As promised, I arrived at Ditzy's house once again in the morning, though this time a bit later so as to give her some time. It seemed that I arrived right on time, for when I got there she was in a rush packing a few things and making sure Dinky was all set, the filly herself seeming nonplussed about the whole thing. It took me a few minutes to realize that she had to head to school, so with directions on where it was, I was soon walking her to said school, the cute filly nearly bouncing along with me.

"I can't wait to show Miss Cheerilee the poster that we made." She says excitedly, said poster rolled up and tucked to the side of her school bag, the young filly skipping along next to me.

I just smile and nod in agreement as I continue walking along with her, mostly staying silent for the moment as I usually do, letting the filly talk as much as she wishes as I listened. Thankfully it seems she doesn't mind that she is doing most if not all of the talking, to which I'm grateful about. It only takes a few minutes and soon we are at the school, a large red looking building with a yard and sign showing that it is the Ponyville Elementary School, a large bell hanging right on top of the building. Already there are plenty of other younger ponies walking around and talking to each other, though the talking is quickly stopped when we arrive, all of them looking over at me and staring in surprise and of course childish curiosity.

I had a feeling that none of them really saw me much around the place (then again I didn't really go out much in the first place unless it was with one of the girls) so they are just as shocked to see me. I could already see their young minds were quickly thinking over a hundred different questions to ask me.

I feel a tug on my pants leg and look down to see Dinky giving me a worried look. "Drak, if you wanna...you know...you can come pick me up afterwards." She says.

I shake my head, giving her a small smile. "No worries, I think I can manage this." I tell her. I remember telling her yesterday during our house cleaning about my anxiety issues with large crowds, but for some reason that same anxiety wasn't really hitting me as much as it normally would. Most likely cause it's just a bunch of kids with curious minds and not adults who would be possibly judging and thinking who knows what about me.

At this the filly smiles and nods, before her name gets called out. As we turn to the source of the sound, three other fillies come rushing over. They are quickly by us in just a couple of seconds and soon they were swarming her with questions.

"Hey Dinky! How are you doing?" Asks the yellow filly, her pink bow bobbing along her red mane.

"Did your mom find another job yet at Canterlot?" Asks the other unicorn filly, a white one with a rather curly purplish-pink mane.

"And who is that?" Asks the final one, an orange pegasus filly with a wild purple mane.

Dinky smiles and nods at them all. "Doing good, no mommy hasn't found a job yet, and this is Drakalian, he's my fillysitter." She responds, answering each of them easily enough.

At this they all look up at me with once again with that same look of curiosity that only a child could have. I just give a small smile and wave at them. "Hey there."

I barely have enough time to say hi before it is my turn to be hit by an onslaught of questions by the three fillies. "Are you the human that every pony is talking about? The one that saved Trixie from the basilisk?"

"Why are you so tall? You must be very strong!"

"How did you get here in the first place? Are there more like you?"

The questions and comments just kept on coming, making it very hard for me to focus on what they were saying after the first few of them. I just blink as I look at them all, a bit unsure what to say or do. Thankfully, it seems someone else saw what was going on and quickly intervened. "Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom!" Came a much louder voice, causing all three of them to fall silent. We looked over and saw a magenta mare trotting over to us, the three girls bowing their heads a bit in shame. "Can't you see your overwhelming him?"

"Sorry Miss Cheerilee." They all say.

The mare just shakes her head and smiles, looking up at me before offering a hoof. "Sorry for them, they can be rather excitable with newcomers. My name is Cheerilee, I'm one of the teachers of this school." She says.

I smile back and gently shake her hoof. "Drakalian, residential human I guess." I introduce myself.

Cheerilee looks a bit confused as I grab and shake her hoof, but otherwise she says nothing as I release it afterwards. I'm aware that most ponies tend to do hoof bumps as a greeting and not hoof shakes, but to me shaking is just much more natural, so I stuck with it. "I'm assuming from what I heard, you are currently filly sitting for Ditzy as she looks for a job, yes?" She asks. I blink in surprise, not expecting for that to be known so soon after just one day. Guess word really does get around in this town.

Dinky, who was quiet this entire time, finally speaks up. "Yes he is Miss Cheerilee! Drak is so much fun to play with, he even helped me with the poster project!" She says, pulling out the poster with her mouth and holding it up to her.

The teacher smiles at this. "Oh that's great to hear Dinky, but no need to show it now, wait for when we get inside." She then looks around just as the bell on top of the schoolhouse rings. "Speaking of which, it's time for classes every pony! Let's go inside for the first lesson." She calls out so the rest of the fillies and colts could hear.

Slowly they stopped staring at us as they walked into the building, the three fillies and Dinky following after them. Cheerilee stays back for a moment as she looks up at me and once again says, "Sorry for them again."

I just shake my head and wave it aside. "No biggie, they are only kids after all." I say, which gets a smile from her.

"They are indeed, and while I love seeing their curiosity help them learn new things, it can get a bit too much for others...even myself at times." She sighs, shaking her head before adding, "So, will you be picking her up later when school ends?"

