waved her hoof for the students to come to the back of the room, "Now let's get started!"

Materials in each box:

Cardboard Tubes

Newspaper

old boxes

paper

tape, glue, rubberbands

popsicle sticks

straws

feathers

cottonballs

Active students:

Applebloom

Sweetie Belle

Scootaloo

Ruby Pinch

Snips

Guiding Light

Timid Star

Haywire

Diamond Tiara

Silver Spoon

Winter Dazzle

If someone wants to NPC Snails during this, that would be great for Snips

[SilverSwirl]

Timid star slowly got up from the floor pillow, grateful that the reports were over. He really felt bad for Sweetie Belle for having to read that book. His head throbbing, he listened to Cheerilee outline their weekly project. So, we gotta make a box or other container that will keep the tomato from becoming ketchup when hitting the ground...", he thought to himself, grimacing in pain as he rubbed his noggin in thought.

He watched her trot to the back of the class and lift the tomato box with her mouth to the table. This sort of thing was something he wasn't quite familiar with, so he didn't know how helpful he would be to any team that picked him up. He just trotted up to the table, albeit very slowly and carefully, and looked at the materials inside. He turned to look at Cheerilee with a questioning gaze, seeming to ask, "Should I even be allowed on the roof?". "Miss Cheerilee?", he asked, his mind freezing up as he imagined himself tumbling off the roof in a box with the tomato.

[Pretzelparty]

"WHERE THE HAY AM I?!"

That was the thought that currently was blaring in the little filly's mind as she galloped around trying to find her way to the schoolhouse. It was Bebop's first day attending the school in ponyville, in fact it was her first day in ponyville at all... and just walking here had taken up more time then she thought. Living in that cozy cabin on the outskirts of town with her grandparents may have been very nice and quiet, it was proving to be a pain when she had a school located in the town proper.

Trying to gain the attention of a few ponies in town to ask where the school was proving difficult this early in the morning. One pink earth pony seemed to find her harmonica playing amusing though as she tried to write out the question on her notepad even as she tried to impart some of her annoyance into her performance. Eventually she did manage to get some decent directions and when she finally arrived at the door to the schoolhouse she facehoofed as she laid her big amber eyes upon the clock.

"Well this is a perfect way to start out school... Sweet princesses I'm so late..." The Dark brown filly took a deep breath and walked in to the school and soon after getting one of the staff's attention she learned just what teacher she had; a Miss Cheerilee. Hopefully she would be as cheery as her namesake when it came to ponies who showed up late for school. She was about to gallop towards the classroom but she was reminded there was no galloping in the hallway. With an embarrassed grin Bebop made her way as a brisk pace to the classroom and knocked at the door. She looked around at all the faces in an awkward silence before looking to her saddlebag and lifting her notepad aloft in her magic aura as well her pencil and holding it beside her head like it was speech bubble before taking out her harmonica and playing a cheery tune to impart her cheery mood to everypony, she had to at least make a good first impression after all.

The pencil swiftly wrote down the following,"I'm Sorry I'm late, I got lost. I'm new in town and haven't learned my way around yet... the name's Bebop by the way" with that she slide her harmonica back into her saddlebag and looked to the earth pony at the teachers desk. seemingly hoping for her not to be too harsh in scolding... or better yet not give her any scolding at all.

[RarityDash]

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and gave a sigh as Miss Cheerilee explained the assignment. It sounded boring and stupid too. Who cared about dumb tomatoes anyway? They were gross and best used thrown at blank flanks. Still, she had little choice but to do her best at the assignment. She was confident that she would figure it out and attract the envy of her classmates as the blank flanks struggled laughably and failed as was usual. That was the sort of thing that made dumb science projects bearable.

"This sounds like fun, Miss Cheerilee," she said, forcing her best naive smile as she moved to the back of the room and grabbed a box.

She made a point to walk by the Cutie Mark Crusaders then and sneered at them while turned from the teacher. "Good luck, blank flanks," she quietly said to them. "Maybe you'll get tomato dropping cutie marks," she added with a mocking eye roll before placing the box down in front of Silver Spoon..

"Heh. This shouldn't be difficult. We just need to use our heads and make sure our tomato ends up less smashed than theirs," she said to her friend, casting a brief bitter glance back toward the blank flanks as she started to go through what was in the box.

