//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Fantasia Gleam // by CrossRedstone //------------------------------// If there was one thing Fantasia had always hated, it was monotony. Don’t get her wrong, Velvet’s book was interesting and all that, it had a nice little plot twist and generally likable characters. The problem simply was, aside from watching TV, reading is all the turquoise-skinned girl did these past seven days! One would think to be in a new world, especially one that had a doorway to Equestria, one would be giddily excited. Well, she was just that! But the police just wouldn’t allow her to go outside the hospital grounds. Here’s what’s going on. The day after Velvet’s visit, the police officers returned, back for questioning. As it turned out, they had been unable to find any kind of record of Fantasia, no matter where they looked. The first thing that came to their mind was that she was an illegal immigrant and tried to coax out of her where she came from. Fantasia, of course, lied through her teeth and she wasn’t even a good job at doing so. She had been sweating, biting her lips, looking to the ceiling, the window, anywhere but the officers. Without going into detail, they interrogated her for three straight hours, until they gave up and told her to stay where she was, which translated into: “We have no idea what to do with you.” Ever since then, the girl had neither seen hide or tail of those two, but the hospital staff wasn’t allowing her to go out on her own. The parking lot outside was the most she was allowed to go, in order to get some fresh air. And not wanting to fuck up her first days in the new world, Fantasia Gleam found herself once again, sitting in the cafeteria with an elderly blue man, playing chess. And once again, she was losing. Tick Tock, the man’s name, was stationed in the room next to her, after breaking his leg. From what he told Fantasia, he fell down the stairwell, after a kid living in the same building ran into him from behind. He was bound to a wheelchair and until his children came back from overseas, he was staying at the hospital. “Checkmate.” “Urrgh.” Fantasia slammed her forehead on her arms. She tried, she actually tried to win this time! “You have much improved.” Tick Tock praised the girl. “Urrgh, thanks.” Fantasia acknowledged the praise. “But seriously, this ten turns thinking ahead...I just can’t do it! I already get a headache thinking three turns ahead!” Taking a deep breath, the girl collected all the pieces and helped the old man to rearrange them on the chess board. “Another round?” “No, thank you,” she answered in a polite matter. “I think I’m going outside for a bit. Being stuck in here makes me kinda restless.” “I see.” the old man replied in a sad tone. “Ah well, maybe the nurse has time to play.” Tick Tock sighed. Suppressing the feeling of upcoming guilt, Fantasia walked towards the exit. At the reception desk, she needed to stand in line for five whole minutes, until she could tell the woman behind where the nurses could find her, in case the hospital staff needed something from her. It was annoying to do that every time, just so she could go outside and enjoy some fresh air, but she could at least understand why it was necessary. Once outside on the parking lot, the girl from another dimension sat down on a small wall, which separated premises of the hospital from the sidewalk and practiced her new, not so favorite, hobby. Spotting “ponies” from the TV-Show. Easier said than done, considering the onslaught of colors onto her eyes. One needs to imagine, having lived in a world where people usually have only bland color skin. Suddenly she lived in a world where people could have every existing color in the universe as their skin color. Sometimes Fantasia still felt dizzy just looking at the people. Another thing that was an issue was her new name. As smart as it sounded at the beginning, coming up with a new name, the girl just wasn't used to being called that. Unless she was directly looking at the speaker, there was a chance she automatically ignored everyone who called her Fantasia or Miss Gleam or even Fantasia Gleam. "Okay, that just looks ugly." the girl muttered to herself, seeing a person with lime green skin color and brown eyes. Not to mention his haircut. It was a Mohican cut. Fantasia focused on the other side of the walkway, where there were two girls talking to each other. One of them had her boyfriend with her. It was obvious he was her boyfriend because no normal friend would volunteer to carry all that stuff unless they had lost a bet. "Still no ponies, not even some background characters or side character. Not even any non-ponies," she complained. The girl suddenly heard a car parking behind her, however, she didn’t bother turning around. Every five minutes or so a car came or drove away and the one behind her must have come from the second entrance on the other side of the hospital parking lot. She continued focusing on the humans. “Hmm, this girl looks a lot like Lemon Hearts…” “Hello!” A familiar voice called from behind. Fantasia almost jumped off the wall but managed to not do this. Instead, she swung her legs around and faced whoever talked to her. It turned out to be none other than Twilight Velvet, who just stepped out of the car. Only this time, she wasn’t alone. On the other side of the car, also just stepping out, was none other than the infamous Sci-Twi, Twilight Sparkle, human Twilight, possibly new waifu Twilight, since Flash