I shake my head at this. "I thought I was just gonna wait here for her to finish, it doesn't take long yes?" I ask her.

She gives a bit of a sheepish look at this. "Well...we normally go for a few hours, about four or five at the most." She explains.

I blink in surprise at this. "Oh, well that's fine, I don't really have much planned for today anyways besides taking care of Dinky." I explain to her. I look around and then find a bench that is mostly cleared of snow. "I'll just wait there for now if that's ok?" I ask, moving to sit down, only to get stopped by Cheerilee.

"Wait outside? In this weather?" She asks.

I shrug. "It's not that cold out, I'm sure I'll be-." I start to say before getting interrupted by her.

"Nonsense! It is way too cold out to wait here for several hours!" She states. She then motions me to follow her. "Come, join us in the classroom, it's much warmer inside. At the very least stay inside the building if you are going to wait."

I pause as I think this over. I don't really have any problems waiting in the cold, but the look on her face tells me that she wasn't going to take no for an answer, so with a shrug I start walking with her. "Well, I suppose waiting inside in a warm building is better than waiting outside in the cold." I say.

She smiles and nods at this. "Agreed." She says as we both enter the building.

As we walk through the building, I can't help but to look around, seeing all the different rooms and hallways of the place, Cheerilee telling me a bit about each room and the different teachers here. Soon we were at her classroom, to which she opens the door, causing the chatter that was going on inside to quickly fall silent as we both walk in, once again all of them staring at me as soon as I entered the room.

"Ok class, today we have a special guest who will be staying with us for the day. Please remember to treat him with respect." She says, to which they all nod before going right back to staring at me. Cheerilee notices this as she glances over at me. "Perhaps this was a bad idea, I don't want them too distracted after all." She whispers to me.

I give a small shrug. "I'm sure it'll be fine." I say, though as they kept on staring, I cautiously added, "...hopefully."

The teacher gives a small smile at this before taking her spot at the desk that is at the front of the classroom. I decided to take a seat at the front corner of the room, thinking that it would at least keep the kids somewhat focused on their teacher if I was also in their line of sight. However, I soon realized that none of the seats there would fit me, even the one for the teacher, so I just end up standing there instead.

Once she had all of their attention, Cheerilee started class. "Ok fillies and colts. Seeing how we have a guest here, I think today we shall start learning about the different species and races of Equestria." She says. She quickly takes the chalk in her mouth as she starts drawing a few pictures and graphs on the board, managing to talk even while it is in her mouth. "So, you all know about the different races of ponies, that being the Earth ponies, the Pegasi, and the Unicorns. But of course there are many more races out there, and not all of them ponies." She continues. Soon she has the three main ponies drawn on the board, leaving plenty of space for more when it was needed. Placing the chalk down she looks over at the class. "Can any pony tell me about any of the other races?"

There is silence for a few moments before a few hooves are raised, to which Cheerilee is quick to pick one, pointing at the gray earth pony with a braid and glasses. "Um, there are the ponies from Saddle Arabia." She says, a bit unsure with her answer.

However it seemed to be right as the teacher nodded. "That is correct Silver Spoon! Yes the Saddle Arabians are another race that sit just outside of the boarders of Equastria." She says, picking the chalk up and drawing another picture. "However, most ponies think that they are just an extended family of the Earth ponies, so there isn't a definite answer to them being their own race or not." She adds. Once she finishes drawing them, I can see that these Saddle Arabians were indeed a lot like the Earth ponies, but a lot slimmer and with finer lines. And if she was drawing them to scale of each other, then perhaps even taller, though I wasn't too sure about that.

She then points to another student, this time the orange pegasus, Scootaloo. "The Griffins?" She asks.

Once again the magenta pony nods as she starts drawing them again. "Yes, the Griffins are another race that usually live outside of Equstrian borders, most of them living in the Griffin Kingdom." She explains. Soon she finishes drawing them and again points to another student as they give their answer.

It goes on like this for some time, each of the fillies and colts raising a hoof and suggesting some of the different races that live either in or around Equestria. After a while there were plenty of different pictures of species on the board, from the minotaurs to a strange race called the changelings. When they were brought up, there was a bit of a hush that fell on the class, even Cheerilee was a bit more quiet when discussing them, and she kept it rather brief too. Before I could ask about it myself, they had finished the topic and were moving onto how each species interacts with each other and how the different kingdoms get along. One thing that I noticed is that most of them seem to have a lack of friendliness that the others in Equestria have...though this is only coming from what I heard, so I decided to reserve my judgement till then.

After a good couple of hours, Dinky raises a hoof rather eagerly, quickly saying, "What about humans?"

"Humans sadly aren't known that well due to their more mythological background as they are deemed to be beings of fiction." The magenta mare seemed to automatically say. At this I cleared my throat gently, causing the mare to look at me awkwardly before adding, "At least, they were considered fiction."

