Renewal

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

----

This... Was not according to plan.

Standing here, in this hallway, wearing a red blazer and being in the wrong school was kind of the opposite of the plan.

He could work with this though.

Right?

"Dude. Bro's got an eye-patch." He was already being noticed by the student body. Being new, being odd...

Well, Twilight had been given a hard time, too. No way he'd be worse off than she had been, given he started off with the whole walking and talking thing.

"So does Perk, over in art. S'no big deal." He squared his shoulders, sliding the backpack he'd gotten, a plain green sack full of pockets that almost matched his hair, evenly into the small of his back.

"Yeah, but Perk is wearing a cheap little piece of plastic crap from the Topic so he can look all edgy. That thing man? That was put on by a doc, my dad does that stuff." The two students who were talking about him began following, continuing to talk about him.

"Woah. You think he lost it?" He was supposed to be looking for administration, see about his classes.

"I dunno. Why don't you ask him?" He turned his head to the left to better see, frustrated by the lack of detail when he got too close to the doors now that he knew he was losing focus.

"I don't wanna. You ask him!" He stopped and squinted, dragging the edges of the letters together.

Algebra 1-3. Definitely not it.

"Nuh-uh, you ask him." A few more doors down he stopped, the gossipers stopped with him.

"Ladies." Spike finally said, causing both to shut their mouths. "If you can show me where the office is, I'll tell you why I'm wearing an eye patch."

He waited a couple of moments, basking in the silence before his patience waned.

"Well?"

"What? You mean us? But you said ladies!" If Spike didn't know any better, he'd swear these two were the counterparts to Snips and Snails.

"You're gossiping like schoolgirls with a crush. Of course I mean you!" He was smiling, though it still took the other two boys a minute to get that he was joking.

"Oh! Okay! We've still got, like, fifteen minutes before class starts. The office is way back near the front of the school though, you totally missed it." Spike followed as they turned around, unsurprised that he'd walked right past where he intended to go.

He wasn't sure if it was just the awareness of having a problem, or if human eyes just weren't as good or some other issue he wasn't even aware of yet, but it felt like his eyes were getting worse day by day.

What really bothered him was that he hadn't even noticed as it got worse. Waving off difficulty with a variety of reasons and excuses from bad hoof-writing to boredom in things he used to enjoy.

Just a few more days, Marley would take him to get his glasses on Wednesday.

"So..." Started the one on the left. "What happened to your eye?"

"I had some burns on my face, doctors said it looked like it hurt my eye. I can see just fine out of it though." Spike lifted the eye patch, revealing the ovaloid iris.

"Woah."

"That's so metal."

"Metal?" Did he mean like the material? Or was he talking about that blasting, screaming music?

"Yeah man, totally hardcore." Okay, he knew what hardcore meant.

It was cool, right? Why couldn't he just say cool?

"Anyway the doc said to keep the eye patch on until it went back to normal. I'm not a doctor, so I can't really argue with him, can I?" The boys stopped in front of a door, he could vaguely make out the word 'Administration' on it.

"Anyway, here you are. Have fun in the dungeon." The blur on his left said.

"Yeah, try not to lose your other eye!" The one on his right rushed past him.

"Hey!" He shouted, causing them both to pause. "Thanks guys!"

They waved briefly before they were lost in the throng of the other students. Turning around, Spike squared his shoulders once more and turned the handle.

"You're late." The voice was female, curt and clipped. He wouldn't be starting this out very well today.

"I'm sorry. I walked right by the door without noticing." He stepped in and closed the door behind him.

"Try not to let it happen again." She was definitely miffed.

"Once my glasses come in, it shouldn't happen as often." She motioned to the chair in front of her desk, so he sat. The back was high and stiff, uncomfortable.

"I was unaware that you wore glasses, Mr... Hmm... Spike." Her tone shifted, she sounded less confrontational.

"I don't, yet. I've never worn glasses before."

"I... See. If you don't mind my asking, what is-"

"Hyeroipeia? Pia? It was something like that. It means I-"

"Hyperopia, yes. Farsightedness, meaning you have difficulty with focusing on things that are too close. Yes... That makes sense." She was tapping a pen on her desk, seeming caught up in her own thoughts. "Well then, ignoring that for the moment we'll get you situated in your classes. As a freshman, physical education and health are both required courses. Given the test scores, you will be placed in pre-algebra, english-1, physical science-1, physical education, lunch, remedial social studies, geography-1 and remedial history."

"Oh, um, alright. Sounds good I guess." Actually, they all sounded like a lot of work.

"That is your Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule. On Tuesdays and Thursdays your classes remain the same except for physical education which will be replaced with health. At the end of the semester you will be given the option of testing up for your classes." She leveled a glare at him, her voice deathly serious. "Moving up per academic tier will open more classes for you to take, but this is a rather difficult option. Both for you in taking more difficult classes and for us in dealing with the paperwork required by the state in regards to your academic changes. Therefore I would suggest you not make an attempt you are uncertain about. Am I understood?"

Spike nodded, unenthused. Twilight would have loved it here, he was sure of it.

"Very good. Your social worker has assured me that you have no afterschool activities therefore you will be coming to the school library at the end of the day, Mondays and Thursdays for tutoring. This is not negotiable."

"You have been accepted at Crystal Preparatory Academy, Spike. And we do not accept failure."