Cult-ivar - 1


                                            >Slowly, so slowly, the feeling approaches.

                                            >Something undulates at the edge of awareness, just past conscious recognition.

                                            >A long-forgotten idea swirls in the fog, its shapes suggestive of concepts beyond mortal reckoning.

                                            >The name surges forth, consuming your thoughts until all you can shout is

                                            "Product!"

                                            >You are Twilight Sparkle, and you have just blurted out the answer in class without being called on.

                                            >"Close, but not quite, does anybody else have an answer? If you do, please raise your hoof and wait for me to call on you, it's polite to let other ponies have a chance to share."

                                            >You can't help but feel that part might have been aimed at you…

                                            >Purple gives way to redder-ish purple as your face heats up.

                                            >You blurted out the wrong answer in class without being called on.

                                            >The only way this could get any worse is if you had to go to the bathroom because your tummy hurts and Princess Celestia doesn't notice you waving your hoof and you throw up on the desk and everypony sees and starts pointing and laughing and Princess Celestia says you're not her best pupil anymore and

                                            >Breathe. You graduated magic kindergarten a long time ago, and Princess Celestia's not teaching right now.

                                            >Anon, your bestest Hu'mun friend, is.

                                            >Princess Celestia said he was a very smart Hu'mun, and she's the smartest and bestest pony every and she's always right, so you're sure Anon is very smart too, but everything he's been saying is really hard to think about and

                                            >"Twilight?"

                                            Huh?

                                            >"The question was, 'How would you tell how many 1-snout wide squares would fit in this box, if all the sides of the box were 3 snouts long?'. Twilight, do you know the answer? You were really excited about sharing an answer earlier, so I wanted to give you a chance to answer this time."

                                            Oh no, oh no oh no oh no

                                            >Everybody is looking at you and you're gonna get kicked out of magic kindergarten for not paying attention and

                                            >Breathe.

                                            >Breathe.

                                            >Breathe.

                                            >"Twilight, do you need to see the nurse?"

                                            >Own up to what you did or it'll just get worse.

                                            "No, I just didn't know the answer and I panicked. Sorry for worrying you, I'll pay more attention."

                                            >"That's okay. Take your time.  While Twilight is thinking, does anyone else have an answer?"

                                            >Risking a peek, you swivel your head and see that nopony else has their hoof up.

                                            >"Do any of you want to try answering anyway? Don't worry, it's okay if you get it wrong, I just want to see how many ponies understand what we're doing so I know what I need to explain better."

                                            >He's been going on all day about "multiplication" so you're sure it's something to do with that, but you still don't know how you're supposed to use it, or even how to cast it. It's been hours and he hasn't even drawn a spell pattern! How are you supposed to know?

                                            >Hesitantly, you answer.

                                            "Count how many squares fit in the box?"

                                            >"Yes, how would you count the squares that fit."

                                            >You're totally confused.

                                            >Anon puts on a disappointed face and calls "Cheerilee?"

                                            >"Nine. Multiply the sides." she replies.

                                            >He praises "Very good."

                                            >And there's the other thing (besides multiplication) that doesn't make any sense.

                                            >She's been answering every question correctly so often that Anon stopped calling her a while ago.

                                            >You are Princess Celestia's personal student and Ponyville's most magical unicorn, with a gold star to prove it.

                                            >Cheerilee is an earth pony.

                                            >But somehow she can understand everything Anon's been saying about the Multiplication spell, use that to make her own spell pattern, modify it to count how many one-snout-long squares fit into a three snout-long square, and then cast it without anypony noticing?

                                            >You just don't get it.

                                            >Princess Celestia could do that, but Princess Celestia can do anything because she's really smart and big and good at magic.

                                            >On guard for Anon's voice, you start paying attention as he speaks to the class.

                                            >"Alright, I think everybody here has done a really good job so far. I know this is really confusing, so I'm proud that you all worked so hard to understand it. I'm going to work with Cheerilee to make a better way to explain this, you can go home early today. Class dismissed. Cheerilee, can you stay after for a few minutes?"

                                            >You join the flow of ponies as the classroom empties and take one more look at Cheerilee, walking over to Anon.

                                            >Something doesn't make sense, which means something is wrong.

                                            >And you're going to get to the bottom of it.