//------------------------------// // Chapter Five (Revised) // Story: The Day My Life Ended // by Authora97 //------------------------------// With the bike, I made it to school in no time. The drive here had calmed me down. Not by too much. A part of me wanted to turn back home to run the girls over with the bike. Honestly, how did they think using my daughter? About telling her my secret? She was supposed to have a few more years of peace before she was taught about our family business. If I ever worked up the courage for it, I would explain to her calmly and with all the grace a mother should show when explaining things to a child. Lilac was only seven years old. She wasn’t near ready for all this insanity. She was already a dragon surrounded by ponies. What kind of mother would I be if I threw her into this world too? Yep. That’s right. I’m a teenage mother at fifteen. Sue me. But that doesn’t matter. I’m at a place where very little can bother me. School. Okay, that was a total lie. School sucks because I’m stuck in a class with; dorks, daredevils and class clowns. Still, it’s better than dealing with six ex-ponies and an ex-dragon trying to get back to Equestria. Equestria, where my daughter was confused and lost. My school is your basic private school. It was really small, since it started only three years ago. My parents had this big idea to create their own school, enrolling my brothers and I in it. They thought for sure that they’d been ‘blessed by god’ when kids flocked in. That’s all they would tell anyone for months after. ‘We’ve been blessed by God. He has seen our work and called it good.’ It was on the edge of upsetting. It felt like God was apologizing to my family for my powers. It’s never made me feel great. You never feel strongly about your relationship with Our Holy Father, when your powers could be mistaken for demonic. It would scare you too whenever you stood close to hallowed ground. I was always scared I’d be struck by lightning, or become a real life example of spontaneous human combustion. So yeah. I don’t know why I wouldn’t have brought Lilac into the family sooner. When I walked in the school building (“It’s another one of God’s blessings, Morgan!”) I saw Caroline standing just down the hall by a supply closet. She was alone, so I guessed she had been waiting on me. She saw me, smiling and adding a wave. I gave a tense smile back. “Hey Morgan, what happened at karaoke last night?” She asked me. “Anna and Maddie said you ran into other friends?” Now, how do I answer this without sounding like a nutcase? “Yeah. They...found out I was there. They wanted to...be a part of my life?” “You haven’t mentioned them before.” Caroline noted. Her eyebrow was raised, staring at me with friendly suspicion. “I didn’t know they were friends until recently...that’s probably changing, anyway.” ‘Because I will have killed them by lunch.’ “No problem Morgue. It’s good to see you branching out.” Caroline explained. She picked up her backpack up from the ground. The zipper was undone, so some of her books fell out with a heavy clap. She yelped back in surprise, I flinched. A voice in the supply closet squeaked/ Caroline and I had our eyes locked on it. “What was that?” Caroline asked me. “I don’t know.” ‘But I have an awful idea.’ ‘Please don’t be Spike. Please don’t be Spike. Please don’t be Spike!’ I thought as I carefully opened my the door. Wouldn’t you know it? A kid, about four feet high with spiked neon green hair fell out of my locker in a summersault. He was wearing a familiar shade of purple jacket with a green shirt underneath. His jeans looked baggy (not surprising for a kid of that height) nearly covering his purple sneakers. The hallway was empty, save Caroline and I. That was a saving grace. It would be hard to explain to anyway else if they had seen this. “Hey little buddy.” Caroline greeted, with hesitance. “Your mom didn’t say anything about a new student, right?” Spike watched my friend with fear in his eyes. He was shaking heavily. He was already curling in on himself. A lightbulb went off above my head. “Hey Caroline? I think my mom talked about a kid shadowing with the middle schoolers.” I lied easily, eyeing Spike. His expression scrunched up in confused recognition. “So I should make sure he’s settled in.” “Helping your mom?” Caroline chuckled. “Never seen you do that before.” “I know. You’re a horrible influence.” I put on a teasing smile. “You head on in. I’ll make sure he gets where he needs to be.” My friend laughed, grateful. She gave me a small wave before heading towards the main room. She paused at Spike’s side, kneeling down to speak directly to him. “By the way, nice hair. Very original. You’ll fit right in here.” It went over Spike’s head. He was staring intently at me. “How did you get in my locker Spike?” I asked him. He looked a little confused and looked his bright green eyes at me. When Caroline was out of sight, I pulled Spike to his feet. I pushed him back into the supply closet. Pushing myself beside him, I closed the door tight. The room was small, even with all the cleaning supplies and the spare metal chairs stacked against the wall. “Raspberry?!” Spike accused in a whisper. The room was dark. Still, I tried to make him see my glare. “Yes. It’s me. Why the hell did you wander off? The others have no idea where you are!” I whacked his shoulder. He yelped in pain. “Ow! Why are you hitting me?!” “You look like a middle schooler. It’s my impulse to whack them when they’re being stupid.” I whacked him again. “Ouch!” He rubbed his shoulder. He stared up at me, conflicting emotions in his eyes. “They said...you were-” “Watch your words. I’m not afraid to hit you a third time.” Spike gulped. “Uh...they just said...that you were in trouble.” “Oh believe me, by the time I have you all handled I’ll be in a whole world of trouble.” ‘Dad is going to ground me until college. I’ll be lucky if none of my friends or family kill me. Then again...I’ll be lucky if I’m not given to the government for genetic testing or something!’ “I’m going to regret this question. I should just say it was some universal joke, some of God’s great humor again. But...I need to know. Spike, how did you find this place?” He suddenly looked a little angry. “I got inside, Raspberry-” It’s hard to take him seriously when he’s growling the name of a fruit. It’s too funny, really. “-because we all tried to prove you were innocent. To prove you could be trusted as a friend. We found the picture so we came to find you. How could you betray our trust like that?” Dang, this little guy could hold a grudge. I however was getting tired of them assuming I did this to hurt them. “Did you stop to think I didn’t have a choice in this, Spike?” I asked quietly, making sure no one else heard. “I didn’t have a say in showing up in your world. You seven had all the say in coming here, in breaking into my house, in using my kid. Somehow you still think you’re in the right?” “Well...um...” Spike began rubbing his hand on the back of his head. “Oh I’m not done with you. Did even look at the rest of that photo?” Spoke shook his head. “If you had taken the time to, you would’ve seen me with a bunch of other human girls. We’d just become friends and I took that photo to celebrate it. One of my most precious memories on this stupid planet and you guys just used it as evidence of my guilt!” I was getting passionate about it at that point. Nothing could stop me when I got that angry. “You know what. I was going to help you all get home. I was gonna show Twilight the spell so you could get out of my life while I still had one. But, now that I think about it, you guys might call it some kind of trick and not use it. So hearing about all this ‘trust’ you have for me and my race I’ll let you stay here a few extra days. You can see how hard it is here compared to lovey dovey Equestria, and why I loved that place so much.” The late bell went off so I began to walk off. “Don’t go asking where the others are by name. They’ll probably find their way here whether I like it or not.” Leaving the dragon to his thoughts I stormed off to the main hall for the morning announcements. I sat down in the back of the room, one of the few dark corners this building had. Slumping down, I let myself slide to the floor in an angry huff. All the emotions I had kept together during the past twelve hours came crashing at me all at once. My Equestrian friends thought I was some kind of traitor? They hadn’t like me at first, but I liked to think I grew on them. I had fought Discord with them, I helped them fight Nightmare Moon, I fought off King Sombra himself and for thanks I was called traitor? How long would it be before they spilled it to my human friends? What would they think? Would they side with their religions, calling me a devil’s spawn or something? Would they call the police on me? Would my parents disown me, the one thing I had always tried convincing myself they’d never do? Why did I even get this stupid gift in the first place? Why couldn’t there have been anyone or anything to explain it to me? Did the universe hate me? Was it some twisted form of karma? A ‘be careful what you wish for’ thing? So far, I’m the only Jumper in existence. It was stupid. It’s been so long, if anyone else had this power they’ve been better at hiding it. My life has been one of solitude and secrets since I was six. People could say they were just like me at one point or they understand, but they don’t! They don’t know what it’s like to be happy and think you’re normal and then be dragged into some strange world you know nothing about for Storyline knows how long. They don’t know what it’s like to have to juggle a million backstories, to have to lie to everyone so much you begin to wonder where the truth is. They haven’t watched a world fall apart and know there’s nothing they can do to fix it. I lived that every day. Always wondering where my ‘gift’ would send me next or if I’ll survive to the end next time. Always wondering which of my friends in those worlds could die, just for knowing me. All of these questions came back to me. None of them had answers I wanted to hear. My name is Morgan Spencer. I am a Jumper as I like to call myself. I am the only one of my kind to my knowledge. The first peop-err, ponies to ever show me the slightest glimmer of hope about my not being alone have abandoned me. I have no idea how much longer I’ll keep my month-long friends, or my human family. I don’t even know if my daughter will look at me when I see her again. I lose them...and Merciful Storyline forbid it...then I at least want them to hear it on my terms. I just hope I have the strength to do it.