Fantasia Gleam was quite nervous when the police officer led her to the room she had been staying in the past week. The room itself was nothing special, just a few beds, none of them occupied, white walls, lamps and so on and so forth. At one point in a person's life, one will inevitably see a hospital room, whether they want it or not. And most of them almost looked like general copies of each other, with some minor differences.
The officer took a seat on a chair and motioned Fantasia to do the same. The girl placed herself in front of the man, who took in a deep breath before speaking up.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush. We couldn't find anything about you. No bank accounts, no records of attending any kind of school or even kindergarten. No personal identification, no place to live, we had to result to ask our colleagues in neighboring countries. And guess what we came up with?"
Fantasia unintentionally tensed up, when the tone of the officer suddenly became a tad threatening.
"Nothing. Nada. Zero."
The girl couldn't help but laugh sheepishly at the words. She briefly wondered if she accidentally angered the man, but couldn't ponder on it for too long.
"Now there's a chance that either we or our colleagues overlooked something or other, but I highly doubt that. It's like you literally appeared out of nowhere, which is an impossibility in itself."
"Unless unicorns are involved..." Fantasia muttered but luckily wasn't heard.
"There are only three possible conclusions that can be drawn from this. You're either protected by the Government for some reason or other..."
Fantasia blinked at the first reason.
"Witness protection, but at least then we would have found an alias." the officer explained upon the obvious confusion on the face of the girl. "The second and way more probable reason is that your parents are living a gypsy live, possible even in a circus and they never bothered going to a hospital upon your birth and also never bothered going to any kind of government office."
"Okay..." the girl accepted the explanation, though she wasn't sure as to why the police officer was explaining all of this to her. It was not like he needed to do that, correct?
"And last, but not least. You lived your entire life on the streets. Given that your clothes are still intact and pretty much undamaged, I think we can easily rule that out. Now then..."
The officer folded his hands on his knees and leaned forward.
"With all that thrown in the room, are you still going to give me the silent treatment? Or are you finally going to tell me what is going on?"
The police officer looked Fantasia directly into her eyes as if he was trying to look into her mind directly. Knowing that anything she would say has a high chance of haunting her back later, she decided it was best to only say one thing: "I have nothing to add, officer."
The man sighed. "I see. You know, you're not really helping your own situation. With what little you have given us, you'll end up in an orphanage, until you're 18. You will also have to go to school, though seeing as you gave us nothing to go on as to where you're standing on an educational level. You'll most likely be tested for that. You know, you could avoid that if you at least told us, which school you visited in the past."
"Oh, a test is no problem at all." Fantasia lied very obviously with her fake smile. Tests were along with High School the bane of her very existence. "But, I guess I won't get to decide which High School I'll be going to, huh?"
"Obviously." the officer answered. "You'll be going to the high school, which is either the closest or has the best bus connection. Back on topic, if tests are really no worries for you or the fact that you'll be starting in the middle of the year, which in return means you'll have a lot of catching up to do, consider this. You obviously want to have a job in the future, sometime after high school."
"Yeeeaaaah?" Fantasia answered carefully. "I've considered...a few things, but..." she looked to the side. "I haven't really decided on anything, you know? Kinda need to see where my grades end up..."
"Mhm. Then I guess it's a good thing you'll be finally getting some grades, huh?"
Fantasia visibly flinched, causing a small smirk to appear on the policeman's face for a couple of seconds. "Anyways, it's good to see that you want a job. However getting an actual job is going to be difficult. Especially for someone who doesn't have any references for entering any other schools than a high school."
Now that got Fantasia's attention.
"Sure, you could probably find a job at, let's say a supermarket or a bakery, where they mostly only ask for one certificate, namely the one from high school." The officer made a casual wave with his hand, before putting both on his lap. "But, even a decently paid job they'll almost always ask for references for almost every school you have visited. And if you cannot even prove that you have visited middle school, well, tough luck." The officer finished his explanation.
Oh man. Fantasia thought to herself. I haven't even considered what I do after high school. Heck, there's a good chance I'll simply fail high school! Again! But wait! There's still Equestria. With my knowledge of four seasons (and a little bit of season five), I should be able to easily proof that I'm from another world and if worse comes to worse, maybe I can apply for a job over there. Or simply help Twilight to write a book about a completely other world and possibly let her do some tests on me. Could be worse, I guess.
Reassuring herself with that train of thought, Fantasia Gleam took on a more comfortable sitting position by putting one leg over the other. "I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I guess worst case scenario, I'll work as a cashier after high school. Not ideal, but eh, I'll live."
