As a mule who’d grown up getting bullied and isolated by his peers, one of Solomon’s biggest worries as a parent was that his own children would suffer a similar fate. While Ponyville was a much more accepting environment than Canterlot ever was, he still couldn’t help but worry. There were mean foals in every town, after all.

Which was why Solomon took extra care to keep updated on his children’s lives, staying alert for any sign that it might not be working out.

“Amphy, are you making any friends at school?” He asked his youngest daughter one day.

“Yeah Pop, most o’ them are cool, but there are a couple who are huge buttfaces,” Amphritite scoffed. “They wouldn’t stop buggin’ me an’ Chelsea. Kept makin’ fun of our ears n’ stuff.”

“Oh my…” Solomon’s heart dropped. “Chelsea, is this true?”

His older daughter nodded.

“Well…how about your mother and I homeschool you instead so you don’t have to deal with them?”

“I thought Ma didn’t wanna homeschool us?”

“She didn’t, but we agreed if you two got picked on we would keep you home,” he explained. “What do you say?”

Amphritite burst out laughing. “No way!”

Solomon was perplexed. “But why? Don’t you want to get away from the ponies who pick on you?”

“Nah, I took care of them!” The little donkey stood up proudly. “They ain’t gonna mess with us no more!”

“Any more,” Solomon corrected. “But you know you’re going to stand out among your classmates no matter what, don’t you? Do you really want that?”

“Yeah I do!” Amphritite brayed. “I wanna show ‘em all I’m a proud donkey and I ain’t afraid of nobody!”

Solomon turned to his other daughter. “What about you? Would you like to be homeschooled?”

Chelsea shook her head.

“So you’d rather stay…despite what might happen?”

Chelsea nodded and shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Hm…” Solomon gave in hesitantly. “If you two insist, I suppose.”