"Hello there, you must be the new student! Mr.Touch said you would be coming today." The optimistic looking mare said.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you Ma'am." I politely replied.

"Well, aren't you well mannered!"

She said it with a casual smile but I could feel the relief rolling off her.

I'm Miss Cheerilee, why don't you come up front and introduce yourself?"

"Yes Ma'am."

I remember my first day of class as a human. My Mom dropped me off. Right as soon as she started walking away I broke into tears. I acted as if I was beaten and traumatized the whole day and broke into tears again when she arrived. The sad part is all we did that day was draw pictures and play with blocks, I bet you anything that's what I'm going to be doing today too. Ahhhh, I was a gentle soul growing up... No, scratch that, I was a little menace, but I was a very emotional little menace. Regardless, I plan to be a lot less trouble on my first day of school as a pony. As long as I'm polite, quiet, and do my homework I doubt the teacher will have a problem with me. Not that I can't raise my voice... I walked up to the front of the class and smiled.

"HELLO!"

Everyone winced. Oops, too loud.

"I- I mean, hello..."

Too quiet. Come on, quit clowning around!

I took a deep breath, held it, and let go. "Hey everypony, my name is Willy Nilly, it's nice to meet you all. I hope we have a fun school year together!"

And then, they all stared at me.

And stared.

"You sound like an stuffy old pony!" some earth pony colt from the back yelled out.

Getting off to a great start here.

"Short Temper, you apologize right now young stallion!" The teacher scolded.

"Pff, sorry, I guess..." Temper lamely said.

Well, at least I know who the troublemaker in class is going to be.

"Now kids, remember what I told you last time in class?" The teacher smiled.

Cheerilee's smile grew thin at the blank, empty-headed looks they gave her.

"Now what do we do when a pony introduces himself?" She asked.

"OOOOOOOOOHHH!!!" The whole class cried out at once.

All the little colts and fillies started clapping and welcoming me to school. They were all talking over each other and it was a blurred mess, but hey, it felt a lot nicer than the mindless stares from before.

"Willy, why don't you go sit down next to Prism right over there." Miss Cheerilee pointed near the back.

I gave her a nod and headed towards the empty seat she pointed at. In the seat next to me was a pegasus colt with jet black fur and a prismatic name, much like his name implied. His eyes were a dark shade of auburn, which contrasted his coat rather nicely I feel. He seemed a little nervous. I gave him a friendly smile, which only seemed to make it worse. I'll be honest, I didn't expect to be goofing up this much. What am I doing wrong here? Maybe this is how it is for every new kid, but I expected that for something closer to elementary school, not kindergarten. Assuming I still am in the equivalent of kindergarten.

That's definitely something to look into. Looking at the other kids in the classroom, I notice they were all older than me. If I were to take a guess, Prism would be about... 2 to 3 years older. That kid who razzed me looks like he's a year older than Prism. Maybe kids all just attend the same class due to having such a small town. I wonder if that will make socializing easier or more difficult...

"ALRIGHT CLASS, GET STARTED!" Miss Cheerilee cheered.

Oh crap I wasn't paying attention. Other kids got out of their sits and started opening bins, grabbing crayons and papers. Ha, drawing pictures and playing with blocks, called it! On one hand, I really rather not hang out with 7 to 10 year olds simply because I would have a hard time relating to them; On the other hand, I didn't want to hang out with other little kids when I was actually 6 because I had a hard time relating to them. So honestly, I think the best course of action would to be as friendly as I can be during this school life. One of the most important lessons I feel I've learned in life is to not be afraid to look stupid.

"Hey there!" I winced at the crappy false enthusiasm in my voice "Wanna draw a picture with me?"

"U- uhhh..." Prism shuffled in his seat, looking nervous.

"Hey Prism," A light green little filly with a rich red mane called out, "Hurry on over, will ya?"

"Sorry..." The colt mumbled as nervously trotted over to his friends.

I would probably be a little upset if it weren't for 1: I'm an adult, 2: He's a tiny kid who was peer pressured by friends to do something he wanted, and 3: Oh my goodness he is so nervous I can TASTE the therapy sessions he's gonna need later on in life.

Welp, that was a bust.

Alright, so the kid I sat next to has his own little friend group consisting of five other ponies. He looks to be the youngest among them, which probably explains the self confidence issues, or at least contributes to it. Looking around the class itself I spy about... 16 students, including myself. Prism's group makes roughly one third of the class. It consists a pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony of each gender. A bit of an odd coincidence. Short Temper seems to be the self appointed leader of the group, commanding the others to draw a certain picture.

The two oldest students were a unicorn mare and pegasus colt. They seemed to be off in the corner, talking in hushed voices, laughing occasionally. They give the vibe they don't want any of the other kids, especially the youngest ones, bothering them. The next two oldest were a pair of unicorn colts huddled over one desk. Ever heard the term 'eyes shining with intelligence?' These two are the opposite. One look in their eyes and you knew they were as dumb as bricks. It seems they BOTH somehow got a crayon shoved up their nose and they're desperately trying to get it out. Cheerilee seemed to as noticed as well and shook her head. 'Like fathers like sons.' she mumbled as she passed me. Next down the line in age was Prism's group, followed by three earth pony fillies were gossiping with each other, giggling on occasion.

