//------------------------------//
// Story Premiere - Slice of Life 
// Story: First Hoofsteps 
// by Mocha 
//------------------------------//

	Streetlights of London flickered and half-shone like tired eyes in the night and fires danced in the grates of fireplaces as the occasional cream-coloured headlight waded through the rain. Pools were filled even in autumn; they glistened in the little moonlight that broke through the clouds. Drops dripped from the eaves of the houses as Jay sat on his sofa, the Wii U GamePad buttons clicking under his fingers as he figured out where to place the Boo in his New Super Mario Bros. U level. The grass waved outside on the lawn and the flowers shone like little beacons from the smile of the moon. Very few people were out this late but Jay enjoyed this time of day; it was quiet and still, allowing him to think whatever he wanted with no repercussions. The sky was amethyst and the cigarette smoke-scented air was crisp and cool. The few stars which were visible winked at the ants below, and the moon beamed down upon them.
Jay had his all-important A levels to attend next week and he had revised a ton, so he was rewarding himself with a little time on Super Mario Maker. A can or two of Fanta were strewn across the floor and a handful of crumbs were scattered over the carpet in front of the coffee table, on which he had kicked up his feet. The time came when he closed down for the night and he checked his watch to see that it was already 3 in the morning. He cursed under his breath as he put all of the Fanta cans and crumbs in the trash before creeping upstairs and taking off his tank top and shorts, leaving only his hipster boxer trunks on, revealing thick but soft muscles. He clambered into bed and went to sleep.
Next morning, he woke up and went downstairs for some breakfast. His trunks felt a little dislodged so he pulled them back up again and looked at the clock. Sleepy as he was, it look a moment for him to realise that he was going to be very late. He cursed loudly and slapped some jam between two slices of bread (getting a bit on the counter which he cleaned up), munching it on the way back upstairs to take a shower and get dressed.
He was so late. He'll be murdered by his teachers. He had a Spanish test today – wouldn't want to miss that.  He'll have to endure prying questions from his classmates. He raced downstairs and out the door. He ran at full pelt to the school, only now remembering that he hadn't packed his bag with today's books. He burst through the main doors then skidded into the Spanish classroom where the teacher was handing out scraps of paper for the vocabulary test. He looked around and raised an eyebrow.
“Kind of you to join us, Mr. Reynolds,” he remarked in self-consciously precise English, “why are you late?”
“I lost track of time, sir.”
“Convenient. Have a seat and get a pen out.”
Everyone watched him take a seat and get his pen out. He felt their eyes on the back of his neck, and he felt the hairs stand on end. He shrank a little in his chair. He looked at the blank piece of paper on his desk and as soon as the teacher started reading out random vocab, he wrote down the translation.

* * *

It was soon lunchtime and Jay decided to wait in the House for ten minutes for the lunchtime queues to ease up. He signed in on the register and sat in the comfortable seats at last. He never got a chance to sit here because all the cooler kids always took these chairs, and he wasn't particularly fond of being intrusive. After a few minutes he heard the door he came through open and close again, and a girl came into sight with golden blonde hair tied back from her eyes spiralling into luscious curls that bounced as she skipped over. Her baby-blue eyes lit up when she saw him.
“Hi Jay!” she greeted cheerfully, “How did the Spanish test go?”
“Great, thanks,” Jay replied, “got a bit delayed this morning though. Didn't wake up 'til about 8:30. How about you, Lucy? How'd you sleep?”
“Well, thank you.”
There was a moment of silence where Jay looked out of the window at the streets beyond. They were two stories up and he could see just over the top of the roofs at the birds soaring through the air. The road below ballooned outwards into two separate lanes to fit around a central patch of refreshingly organic green, a row of trees standing tall there. He heard Lucy shift a bit and returned his attention to her. She actually wasn't looking for his attention, but since she had it, she supposed she should make conversation.
“Got more of my Art project done today.”
“Sweet.” Jay paused. “Hey, wanna hang around town later?”
Lucy nodded, grinning. She liked hanging out with him. They'd spend an hour or so at the café, then go to the library, then... shopping! She always loved that part. Getting a new dress, or some new shoes, or some stationery, or –
She snapped back to reality to find Jay right in front of her face, his lips on hers. His chestnut brown hair felt soft and tickly against her forehead, and his warm brown eyes were fixed on her own. The moment was electric. A tingling sensation buzzed down the length of her spine – the same feeling she's been having for the past two tmes he's kissed her. It ended as quickly as it had began, and Jay sat back for a bit before getting up.
“I'm gonna get some lunch. Coming?”
“Right behind you.”