I just smile, indicating no harm was done, though the class wasn't done just yet. "But what is their society like?" Asked a rather small colt. I think that is Pipsqueak who is a big fan of Luna. Upon his question, all the young ponies turned to look at me once again, as if expecting me to have every answer for them already.

Awkwardly I rubbed the back of my head. "So...I don't really know much about human society myself, as I haven't been around many humans myself. So sadly I can't really help with saying just what our society is like" I apologize to them. Truth be told, even after I got a good part of my memories back, I realized that most of my time was spent with other species or on the road, not a lot of human interactions that I could safely say are unique to humans. One thing that I was still worried about is the fact that anything before my time with Alexus in the forest of my old home I have no memories of still, so all of my childhood is still a mystery.

Thankfully at that point the bell rang and Cheerilee stomped her hooves to get everyone's attention. "That will be the lunch bell kids! Go on and grab your lunches and when we come back, we will be seeing all of the posters that you fillies and colts made." She says. Slowly, but with increasing speed, they start to grab their lunches, some from bags, others from small boxes, and taking out their food as they started to munch on them. I could see Ditzy already enjoying her daisy and cheese sandwich that I decided to make for her lunch, to which seeing me look at her, she waves her thanks. I just smile and wave back as the teacher walks up to me with a soft smile at the interaction.

"She's a good girl that one." She said, to which I nodded in agreement. She then changed the subject as she said "I'm sorry for putting the spotlight on you so suddenly like that."

I just shrug at the matter. "No harm done. I'm sorry that I can't answer all the questions that they most likely have for me." I say, to which she smiles in understanding.

"If there is anything you don't wish to tell them, let me know." She adds. "I know that some of the races have some more...mature rules that can't really be explained in a school setting, so-"

"Actually there is one rule." I said as the thought hits me. Cheerilee looks up curiously at this, to which I lean down and whisper it into her ear. After a few minutes I lean back, seeing her blushing as she looks back at me, then at my pants and then back up at me.

"I-I'll...I'll be sure to distract them from that if they do ask that question." She says, to which I smile.

"I think it would certainly be the best, thank you."

The lunch finished shortly after and as the students returned to their seats, Cheerilee got them all to start showing their projects about the good deeds that other ponies did during the fire. I couldn't help but smile as Dinky showed everyone the poster of me saving her from the fire, the others looking over at me in some awe. Perhaps it's a bit childish to feel joy from being praised, but I couldn't help myself. In the end Cheerilee gave her an A, which made the unicorn filly very happy, and myself included.

It seems that my actions during the fire weren't unnoticed and there were a number of other students who also made things depicting that scene. Seeing just how excited and animated they were explaining what they think happened made my heart light up a bit, and a few times I had to hide myself from wiping a tear away. One of the fillies, a pink one wearing some sort of small crown, showed how her father helped by offering to pay for all the damages done to the post office in the form of a gem statue. Another one, Scootaloo I think, showed how Rainbow Dash swept in and washed the whole place down with a few bounces on a rainstorm cloud, though Cheerilee was quick to remind her that Rainbow was not present during the fire at that time, so she ended up getting a C+

The rest of the students got a bunch of mixed grades too, but they seemed to be somewhat grouped up around A- and B-, with a few outliers as an exception. Soon the bell rang again as all the students, who were starting to look tired from sitting around for so long, gave a cheer as they got up and began to prepare to leave the school.

"Now kids, remember that the homework for tonight Is on the desk before you leave, make sure you all take it before you go." She calls out. They all nod absentmindedly as they did what she said, taking a sheet of paper as they passed by, some of them putting it in their saddle bags.

Dinky was one of the last to leave, quickly walking over to me once she got her paper. I smiled as I stood up from the ground, having sat on the floor after it got too tiring to stand, stretching my legs a bit. "So, ready to head home?"

She gives a small frown as she looks away from me, pawing the ground with a hoof. "Um...actually I was kind of hoping...if I could go hang out with the Crusaders?" She asks.

I blink at the name. "Crusaders?" I ask. I couldn't help but feel a dreaded sense of deja vu from hearing that word, remembering my own Crusaders that Celestia told me about. However, my fears are assured when Dinky continues talking.

She nods. "It's the group that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo made. They are trying to get their cutie marks and I was hoping to join them so I could learn a thing or two about how to get my cutie marks." She says.

I tilt my head as I think this over, rubbing my chin in thought. Ditzy said that Dinky only had school today, and then afterwards there were no other obligations for her, so with that I nod and smile down at her. "Well, if they allow it, then sure." I say, to which she cheers happily. I quickly cut off her cheering as I add, "However I'm coming along as well. I did promise your mom that I was gonna keep an eye on you."

She quickly nods at this. "That's fine, I'm sure they won't have any problems with you joining us."

Thankfully she was correct as the trio of fillies were more than happy to have a new face join them. It only took a few minutes, but it felt like a lot longer as I was besieged by question after question, though thanks to Dinky they were able to keep them somewhat manageable. I answered as many of their questions as I could, while also able to ask a few of my own about their Crusader group