Sentry stole the princess. “H-hey Velvet.” The blue girl stuttered, desperately trying not to stare at Twilight Sparkle, in which she failed miserably. “H-hi there.” she waved her hand lamely at the younger Sparkle. Her voice was also at least three octaves higher than usually. Of course, both Sparkle and Velvet were a little disturbed at the girl, who stared wide-eyed at Twilight. “Umm...is something on my face?” the girl with glasses asked shyly, her pointer fingers hitting in front of her chest subconsciously. She didn’t get a reply, at least not a real one. Instead, Fantasia babbled syllables at best, speaking fast and mostly gibberish. Twilight sparkle tentatively opened the passenger car door again, while not taking her eyes of the obviously “confused” girl. Velvet was about to speak up, when all of the sudden Fantasia Gleam slapped herself so hard, it echoed through the parking lot. “Get a hold of yourself, brain!” she shouted angrily, glancing up her forehead. Both Sparkles jumped slightly, after being surprised by the sudden outburst. “A-are you alright?” Twilight’s mother stuttered for a second, before catching herself. Twilight herself in the meantime was already with one foot inside the car again. The girl in front of the two took in a deep breath and exhaled the air slowly. Afterward, she put on the worst fake smile ever known to mankind and clapped her hands together. “I’m sorry,” she spoke in Twilight’s direction. “You...kind of reminded me of a cartoon character from a TV-show I very much adore and for a moment back there I thought you were that character. Silly right?” the girl giggled nervously. The two Twilights just stood there for a couple of seconds, until the older one broke the silence. “Okay? I guess coincidences like this happen.” The woman smiled weakly. “Do I really look like a cartoon character?” Twilight Sparkle asked concerned, stepping out of the car. She checked her school uniform from top to bottom and then tentatively touched her hair, which was tied up in a bun. “Well you would if you were a unicorn that is.” the newest Equestrian Girl couldn’t suppress the comment that was followed by a rather childish giggle. “A unicorn?” Twilight echoed, now frowning. “Yeah, why not?” Fantasia giggled again. “I’d love to be a unicorn, though I’m kinda torn between that and a pegasus. What do you think would be better magic or the ability to fly at supersonic speed? Or maybe you want to have the strength of a bulldozer? Come to think of it, being an earth pony wouldn’t be so bad…” Fantasia put a hand under her chin, considering the options. “Er...what are you talking about?” Twilight asked with a deadpan voice. Her mother had put a hand over her mouth, stifling a giggle. Fantasia shrugged. “Nothing in particular.” Her fake smile was very convincing all of the sudden. “By the way, the name’s Fantasia Gleam. Nice to meet you.” Finally! Twilight wasn’t sure what to think of the pink haired girl, but out of courtesy she told said girl her own name. For some reason or another, this caused Fantasia to giggle. “Fantasia, I’m a little surprised seeing you here.” Velvet stated after the girl calmed down. “I thought you were discharged at this point in time.” “Yeah, about that…” Fantasia frowned, looking sideways. She didn’t expect Velvet to visit again, as such she needed to make up an excuse on a whim. “The police have a hard time finding my papers.” the girl stated. “I don’t have an ID-card, so I can’t really proof that I am me.” “You have no ID?” Velvet asked skeptically. “What about your parents, can’t they help you?” “My parents?” Fantasia repeated. She turned around, carefully hiding her face from the others. The two Twilights looked at each other a little worried, waiting for a response from the girl. When the girl still stood there after five minutes of doing nothing but watching the traffic pass, Velvet stepped up and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. "Fantasia, if you don't want to talk about it..." "Huh?" Fantasia turned around, looking a little stupified. She blinked a couple of times and then seemingly shook her head clear. "Sorry, spaced out." Fantasia sighed again. "You know, you don't need to answer if you're uncomfortable." "If I would get a dime, every time I hear that phrase, I'd be dancing my life away on the Bahamas." She chuckled at her own joke. "BUT whatever!" The girl shouted out of nowhere, a smile once again adorning her face. "What are you two here for? Breast implants?" "W-WHAT?!" Mother and daughter shouted. The former earthling laughed so hard at their reactions, she bent over gasping for air and somehow managed to hit her head on the car's bonnet. The laughter abruptly stopped and was replaced by the sound of painful moans. “Once again, Karma comes back to haunt us.” Velvet said with a smirk. “Oh, come on. Can’t you take a joke.” Fantasia groaned, rubbing her forehead. Twilight snickered audibly, despite her holding a hand in front of her mouth. “In all seriousness, though, you have to have some way to identify yourself.” Twilight’s mother went back to that particular topic. She noticed that Fantasia had tried to change the subject and normally Velvet wasn’t one to pry. But having no way of simply identifying yourself was serious business and in all actuality impossible nowadays. No matter what, sooner or later you were going to leave traces behind, like when registering to a website or attending school. The only rational explanation there was for not being able to identify