Stupid morning.

Stupid sun.

Stupid stairs.

Stupid brother.

Stupid mom and dad.

Stupid family.

Stupid breakfast.

Stupid stairs. Again.

Stupid room.

Stupid toothbrush.

Stupid door.

Stupid school.

Stupid cold!

Rainbow Dash let out an annoyed huff as she shivered again from the brisk fall cold. She walked up to the school with her mom and dad beside her.

Well, at least her mother beside her. Her father was busy being beside Spike.

Stupid brother. Again.

“Now this is first grade, Spike. No more of foolin’ around like in flight kindergarten, ya hear?” Blitz asked.

“Yes dad,” replied the dragon through chattering teeth.

Spike was just as annoyed as Rainbow Dash. On the ground, the cold wasn’t a problem, but up in the clouds, even in the early stages of fall, the cold was as unbearable as winter. And since he was a dragon, he was cold-blooded, which made him even more perceptible to the weather.

It was for this reason that beside Blitz there was a moving pile of jackets, courtesy of one overbearing and stern Firefly.

“Spike, remember, you’re cold-blooded. I do not want you out of that jacket in this cold!” Firefly reprimanded.

Spike looked at Rainbow Dash. Both their eyes told the message every kid says at this time of year.

“I wish summer lasted longer.”

“Ah, Firefly and mister Rainbow Blitz! So nice to meet you two! And are these two your children?” A mare with blue fur and a grey mane wrapped up in a bun greeted the family at the front of the school. Before the school day started, all the parents and the faculty would meet up to greet the kids and let them mingle for a bit before the teachers took them inside. As it was the first day of school, the meeting was more formal than usual, in order to allow the faculty to tell the parents what to expect for the new year.

However, this meeting was not formal in the slightest.

Word spread that Spike, the dragon son of two of the most well-known pegasi in Cloudsdale, was at the school, and everyone wanted to see him. Students, parents, and school staff alike.

For their curiosity, they were treated to the humorous sight of a mass of jackets shivering in fear under Blitz, with the father only blushing in embarrassment as he tried to coax the young drake out.

“Y…Yes, this is our children. Dashie, honey, say hi to your teacher, Miss Wing Check,” Firefly coaxed her daughter out from under her, although she wasn’t hiding under her mom in fear; She just wanted to not speak to anypony.

Yeah, that’s what she wanted.

“Hi…himisswingcheckitsnicetoseeyouokaythanksbye!” Dash scuffled back under Firefly, desperate to get away from the mare. Firefly sighed while Wing Check looked in confusion.

“You’ll have to excuse my daughter. Her kindergarten teacher wasn’t the, uh, nicest teacher around. Of course the teacher has been reprimanded but...I suppose the damage is done.” Firefly looked to the ground and sighed. If Dash couldn’t get through the first year of real school because of a fear of teachers, she might have to homeschool her. With her work, it would be impossible.

“Don’t worry, my dear Firefly. Your husband was quite adamant in pulling some strings in the administration to have me as her teacher. Apparently they considered me most qualified to handle this…peculiar situation. You have my word she will pass this phobia and forget all about it!” Wing Check closed her eyes in a triumphant grin.

If she had kept her eyes open, she would have seen Firefly smirk, with a dangerous flash of her teeth. “Thank you, Miss Check. However, should we hear that you are acting…most unpleasant to my daughter, or especially my son, my husband will wish to…” Firefly leaned closer, “request a private parent-teacher conference.”

Miss Wing Check could only gulp in fear.

“Wow, a real dragon!”

“Lemme see! Lemme see!”

“Those scales are so cool!”

Spike could only cringe in fear as he was boggled by all the kids in front of him, held back only by his dad.

“Hey now, stay back! My son here is no freak-show attraction! Please do not get any closer to him! Ack, where are your parents when I need them-gah! You bit my leg!"

The only thing Spike could do was to take off his layers of jackets. With each layer removed, the crowd of kids oohed and ahhed at the sight of more scales and the slow reveal of his tail.

