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There were few activities Moth-Drops enjoyed more than reading. As such, school was pretty much always a joy for her, and this week in particular was going to be a lot of fun. They were at a point in the primer where all of the stories in their reading book were about history! Granted, she'd much rather be doing biology or geography, but if she had to do work that wasn't related to that... well, history wasn't so bad. She was always incredibly curious about the world, and you could learn a lot from the past of a place. Granted, Phonyland's past was pretty much entirely made up and everything she was learning had been written by the company to either sell playsets or instill values in young phonies with impressionable minds- but she didn't know that! All Moth-Drops knew was that old stories were a lot of fun to read.

As she arrived at the schoolhouse for a private lesson, she sat down at a desk in the front of the room. She'd gotten in a little early and was the only phony in the room; she could see Miss Morning Glory trotting up the path outside. She pulled her books from her saddlebag and waited patiently for the lesson to begin.

"Sorry, Miss Morning Glory! I didn't mean to!" Moth-Drops squeaked from behind the desk. She really appreciated the teacher's time and effort; classes in Phonyland were small, and she liked the attention she got. As Morning Glory began to read the text, the little filly followed along eagerly.

She could only imagine what would happen if some of her more... exuberant friends (Mandrake Blossom, for instance) were given hatchets. Conversely, should Mandrake's brother Lullaby be given a hatchet, the pegasus was convinced that pretty much everything in the world would be save as houses.

She read along as the text continued.

"One day, as he wandered about the garden amusing himself by chopping the stakes which held up his mother's pea vines, he found a beautiful young cherry tree from Trottingham, his father's pride and joy. In a youthful spurt of enthusiasm, he chopped into the tree until it had died. Thinking nothing of it, he trotted away to see what other things he could chop.

Soon after this, his father discovered what had happened to his favorite tree. He galloped furiously into the stable and demanded to know who had chopped down his cherry tree. But nobody knew anything about it."

Moth-drops chewed her lip, but only for a moment. The story seemed pretty straight-forward. The foal- later on a great pony- had learned a lesson about honesty, probably leading to his later cutie mark. But why had he learned it? It didn't seem like he was really in any kind of trouble.

"Well, yeah. I mean, it's his dad. You shouldn't ever lie to your parents, even if you did just chop down their cherry tree. He shouldn'ta done that, though. Did that kinda punishment really work for him, though? That seems like almost a reward, if he liked to chop things that much."

Moth had to think about it for a moment, while her teacher was going on about cupcakes. It was probably good to be intrinsically honest, but why? "Because if he didn't tell the truth and his dad found out, then maybe he'd stop believing him? Or if he didn't get caught, he'd have to keep lying, and eventually somebody would figure it out. Plus, wouldn't that mean that somebody else would get in trouble... and that's pretty bad, if somebody else has to take the punishment you earned." That sounded about right to her. She thought back to the incident in the haunted house where she'd met her best friend, Mandrake. True, it was dishonesty that brought them together- but honesty would have been a lot less terrifying.

Moth-drops glanced up at her teacher, smiling a little. "I had a friend lie to me once about... something that scared me. Only we weren't friends yet, we'd just met, and she wanted me to do something with her that I didn't want to. I ended up doing it, and it... I mean, well, it all turned out peachy in the end, but it got kinda hairy there for a second. And it took a while for her to tell me the truth. I was pretty mad for a while, but she said she was sorry and she meant it and so now we're friends." The filly paused for a moment, thinking some more. "And I guess that she was sorry was the most important part, at least for me. Honesty is important in a friendship, and so it must be with your family, too." She hadn't been really raised by a parent, although she knew who hers were, and she didn't know any of her siblings all that well. But she did know how important the family of friends she'd unofficially adopted were, and that was just as good, right?

Moth-drops grinned and wriggled out of her seat. "Thank you for the lesson, Miss Morning Glory!" She trotted out the door and into the sunlight. It had been a pretty good story, really, and she liked reading lessons that were more than just reading. Honesty was important, and she was glad that George Washinghooves had figured it out. Still... it was a shame about that nice cherry tree, though. The thought gave her a bit of an idea. Mandrake's family was into growing things- maybe they had a cherry orchard and she could convince her friend that today was a good day for pie!

So off she went to seek out Mandrake and whatever the day might bring.

[ooc: Fin!]