​

[SteelEagle]

The project sounded like it could be kinda fun. She'd done similar things before at the farm, but they were a bit different. No real time limit and working with Applejack was easier than getting a tan in Unyasi. A tomato was actually a bit sturdier than an egg which she had more experience with.The skin had more flexibility and give, enabling it to survive falls that an egg couldn't. That made it easier. What made it harder was the fact tha they had fewer supplies and the object was a little larger. No matter though- the basic logistics remained the same. This was a project that Apple Bloom could really sink her teeth into- literally, if her growling stomach and watering eyes told the tale. Those tomatoes looked really fresh! Surely a successful operation would lead to lunch for the filly. Simple motivations for simple ponies.

She trotted up to a box of supplies, ready to take them in and get to work when she heard Diamond Tiara's snide little comment as she passed by. What an insufferable little- AGGH! She drove Apple Bloom up the cliff and through the canyon. She was a bully through and through, even before she got her cutie mark. Yeah, well, a tomato cutie mark would be perfectly acceptable! Tomato droppers had a long and rich history with many upstanding, OUTstanding historical figures! From Roam! yeah, Roam! That's why SHE never heard of them because for all of her pretentious fury she was as dull as a rusted wagon wheel. Apple Bloom'd show her. The Cutie Mark CRUSADERS would show them! Apple Bloom gritted her teeth and pulled the box alongside, plopping it in front of her friends.

"Who's ready to get a cutie mark in wiping the smile off of Diamond's face?" She asked conspitarioly, opening the box of supplies.

[Lux]

Scootaloo was happy that both her friends were able to get through their book reports, leaving tomorrow without the worry of having to do them. Now it was time for the fun project. The filly was glad it wasn't an egg like last time, as she remember all the chicken jokes coming from Diamond Tiara, like "Ooohh Scootaloo, did you lay all these eggs for us?" Could that stuck up filly be any less original?

Before she could think about how to protect the red fruit from smashing, the orange Pegasus heard a snide comment about getting a cutie mark in tomato dropping. The filly shot a glare at Diamond as a thought rand in her mind. A tomato mark wouldn't be so bad. Sure it wasn't anything awesome like a mark for mountain climbing or fighting off manticores, but it was better than nothing.

"Yeah, we'll show them who can do this the best. CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TOMATO PROTECTORS!"

Meanwhile...

Guiding Light was excited to do this project. It was a nice diversion from reading book reports. He wondered who was going to be his partner when he spied Timid Star looking confused. Maybe hitting his head was worse that everypony imagined.

"Hey Timid, do you want to be my partner. I bet we can create an awesome thing to protect our tomato if we put our heads together."

[brianblackberry]

Cheerilee watched as the students slowly began to form into groups, she hoped she wouldn’t have to ‘assign’ anypony to a group or together, such pairings didn’t usually go over that well. What could she do though when there was such reluctant or when a foal was socially awkward? Besides, it was a good life lesson as some points in their lives, most would need to learn to work professionally with other ponies they normally wouldn’t associate with.

What did catch Cheerilee off-guard was the unexpected appearance of a new student! She knew that there was one new registrant for the school, but when the foal never showed that morning, she naturally assumed for whatever reason they just wouldn’t or couldn’t attend school that day; only able to discover the reason why after school when she could inquire. At least she knew the filly’s name beforehand, Bebop. What did surprise her was the unusual introduction with the harmonica and notepad; was she mute? It wasn’t the most unusual introduction she had seen in her years as a teacher, but it came pretty close. “Oh! Well, it is nice to finally meet you Miss Bebop. I’m afraid you have missed half the day though. Now you are familiar with the school’s location, be sure to be here on time from now on.”

She didn’t like having to give the disciplinarian ‘no tardy next time’ line, but felt it simply was one of those necessary things that helped assured some semblance of order in her energetic and free-spirited class. Still, now that was out of the way, she could introduce Bebop to the educational fun that was about to begin! Cheerilee gave a broad, encouraging smile, “the good news you arrived just in time to join in on our tomato drop! It is a group project so you’ll be working with other students right away!”

First though, an introduction was in order. “Class, I need your attention for a moment! This is Bebop! Our newest student; please make her feel welcomed as part of our class! Oh! And she’ll need some partners for the tomato drop, so volunteers are greatly appreciated!”

If I did the count right, there should be 12 active students in this RP at the moment, which means four groups of three.