Blitz briefly had a mental image of a dragon stripper. He then grabbed the image, threw it on the ground, set a big bonfire on top of it, lit the bonfire until it was nothing more than ashes, scooped up the ashes into a canister, and then set the canister on fire by way of flamethrower.

He then silently prayed in the back of his head that his son wouldn’t become a stripper.

“ENOUGH!” he yelled out. The sudden silence that ensued gave Blitz whiplash, and he felt a headache start to form.

“Um, hi?” Spike quietly spoke.

“HIIIIIII!” all the kids yelled out in reply. Blitz could feel more of his headache come to him, and he desperately wished he had stayed with Firefly instead of trying to show his son around the school. They had only gotten to see the gym before they were swarmed.

For his part, Spike tried to curl up into a ball to ignore all the eyes and voices, just like his friend would do.

Wait. His friend!

Spike stood up and scanned the kids, looking for that unmistakable mix of pink and yellow. Not finding the filly, he spoke up, “Has anyone seen Fluttershy around? She’s pink and, uh, yellow!”

Some of the kids quieted down in order to look at each other, looking for the filly the drake mentioned. “No. We don’t see her.”

“Wouldn’t Fluttershy be in second grade, Spike?” Blitz asked.

“N-no…she was in flight kindergarten with us…”

Blitz shivered. He hoped the next teacher wasn’t going to be as bad as…her. He couldn’t help but growl in indignation at the memory, what that damn mare did to his daughter and son-

“Daaaad, you’re not a wolf. Please stop growling at the kids,” Spike whined. Blitz blinked as he suddenly stopped growling and looked to see the kids leaning back in fear of him.

Huh. So that’s what shuts them up. Gotta remember that.

At that moment, the bell rang.

“YES! I mean, um, HMPH that’s the first bell kids, time for you to get to class! I’m sure my son will be so happy to meet you all! ROOM ONE HUNDRED AND SIX SPIKE!” Blitz yelled out, running away quickly from the pack of kids.

Spike could only face-claw.

“Do, uh, any of you know where that room is?” Spike asked tentatively. Some colts and fillies in the group excitedly raised their hoofs and gestured for him to follow them. With a singular gulp, Spike grabbed his jackets and his backpack, tentatively walking behind the few kids going to his room. They stopped when they heard a scream at the end of the hall.

“AHHH! THAT WAS THE SAME LEG!”

“Alright class, hush! We won’t go anywhere with you talking away the day!” Ms. Wing Check chided the room of colts and fillies, who had stopped talking per her command after a few seconds. With relative silence, the teacher cleared her throat before she began.

“Today is an important day, fillies and colts! Today marks the beginning of your journey into the wondrous world of education! First, you will go through your primary education of first through fifth grade. Then, you will go through intermediary education in sixth to eighth grade, where you will learn your first lessons in flight. Those lessons and many more will be continued in Flight School, a nine to twelfth grade education where you will learn how to use the sky to your maximum potential, and start to form ideas of where you wish to go in life!” Miss Wing Check ended her speech with her signature smile, and looked towards her class…

…to see most of them already fallen asleep from her lecture.

Sigh. There’s more of them every year…

“Miss Wing Check?” A filly with white fur and grey hair raised her hoof.

“Yes, miss Fortuna Light, anything you wish to say?” Wing Check was glad that at least one filly managed to pay attention.

“Why can’t we learn how to fly sooner? My sister knew how to fly when she was ten!” There were murmurs of agreement between the students, each one also wondering why they were learning to fly later rather than sooner.

“Your sister was probably in an advanced class, where their education is faster and more challenging, as opposed to ours. She may have also started with her parents tutoring her. She also could be what we call an early bloomer, where her wings are already fully developed by the time she was ten years old. That is a rare case, and I do not recommend any of you learn how to fly that young, unless your doctor and your parents agree that your wings are ready. Now, any more questions?”

Some of the students murmured, but none of them had a definite question.