The lunch hall was packed, but thankfully the lines had calmed down, so getting served was quick and easy. It was lasagne today; Jay's favourite. Lucy had the vegetarian option, because she didn't really like mince. They sat together at the least-full table and chatted about nothing in particular. It was nice to be able to talk to someone, because Jay wasn't really all that popular for some reason.
It was then that Luke sauntered over with his gang of 5.
“Ooh, look at Reynolds and his little girlfriend!” he cooed mockingly.
“I take issue with that,” Jay replied, “you don't like gay people, yet you don't like me having a girlfriend? Double standards much?”
Luke pinned him to the table by the back of the throat. Jay's vision was obscured by lasagne. Lucy was screaming.
“Don't smartmouth me,” Luke snarled.
He was escorted away promptly by the teacher on watch duty for a good scolding. Jay listened to the ruckus of the lunch hall chatter, too depressed to lift his head out of his lasagne. Lucy did it for him, and wiped him down with a napkin.
“Thanks,” he said glumly.
“You really should tell someone about this,” Lucy said firmly, “it's not going to stop until he's expelled, I can tell you that much.”
“But they're never going to expel him. He's smart, he's good on the pitch, he's a ladies' man. He's too valuable. I'm just some average guy, not smart, not good on the pitch, nothing special.”
Lucy smirked a knowing smirk, then leaned forward slightly to get on his level.
“I'm not going out with 'some average guy'. I am going out with Jay Reynolds, the nicest, most hard-working guy I've met. If awards were earned for resilience and persistence, you'd win ten of each, I guarantee it. Oh, chin up, Jay, you're breaking my heart. Besides, all you have to do to ignore that jerk is to hang out with the people who love you the most – your friends, your family. None of us will judge you and if you tell us what happened we will be more than happy to help cheer you up and beat down on the bullying.”
“I'm not in the mood.”
“You say that, but you know I'm right.”
“No, I really am not in the mood, Lucy. Now let's just eat our lunch and get out of here, it's getting stuffy.”
Lucy desperately tried to think of something she could do to cheer him up.
“How about I get you some more lasagne?”
“There's only 5 minutes left.”
There was no debating the matter. Lucy got up, took his plate to the counter and dished out some more lasagne, then placed it back down in front of him.
“Eat.”
She turned her attention back to her own food and continued to eat it. Jay pushed the food on his plate around with his fork for a bit then begrudgingly started eating. He felt a little better already.

* * *

The bell rang for the end of school and Jay started packing his bag after Chemistry. Luke stalked past him and purposely budged him, knocking him against the table, the consequent vibrations shuffling his pencil case onto the floor. Lucy grunted in disapproval and picked it up, delaying a little for some reason as she straightened up.
“Don't worry,” she whispered, watching Luke strut out of the door with a dumb, unfounded triumphant look on his big smug face, “once we get out of the Chemistry block, I'll show him a thing or two about physical contact.”
Lucy hung her bag around her shoulder then skipped out through the door, followed by Jay, still trying to close his own bag.
As she promised, she approached Luke when they had left the building.
“I don't think you should look so smug about hurting my boyfriend,” she growled.
Everyone stopped whatever they were doing to watch in awe. There was absolute silence as Luke slowly turned his head, then squared up to her. She was about shoulder-height.
“Oh yeah?” he challenged, puffing out his chest and contracting his biceps in an attempt to look scary, “What're you gonna do, pippy?”
Pippy was his version of pipsqueak. The fact that he couldn't be bothered to even use the whole insult was rather riling in and of itself. In response, Lucy took a step back, keeping her left leg in place, then surged forward and gave him a good, hard punch square between the eyes. He reeled, tripped over his own galumphing feet and fell on his behind. Lucy loomed over him and he breathed heavily.
“Not so omnipotent now, are you, you little so-and-so?” Lucy snarled, giving him a steely kick to the unmentionables. He screeched like a dying crow and started to weep.
Jay stared in disbelief as Lucy skipped back over to him and threaded her arm around his.
“I think that'll solve your problem, or at least temporarily.”
Jay couldn't find the words to respond, so he didn't.

