A few weeks before meteor…

The door to the schoolhouse flew open and released the tidal wave of excited fillies it had contained in body but not in mind. Friday always saw shuffling seats as little fillies and colts waited eagerly for the final bell to ring. Cheerilee had long since abandoned any hope of keeping her student’s minds on task for the final hour of class, changing her curriculum to reading quietly for the remainder.

Snails was usually out the door last with his best friend in the world, Snips, but today he lagged behind. Snips stopped to wait up for him in the doorway. “Come on, Snails!”

“Eh…” Snails needed a moment to collect his thoughts. “I need to, uh, talk to Ms. Cheerilee.”

“Low marks again, huh?” Snips patted his friend on the shoulder. “Well, come over to my house after, I just got a new board game!”

Snails smiled and nodded in excitement. Collecting and playing board games was one of Snips’ hobbies. The two colts always played them together on weekends when no event was being held in Ponyville to keep them occupied.

When Snips had left, Snails turned back to the classroom. Cheerilee was masterfully stacking papers with her front hooves and mouth. Snails walked up beside her and waited, watching her quietly. It took the teacher a moment to realize he was there. “Oh! Did you need something, Snails?” she asked happily.

Snails’ vocabulary had never been stellar so he rarely minced words. “Ms. Cheerilee, where’s Twist?”

“Oh, um… well she moved,” Cheerilee explained nervously. “I spoke to the class about it earlier, remember?”

“I remember.” His little head nodded. “But… why did she move?”

Sighing, Cheerilee patted the chair next to her. With a hop, Snails sat. The reddish pink pony sat on the floor next to him. They were eye to eye as she began. “She moved because her mother moved to Canterlot. She moved with her.”

“Will she come back?” came the automatic response from the colt.

“I don’t know,” Cheerilee answered honestly. “I’m sure you could always visit her in Canterlot, though. If,” she added quickly, “your parents say it’s OK.”

“You think so?” His eyes grew large with the possibility. “I’m gunna go ask and see!” With a hop to the floor Snails was off running. Cheerilee called out to him but he was already long gone.

Though his grades made him seem low class, Snails’ parents were second only to Filthy Rich in wealth. They had heavily invested in Filthy’s zap apple business in its infancy. The returns from that fateful day continued to sustain them. This had not stopped them from perusing other investments outside of Ponyville, often leaving town for days on end.

The right door of the large double doors to the larger house swung open as Snails entered his home. Sunlight streamed through windows that peered out onto gardens that the little colt had rushed by. They had never truly interested him.

“Mom? Dad?” Snails called out. A grayish pink earth pony in a maids outfit nearly fell over from Snails’ sudden appearance. “Sunset, are my mom and dad home?”

Sunset Bliss put the feather duster in her mouth down before answering. “Your father is upstairs in his study. But he just got back-”

Snails barreled past the maid and up the grand staircase, paying little head to the rest of her warning. The stairs split to the left and right. He took the right, heading in the direction of his father’s study without a second thought.

Though the door was closed and Snails would normally have known better than to barge in, those thoughts were thrown to the wind in his single-mindedness. His father’s study consisted of a large room with bookshelves stocking every wall except one. The one empty wall housed a hearth and was currently the only means of light in the room. The stallion liked to read by firelight.

Snails located his father instantly: sitting in his favorite chair with his back to the fire so as to catch the light. “Dad!”

His father’s eyes lifted from the book he held aloft with magic. Shadows cast by the fireplace lent weight to the already imposing figure he already was. Snails had gotten his black colored eyes from his father, who used his to stare at the little colt. That stare caused Snails to shrink.

“I… I was wondering if, maybe if you said it’s OK, I could visit my friend, Twist, in Canterlot...?”

“Canterlot?” his father spat the word out. “Why would anypony in Equestria move there?”

“Well, her mom moved there and-”

His father’s sudden, low laughter cut Snails off. “That explains it. She always was a snake, probably found some rich unicorn to sink her teeth into.”

Shuffling from hoof to hoof, Snails said again, “I was wondering if maybe I could go see them?”

Before Snails had even finished asking, his father was back to reading his book. “I’d rather you didn’t associate with them anymore. It’s good for everypony that they moved, honestly.”

The silence in the room stretched until Snails found the courage to move his legs again. He knew better than to ask something of his father twice. Of the many rules he would forget, that one would always shine clearly in his mind. His small hooves sought to close the door behind him slowly, quietly.

His father’s whispered words reached his ears. “Cursed slow child…”

The rest of Snails’ day was spent at Snips’. Snips let Snails be any character he wanted in any board game that day.

He had met his best friend’s father before.

Monday’s sunny morning might as well have been gray clouds for all the children returning to class cared. Everypony there knew what every other pony had been up to as Ponyville was not a large town. Their minds were already turning towards the next weekend, the next adventure.

Snails’ mind, though, was still on the empty desk beside his. During free period, Cheerilee sat beside Snails’ quietly and watched him drawing. “A train?” she asked him. “Where’s it going?”

“Nowhere,” he answered quietly. Tears started to spring up in his eyes and he wiped at them with a hoof.

Schooled in schooling well, Cheerilee took Snails by the foreleg and into her office in the back of the classroom without any pony seeing. When the door was softly closed behind them, she asked him, “Snails, you spoke with your father, didn’t you?"

Without the constraints of the classroom around him Snails cried openly. Still, all he could manage was a nod while looking down at his hooves.

Though she had often been berated for being affectionate to her students, Cheerilee had always felt compassion was the best teacher. She moved forward and hugged Snails to her with her front leg. He nuzzled into her hair, wetting it with his tears. “I thought so… listen Snails, how about I set up a field trip to Canterlot Castle? On the way, we can visit Twist…”

His crying turned to sniffling. “Really?”

“Of course…” Cheerilee smiled down at him and gave him another hug. “You can stay in here for as long as you like, OK?” Ruffling his hair slightly as she walked past, the pony opened the office door and returned to the classroom.

Cheerilee watched all her children rush out of the schoolhouse with a smile on her face. Snails ran alongside Snips as they rushed after the others.

When they were out of sight, the school teacher trotted to her desk and peered over the student’s free period artwork. The art allowed the students to express themselves while allowing her a window into their current thoughts. Often, as with Snails, she would see the problems they faced at home and try in her own way to ease their burdens. It was difficult, but fulfilling.

She gently sifted through the pile of art till she came across Snails’. He had finished his train complete with tracks, steam, and trees along the sides. “Off to Canterlot,” Cheerilee said aloud.

Five years, four months after meteor...

The kettle sat quiet atop the stove. Fluttershy peeked at it from over the book she had read a dozen times already. “Pinkie Pie,” she called to the pink pony in the living room. “Did you remember to put more heat on?”

“Oppsie! I forgot!” came the response.

With a sigh, Fluttershy placed the book down on the table beside her. “Oh, Pinkie Pie…” The pony stood and trotted to the stove. She nuzzled on an oven mitt and opened the hatch beneath the stove top. Only embers burned inside. Shaking her head so the mitt came off, Fluttershy leaned down and to the side of the stove. There, a pile of papers from around Ponyville rested.

She used her mouth to lift a few papers and shoved them into the stove. The embers licked and bit, lighting the edges of the newly given fuel. Fluttershy’s bent to pick up the oven mitt again but stopped. Her eyes locked on the top paper as it burned.

A train rushing along a track.

From a time when ponies left Ponyville, she thought. Well, no reason to dwell on the past. The hatch latched into place with a gentle push of her nose.

“Tea will be ready soon, Pinkie!”