The officer could only shake his head at the seeming non-caring attitude of the teenager. They never listened until it was too late. This entire speech kind of reminded him of a similar situation he found himself a couple of years ago. In fact...
"Miss Gleam, this question may appear out of the blue, but please answer this one honestly."
A little taken aback, the teenager titled her head in confusion. "Uh, I'll try?"
The officer guessed this was probably the best he'd get at this point in time.
"I was just wondering, do you happen to know a girl by the name of Sunset Shimmer?"
The widened eyes of Fantasia were enough of an answer for the man.
“I see, so you do know her.” The man said more to himself than to the girl.
Shit, shit, shit! Why’d he be asking me about Sunset?! Oh hell, of course! Fantasia mentally slapped herself.
Of course, of course, of course! I’m not the first person to suddenly arrive out of nowhere! Sunset surely had to go through the same...wait a minute. Doesn’t she have a counterpart in this world? Surely if the police did a background check on her, they’d have easily found her. Oh no! Don’t tell me all those fan stories were right and-
“In that regard, would you mind telling me, just how you know this girl? Are you two...friends by any chance?”
“Uh...er….ah...uh…” Fantasia needed to shake her head, in order to get her mind out of her fan-theory-conspiracy brain section and back to the situation at hand.
“Er...sorry about that.” she blushed, embarrassed. “What was your question...again?”
“I said, I was wondering whether you and Sunset Shimmer are friends or not?”
“Friends?” Fantasia repeated, blinking. “Oh, no, no, we aren’t friends, at all. In fact, we don’t even know each other on a personal level.” she hastily explained.
“Is that so?” the policemen pressed.
“Y-yes?” the girl squeaked.
“The how exactly do you know this girl’s name?” the gruff voice of the officer became even gruffer if that was possible. Fantasia’s eyes darted across the room, nervous from the sudden edginess of the man in front of her.
Why is this so important? Why the hell is this guy so interested so interested whether I know Sunset or not? And why is he looking at me like I’m some kind of murder suspect or something? Oooh, I don’t think that matters at the moment. I better answer his question now, before things get worse. But what should I tell him? That I have seen her in school or bumped into her or...wait, that’s it!
“I like her music!” Fantasia answered way too fast for any human being to properly comprehend the words. No, Pinkie Pie does not count as a human being, no matter the universe.
“What? Slow down, girl. What did you say?”
“I...uh...yeah. I like her music.”
“You like her music.” the man deadpanned.
“Y-yeah. See, Sunset’s part of a school band at this one school, Canterlot High, yeah. I think they call themselves the Rainbooms. Yeah.”
Four “yeahs” in ten seconds. Wow, my English is denigrating. Hold on. Is the language even called English over here? Another thing to add to my long list of things to check up.
A...school band?” the officer echoed.
“Yeah see, I was just passing by this place, Canterlot High and heard this really, really awesome music, though I’d still pick Dragonforce over anything else. Anyways, off topic. So I heard this really, awesome music...come to think of it, the first song I ever heard from them just happened to be “Awesome as I wanna be”. Huh, what a coincidence.”
“Miss Gleam?” the man pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please just tell me the relevant stuff.”
“Hmm? Oh, oops. Sorry.” Again the girl blushed in shame, only this time she had a happy grin sporting on her face.
Got a little carried away there. No wonder, I’ve been suppressing my inner fangirl for a week now.
“Alright, where was I? Really, awesome music...ah yes. So, I decided to walk a little closer and saw these girls playing in a band room. I listened in for a while and actually really liked it. Surprising, since every other school band I know only make a lot of noise with a lot of basses.”
“I...see. And what happened then?”
“Well, I searched a little bit on the internet, found out someone uploaded their songs for everyone to listen and got there via the internet as well. I’m kind of a fan of them now.”
“Uh huh…” This time the officer rubbed his eyes, internally having given up on trying to get anything useful out of the girl. Truly, this was the Sunset Shimmer case all over again.
“Alright.” the man took in a deep breath. “I think that covers everything for now. As I have seen, you have visitors right now. The woman was Twilight Velvet, correct?”
“Y-yes? What about her?”
“Just confirming. I need to speak with her one more time, mostly paperwork reasons. Might as well do this now. Afterward, I’m afraid I will have to bring you to the orphanage ASAP.”
Why the military term? But damn, directly? Sucks, I wanted to talk a little bit more with Twilight. But I guess it can’t be helped. Maybe I can stand in contact with her somehow.