* * *

Jay got home and dumped his bag on his desk, then looked for his phone in his blazer to check his messages.
It wasn't there.
He searched frantically through every single item of clothing on his body (yes, including his shoes and socks), then checked his bag. He unzipped his pencil case and there it was, his black iPhone 6, sandwiched between his pens and his pencils. He took it out, wondering how it had got there, then turned it on.
Change Your Life by Little Mix chimed from the phone, and a message onscreen read,
1 new message from Lucy W.
He smiled as the chorus of the inspirational song rang out into his bedroom. Only Lucy would rig his phone to play that for her ringtone.
Hey, Jay – just wondering if you're doing OK. I'm sorry about lunchtime.
Jay sighed and turned his phone off, collapsing onto his bed and staring up at the ceiling for a long, long while. He was searching for something up there, some sign that things would get better. A speck of dust floated into his eye and he blinked madly, trying to get it out. He sat at his desk and raised the lid of his laptop to fin that he hadn't actually turned it off, and it was at 56% power. Great. He plugged it into the mains supply and opened File Explorer, looking for his English essay that was due in next week, then came across an unusual file.
message.mp4.
He frowned, concerned, and opened it, as you do. He wasn't particularly bothered if it was a virus, because the virus scanner would pick it up and destroy it.
That's a thought.
If it was a virus, it would be destroyed by now.
But he definitely had not downloaded message.mp4.
Onscreen now was what looked like a very tall, very white unicorn with feathered wings and gorgeous, flowing rainbow-coloured mane and tail. He recognised her immediately as Princess Celestia, the higher power of the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Not that he had invested that much time in the series; he had watched about three episodes after hearing about it by chance from a little girl he had passed on the street. He hadn't particularly enjoyed it – too girly, no real action – but there was no denying that he was watching it now.
“Good evening, Mr. Reynolds,” Celestia greeted, “I assume you have opened the file now?”
Jay didn't answer. It was a video, he couldn't actually talk to it. But the princess wasn't speaking either. She raised an eyebrow and Jay frowned again. Was he supposed to be speaking right now?
“I, um... yes, yes I have.”
“Good show. As you know, I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria –“
“Woah, woah, woah. How am I able to talk to you? How are you able to talk to me?”
Celestia cleared her throat and ignored the comment.
“I understand you have been bullied at school.”
“Who told you that?” Jay demanded anxiously.
“I just know. I'm Princess Celestia, trust me, I know things. Anyway, as I was saying, you must by now feel rather rejected from society, like you have no friends. Other than your girlfriend. My sister understands perfectly well how you must feel.”
“I'm still really confused as to how on Earth we're having a conversation.”
“Magic. Anyway, I'm here to ask one thing of you: would you be willing to leave your world forever, and enter mine? Nobody would ever tease you here. Everyone here is nice, respectable, and in turn they respect each other.”
“Well, um... I...”
“Don't worry, take your time.”
God, this was a hard decision. If he left this world forever, he would be leaving Lucy behind. That would tear him apart, let alone her. He tried to imagine the anguish she would go through.
“I, um... I don't know...”
“That Luke boy really is a mean, spiteful, selfish man, isn't he?”
“Yeah, he is. Wouldn't be too upset if I never saw him again.”
“But you wouldn't if you came here.”
That was true. He thought deeply about it, then nodded.
“OK. I accept your offer.”