All that was left was one little filly. She had cream colored fur, with a light pink mane and eyes. The poor thing was quietly drawing on a piece of paper by herself. Well, if this isn't an opportunity I don't know what is! I made my way over to her, trying to psych myself up.

"Hi there, you wanna draw together?" I tried to say in a warm tone.

The filly stopped drawing. No, it would be accurate to say she completely stopped moving.

"...Hey, are you alright?"

No response.

"Would you be upset if I sat here?"

Still as a statue.

Okay, she's shy, that's fine, maybe after sitting next to her for a couple days she'll open and end up being really nice.

...I hope.

Please.

I get to work drawing a picture of a human, because it's not like anyone is gonna know what one is, and if they do, I would really like to know why. Halfway through my picture I notice that my... 'friend' has started drawing again.

"That's a really good picture." I comment.

She becomes stiff as a board again, great.

I continue to draw myself as a human to the best of my ability. The tension between us is killing me. Luckily, the bell rings and it's time for recess. Everyone practically jumps up and runs out back. I decide to instead pester my teacher for a bit. Oddly enough my new 'friend' stays completely still in her seat as I rise.

"It was really fun drawing with you, thanks." I say gently.

No response, whatever. The teacher is too busy messing with her papers to notice me standing near her desk, so I politely clear my throat.

"Oh, Willy!" Miss Cheerilee smiled. "How is your first day going sweetie?"

"Great!" I lied.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it, I see you made a friend."

"Yeah, she-"

I look back and see she's already gone. Wow, I didn't hear her move at all.

"Wow, she's stealthy." I blinked.

"Yes, I never see her come in or out of classroom..." The teacher frowned. "But I'm glad she finally made a friend! Make sure to keep an eye on her, friends look out for each other."

That seemed a little forced.

"Of course." I replied.

"Thank you Willy! Now, what can I do for you?"

"So uh, how does the grading system work exactly?"

"I beg your pardon?" Miss Cheerilee raised an eyebrow.

"What I mean is, after a year, do we pass this class? It seems like kids of many different ages are all attending the same course."

"Oh!" Cheerilee's eyes widened in realization. I think I heard her mumble 'didn't expect that.' "Well, Ponyville is such a small community due to the... exciting things that happen in town sometimes."

Translation: We live next to a satanic forest of doom that shoots out monsters weekly, and no sensible pony would ever dare to live here, even with a princess in town.

"Because of that, I'm really the only teacher in town and we don't really all that many students. So, I teach all the children between the ages six to twelve from six in the morning to eleven, and then I teach all the children twelve years older and up from eleven to four in the afternoon."

Oh, that make sense. I imagine she can address each student separately and help them work at the their own pace. Great for learning, not so much for making friends your age though. Not like there's anything she can do about that. I guess I now know why she was happy I made friends with... whoever that was.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" She said in a patient tone.

"Oh, no thanks! I appreciate it Miss Cheerilee."

"No problem, now you go have fun!"

"Yes Ma'am!"

And with that I trotted my little butt out into the playground. Wanting to keep my promise, I looked around and tried to see if the filly was I talking to was anywhere nearby, she was sitting on a swing.

Short Temper was harassing her.

"Come on, you're not even swinging, you're just SITTING there!" Temper growled. "If you're just gonna sit on it, why not sit on the chair over there so I can SWING on it?!?"

"It's okay Temper, we can play with something else." A dark grey filly with a purple mane said. She was one of the six in his friend group, I believe.

"But it's dumb!" He stamped his hoof. "Why can't we play with the swing if she's not even USING it?!?"

"Sometimes it's nice to just slightly rock on the swing while you think." I speak up, causing him to glare at me. "I know you want to swing, but you should be nice and wait your turn."

Short gave a cry a frustration and shoved me to the ground.

"Butt out, this isn't your problem!"

Every child around me, except for my mystery friend, of course, stared at us as if some terrible tragedy just commenced. And I guess for a kid, this would be world shaking, but, you know, I'm kinda an adult, technically. I rose back up, and everyone stared at me.

And stared.

...And stared.

"Well go on, get out of here!" Temper tried shooing me away.

Oh, right! I'm in a conflict.

"Temper!" The gray filly scolded.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. That filly and I are friends, I just don't want anypony yelling at her." I raised my hooves in a placating manner.

"Oh yeah? If you're friends, whats her name?" He countered.

Crap.

"Temper!" The gray filly grabbed his ear between her teeth.

"OW, hey!" Temper cried.

"We're really sorry, don't mind him, he just gets easily cranky. Bye," She said between clenched teeth as she dragged her friend away.

Well that happened. I turn around and see that... She's no longer on the swing, great. Welp, might as well make use of it...

The rest of the day went by fairly normal. Temper continued giving me the stink eye, and my mysterious friend was magically back in her seat when I saw her again. I was halfway paying attention to the teacher until I noticed she disappeared from her seat! What the?..

"My name is Second Shadow."

I jumped out of my seat and spun around to see... No one there. Someone just whispered in my ear!

"Willy, are you okay?" Cheerilee asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah." I sat back down, realizing I was making a scene. "Yeah, I'm just fine."

The filly, or rather, Second was back in her seat.

That's not ominous. Next Chapter: We're kitty cats. Estimated time remaining: 16 Minutes