“Okay.” Fantasia nodded. “The orphanage? Well, better than sleeping on the streets I guess.”
The officer just turned around and walked towards the door. “Then let’s go.”
Outside in the lobby Twilight Velvet and Sparkle respectively were sitting on a table together, each having a cup of coffee from the local cafeteria.
“They’re taking an awful lot of time.” Twilight pointed out. Time I could have spent on my research, but oh no. Little old me does not have any friends, so mom just randomly picks the next best girl from the street and try to get me to befriend with her.
“Hmm, they are.” Velvet agreed. “I wonder what’s keeping them for so long.”
“She has no ID, mom,” Twilight said sternly. “She might be really part of a gypsy family, but they’re still going to be suspicious. Do you know how hard it is to remain anonymous nowadays?”
Velvet actually had to laugh at that statement. “Oh, I know alright. I once wrote a book where the protagonist tries to stay anonymous. I put a lot of research into this, because boy, was I surprised by all the ways someone can possibly track you down."
The woman took a sip of her coffee, before continuing. "Hmm, during my search, I found out that some people refuse to and I quote "let society put shackles on their minds". I probably misquoted there badly, but you get it, right?"
Twilight nodded. "I'm not too knowledgeable about the subject myself, but I have heard of people having this specific mindset. They're not the only ones thinking like this, but I think they're taking it a little bit to the extreme."
"Well at the same time, we don't really know anything about her parents, so we shouldn't judge too quickly."
"Hm." Twilight took a sip of her own coffee. "Still, there are some things actually speaking against my theory of her being the daughter of gypsies or let's say people living "outside of the boundaries of society"," Twilight stated.
"Oh?" her mother quirked an eyebrow. "Do tell."
"Well, for one her clothes were in a remarkably well condition for someone who travels all the time. In fact, they looked brand new. Second, she didn't look like a gypsy or from the circus or like any other traveler stereotype for that matter. Third, she's-"
Twilight cut herself off when out of the corner of her vision she saw the police officer from before and the girl, Fantasia Gleam, following him. For some reason, she had put on a yellow scarf, which didn't make any sense. They were indoors and it wasn't that cold outside. The only conclusion Twilight could draw was that this was some kind of fashion statement. Something Twilight never understood. She liked beautiful dresses just like any other girl, but unless it was a special occasion, she didn't spend her money on unnecessary clothing.
"Miss Twilight?" the officer asked.
"Yes?" both Twilights spoke up, causing the officer to blink in confusion.
"Er...Twilight Velvet?" he spoke again.
The mother giggled and stood up. "That's me. Do you need anything, officer?"
"Yes, I need to borrow you for a few minutes. Don't worry, it's just standard procedure at this point. A few questions that need to be answered, before I can file my report. Bureaucracy and the such."
"That's the reason I became an author. I actually enjoy ninety percent of my bureaucracy work." Velvet stood up. "Shall we go somewhere private?"
"Yes, that would be preferable." The policeman turned his head to Fantasia. "Mind if you wait here?"
"Sure." Fantasia took the seat Velvet had previously occupied and smiled over to Twilight, who awkwardly looked away. Velvet and the officer walked out of the lobby, presumably looking for a place to talk in private.
"Man" Fantasia placed her arms on the table and then her head on her arms "that guy totally roasted me through. He just wouldn't believe me that I'm from another dimension, where people don't have candy-colored skin or hair and this entire world is just a spin-off movie to an entirely different world, inhabitant by candy colored ponies, griffins, dragons, chimeras, one big serpent...yeah, need to look up watch actually on the other side of the portal. Can't wait to go there." she grinned toothily.
Twilight looked at the girl in front of her with a dumbfounded expression. "What?"
"Hehe, gotcha."
"Urgh." Twilight shook her head. "You didn't really say that in front of a police officer, did you?"
"Nope." Fantasia titled her head a little. "He just asked me the same questions he did last week. Waste of time, if you ask me, but I'm glad that's over. Phew."
"And...what happens now?"
"Eh," Fantasia made a loose gesture with her hand. "Orphanage apparently. Can't complain about the results, but it's better than any other option at the moment."
"Better? But, what about your parents?" Twilight asked automatically. She remembered too late as to how Fantasia reacted earlier to the same question. "Oh, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to bring it-"
"Relax." Fantasia sighed, cutting Twilight off. "You just took me off guard earlier. It's natural to ask this stuff, I guess."
What Twilight wasn't aware of, due to her eyesight being blocked, was that the girl in front of her had pinched herself on her own arm so hard, it left marks.