“Miss Wing Check? What about me? Will I have to learn how to fly, even if I don’t have wings?” A clawed hand was raised in the air as all eyes turned to the source of the hand. A purple dragon with green spines was sitting next to a blue filly with rainbow hair on his right, and on his left sat a yellow filly with bright flowing pink hair.
“Well, with you, mister Rainbow Spike, I’m not sure. I am not knowledgeable in dragons, I’m afraid. However, I do know that most dragons do grow their wings in a matter of time, so unless you’re a special exception, you will have your wings in time. Maybe not at the same time as your peers, but in definite time. Now, if there aren’t any more questions, let’s go on to introducing ourselves to the class. My name, if some of you do not know, is Miss Wing Check…”

It was now noon, and the kids were outside for recess and lunch on the school playground. Three kids, one dragon and two fillies, sat comfortably on a cloud a little far from the playground, but still in seeing distance for the supervising teacher.

Well, two kids and a pile of jackets, in either case.

“Blegh! Mustard and daisy sandwich?!” Spike gagged. He loved his mother, he really did, but he just didn’t understand her mother’s ideas on “healthy” food. What he really wanted was the gems she kept in the back of the cupboard. Now those were delicious.

“I can, uh, trade you mine?” Fluttershy said. The dragon looked to see her sandwich had onions and pickles. Not really better, but he knew how Fluttershy loved daisies, so he quickly swapped sandwiches and bit into the new lunch.

Mayonnaise.

“Yissss…” Spike sighed happily. Mayo was an ingredient he believed should be mandatory on all sandwiches and protected by law.

“Bah, next time I get her sandwich then,” Rainbow Dash pouted. She looked at her own sandwich, a replica of Spike’s original, and dared a bite. When she didn’t immediately die from poisoning, she kept on taking small bites, not willing to risk chomping down and having a gag reflex.

“You know, I can’t believe we’re already getting homework on the first day. Like, at least let us learn a little bit before you give us work!” Spike complained.

“Wow, never thought you wanted to actually learn in school, Spike. You hated the math lessons in kindergarten,” Dash replied.

“Well, who didn’t?”

“Eh, Fluttershy here, probably.”

“Mmm mmm,” Fluttershy shook her head. “I didn’t like her lessons either.”

Rainbow cringed. “Leeeet’s not talk about her. Please?” she asked.

“Oh, um, yeah…” Fluttershy sighed. As far as she knew, none of the other kids in their class went to the same kindergarten class as they did.

“Hey, look over there,” Spike pointed with his right claw at a small object on another cloud. The fillies leaned in and saw that the object was the griffon who was in the same class as they were. If Spike remembered correctly, she said her name was Gilda, and she just came to Cloudsdale. She didn’t say anything more, nor did it look like she wanted to at the time.

“Aww, she’s sitting all on her own,” Fluttershy remarked.

“Well, she shouldn’t! She’s a griffon, and they’re one of the coolest guys around! If no one wants to be friends with her, then we will!”

“Dashie, wait, I don’t think…ugh,” Spike made his second face-claw of the day as his sister ran as a rainbow blur up to the griffon. With a shrug towards Fluttershy, the two walked over to the young pegasus and griffon.

“So where are you from? Who are your parents? Where do you live?!” Rainbow asked.

“Rainbow Dash!!! Let her go. She just doesn’t want to be bothered,” chided Spike. He glared at his sister, who replied with sticking her tongue out.

Gilda flinched back and looked down. Spike swore he could see tears. He walked up to the griffon to try and calm her down before she bawled, but was pushed over by Rainbow.

“Ahhhh, don’t listen to my brother. He’s a real meanie sometimes,” Rainbow laughed.

“W-wait… You two are…?” Gilda asked.

“Yup! Bro and sis! I’m older though, so he has to follow me!” Rainbow put her arm around Spike’s neck with a smile, while he only rolled his eyes.

“Dashie, you’re only a day older than me,” he whined.

“Buuuut I’m still older. And as the older sister, I command you to say sorry!” Rainbow commanded.

“For what?!” he cried.

“You hurt her feelings!”