yourself was when you were an illegal immigrant. While most people didn’t have an issue with those people, at least in the country they were living in, the state was merciless when it came to illegal immigration. “The last school you visited, the hospital you were born in, worst case scenario you can even ask the owners of a website, where you are registered to give your personal data to the police. You don’t want to get yourself into unnecessary trouble, do you?” For a moment Velvet thought she had pushed it a little bit too far, seeing the first shocked, then the uncomfortable expression on the face of the girl. Fantasia bit her lip, trying to come up with an excuse that would satisfy Velvet, thus making her stop asking questions about that particular topic. Only this time she couldn’t come up with anything that was convincing. She had an idea, namely pretending. She could pretend to overreact at the topic, screaming at Velvet and acting like a brat, but she couldn’t just change her emotional expressions in the blink of an eye. Sweat started to come down from her forehead, as the minutes began to pass. Velvet too looked uncomfortable and was trying to think of a way to defuse the situation. Surprisingly, it was Twilight who spoke up, a figurative light bulb appearing over her head. “You’re from a gypsy family, aren’t you?” “Huh? Gypsy…? Wait, WHAT?!” It took Fantasia a second to register the meaning. “It makes sense.” Twilight readjusted her glasses. “You’re uncomfortable talking about your family, you have no way of identification, not even on the internet, yet mom lends you one of her books, meaning someone must have taught you at least the basics of our educational system. Ergo, you must be a runaway from a gypsy family.” Fantasia wasn’t sure what to think of this. A part of her wanted to laugh because this theory came literally out of nowhere and had more holes in it than swiss cheese. Another part of her wanted to squeal in delight, upon witnessing the nerdy side of Twilight Sparkle. “Talk about blunt…” was all that Fantasia managed to get out. “So I was right!” Twilight declared proudly, only to shrink back, upon her mother glaring at her. “Uh...I-I-I guess….I mean…..I guess it’s pretty obvious….hehe…uh…” Oh god, they’re never going to buy that. Twilight just gave me a golden opportunity to turn things around and I let it slip because I can’t get my shit together. Stupid me. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. “Twilight, remember last week? We talked about tact.” “Oh...oh… Stupid, stupid, stupid! Velvet let out a sigh and turned her attention back to Fantasia, who was seemingly just standing there, frozen in place. The woman walked around the car and put a hand on the teen’s shoulder, causing the pink haired girl to snap her head around. “I’m sorry if we put you in an uncomfortable spot. How about we put a stop to this and go inside." Stupid....? Oh... “...Sure.” Anything before I say something really stupid. Inside the hospital lobby, the two teens and the adult had placed themselves on three empty seats in a corner of the room. An awkward silence hung the air, because of what happened previously. Fantasia fidgeted nervously with her fingers, Twilight looked rather uncomfortable because of her earlier comments and Velvet was a little busy answering her husband via text message. As soon as she was finished, Fantasia decided to take the initiative. “So, for real now. What are you here for? Not that I mind the company, I’m just surprised.” “Oh yes, I have actually a little favor to ask of you?” “A favor?” the blue girl asked, confused. From the corner of her vision, she could see Twilight crossing her arms and looking the other direction. What’s up with her? “You see, my daughter’s friends are sadly all occupied today. And she has the poor tendency of staying at home all day.” “Mom!” Twilight’s cheeks flushed. “I do go out with Spike on a regular basis, I’ll have you know.” Velvet just smiled. “Spike is a dog my dear and not a human.” The woman turned back to Fantasia. “I originally planned on taking her with me today, since I have some work to do in the city, however, seeing as you’re still here, I wanted to ask you if the two of you could spend some time together.” Fantasia couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Wow. Velvet must be desperate to get Twilight outside. And she has friends on this side of the mirror? I have a hard time believing this. Then again, this Twilight didn’t need to hold up the standards of being the student of a princess. “There’s just one problem,” the girl held up her finger “I’m not allowed to leave this place since the cops have yet to confirm what I told them. They pretty much reacted the same way you did.” She told the two. Twilight didn’t hide her enthusiasm too well. From her facial expression alone, Fantasia gathered that the lavender girl would rather spend the day with her mother than a potential friend. Or maybe even a potential bully. “Oh.” The gray woman’s face fell a little. “Yeah, sorry. Spending your entire day isn’t exactly fun. I can attest to that.” “Well, good thing you won’t be staying here for much longer, Miss Gleam.” It took a second for Fantasia to register that the gruff voice spoke to her. Looking up, she found none other than Officer Mcbutterpants (she forgot his real name) standing next to the seat she had taken. “Officer? What do you mean?” she blinked, confused. “It’s simple, really. Can I have a word with you for a moment?” “Er, sure?”