“No I didn’t!”

“Yeah you did!”

“Actually he didn’t…” Gilda whispered, but she was ignored by the siblings.

“No I did not!”

“Yeah you did! She was about to cry!”

“Um, guys?...” Gilda tried once again to get the two’s attention, but once again she was ignored.

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t because of me!”

“Spike, Rainbow, I think Gilda’s trying to say something…” Now Fluttershy was trying to reign in the two siblings, but she was ignored as well.

“What are you talking about, you were about to say sorry before I pushed you away!”

“No I wasn’t! And thanks for that by the way!”

“HEEEEEEEY!”

Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Spike flinched back in surprise at the yelling griffon, and stared at her wide-eyed when Gilda herself hunched with a small blush on her cheeks. She cleared her throat before sitting up.

“It’s…it’s fine, Rainbow Spike and Rainbow Dash. I just didn’t want you guys to leave since, well, you’re the first ponies to talk to me…”

“Hey, I guess I am sorry for trying to get us away. Rainbow can just be a little jumpy to new ponies…er, griffons, I mean. Oh, and just call me Spike. My sister likes to be called Rainbow,” Spike replied.

“Wait, why do you two have the same first name?” Gilda asked.

“My dad’s family likes to name everyone Rainbow something. We’re part of a really important family!” Rainbow again grabbed Spike by the neck and pulled him close with a smile.

“What she means is,” Spike began, “the Rainbows are a very special family to the history of Cloudsdale. Not only are we one of the oldest pegasi clans, we also are the family from which the great Commander Hurricane came from-“

“Blah! You actually listen to dad?” Rainbow gagged.

“Yeah? Don’t you?” Spike asked.

“Nah, I just go to sleep sitting up. Who wants to hear all of that nerdy stuff?”

“It’s not nerdy, Dashie!” Spike whined.

“Yeah it is, and now you’re a nerd!”

“I’m not a nerd!” Spike yelled.

“Oh yeah? Well, would a nerd be…” Rainbow smirked and crouched low, “…ticklish!” Rainbow pounced on Spike, plucking a feather out from her right wing in order to tickle the drake. The two rolled away from Gilda and Fluttershy, laughing and panting.

“Are…they okay?” Gilda asked.

“AHHHH NOT THE ARM!”

“They’ll be fine. They always like to wrestle after a fight to see who’s right. I’m Fluttershy, but, um, of course you already know that, so, um…” Fluttershy blushed, realizing the faux-pas in saying her name after she had already told the class.

“Ah, Gilda, again. Nice to meet you, Fluttershy! And nice to meet your friends too! They’re really funny!”

“Hey, no pulling of my hair!”

“You’re more than welcome to join us at the park, Gilda. We always like to meet up there,” Fluttershy said.

“Sure, I’ll come!” Gilda replied.

“Okay class! Time to come back inside!” the teacher yelled.

“Oh…” Fluttershy sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Gilda asked.

“Nothing, it’s just…I…have trouble with…math,” Fluttershy blushed with embarrassment. The four were walking back, Gilda and Fluttershy side by side with a fuming Spike and smirking Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, I can help you! I know math!” Gilda replied happily.

“You do? Oh, thank you!” Fluttershy smiled.

“See? Now even Fluttershy likes her. You need to lighten up a little,” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“Yeah yeah yeah, so what do you need help with on your math also?”

“I can do my math just fine, meanie!” Rainbow punched Spike’s side.

“Ow! Same arm, same arm!”

Author's Notes:

Oof. This one came up a little later than I wanted to. Hopefully that won't happen again.

So, what do you think? Now that we have our 4 misfits together, what sort of trouble will they get into?

Oh, a whole lot, I'll say.

Next up we'll have our four friends in fifth grade hanging out at the park, and show some hints at our first romance of the story! Who will it be? And with who?! You guess!

Also, I'm still looking for a second editor for the story, someone who can criticize some aspects of my writing. Drop me a PM if you're interested!

Fair Warning: the next chapter will be the last for a month, and then we'll begin again in September.