Breezefeather lay on the spare bed, gazing up at the ceiling. Well, perhaps it’s my bed now, Breezefeather thought. For the time being, anyway. She was in her natural form, bracelet on the small nightstand next to her. The small, electronic clock read only 7:49, but the sun had set a half hour ago and she was tired from moving things out of her new room. She was normally an earlier riser, anyhow. Up when the sun was up or even before if work demanded it. Her mind was a whirlwind, trying to make sense of everything. Even the shower she took earlier didn’t help.
So, I got pulled through a portal to a place called the Ghost Zone by some metallic ghost named Skulker, she began to recount. Then I flew away only to be chased by him. Next, I flew near Desiee and wished for him to be back home and she made him probably do that. Then she gave me a bangle of hers which turned into the bracelet on my nightstand. Her eyes turned to the bracelet as it glittered in the soft moonlight from outside. It even seemed to slightly glow, even. She looked back to the ceiling. Then she makes me a portal to a mortal world with a warning. After that, I find this nice family and they let me stay in the barn due to the cluttered guest room. Then I wished to be able to swap between human and pony with my bracelet. After that, I got arrested for being truant and now they’re going to put me in the system so they can keep track of me or something like that? Now I’m back at the farmhouse, waiting for them to tell me their rep is here to help me out.
Breezefeather turned over in her bed and stared at the bracelet. At least I know now if I don’t turn back into a pony, I’ll still revert if I take the bracelet off. She sighed and turned over, back facing it. This is starting to get a bit much. I hope I don’t go crazy trying to make sense of why this is all happening. With that final thought, she drifted to sleep.
She woke up bright and early that morning. Her sleep wasn’t perfectly restful, but it did its job. She glanced at the clock. 4:15. Oh my, that’s very early. Is everycreature up right now, even? She reached over and placed the bracelet on her arm and whispered, “No hooves, please.” In a gentle flash, her form went from that of a pegasus back to a human. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and took off the boots that materialized on her, before then staring at her feet. They looked so interesting. A heel, bridge of the foot connecting the heel to the ball of her foot, her toes, even if they were covered in a sock. Celestia, toes are so weird. She wiggled them. Kinda feel weird, but they’re softer than hooves and that should make them quieter, too. She placed her foot on the ground before her leg shot up away from the ground. She could feel the cold floor through her sock! The floor is freezing! Is there a fireplace anywhere? She tested the floor again and yup, still cold. Resting on the ball of her feet, she slowly tip-toed to her door. More than three times did she wobble and had to correct her standing. Buck it, she swore to herself, I’m just going to stand normally, cold or no. She almost regretted doing so, what with the floor just so cold.
Sweet Luna why is the floor so cold! She walked slowly and as quietly as she could down the stairs, boots in one hand, other on the wall in case she wobbled again. Off and on the stairs would creak and Breezefeather would freeze, hopeful not to wake up the children or Jed and Loraine. Very slowly did she finally make it to the bottom of the stairs to an even colder floor. She ended up squeaking due to the shock. Using her free hand, she quickly placed it over her mouth to attempt to muffle any more noise. She looked around and noticed that there were Loraine and Jed at the kitchen table, each with a coffee mug in hand. Jed had some papers in hand and Loraine had the rest.
Loraine was the first to look up, “Was that squeak you, darling?” She spoke softly.
Briefly, Breezefeather thought about home again, remembering the seamstress and her generosity. Only once before had she gone to her shop and that was for a Grand Galloping Gala as somepony’s plus one. That was a messy gala. Breezefeather also spoke as softly as she could, but it still came out just under normal volume, “Yeah, sorry. Cold floor.”
“No need tah apologize, Breezefeather,” Jed stage whispered, “ah should seeing as ah forgot tah turn on the heat last night.”
“Isn’t it only mid-fall, right about now?” Breezefeather complained. “After all, it shouldn’t be quite this cold just yet.”
“No, it’s not,” Loraine said, disappointment in her voice, “but it’s the norm, now. Wasn’t like this ten years ago.” She muttered the last part, but Breezefeather’s pegasus hearing picked it up again.
Breezefeather frowned. What is happening to this planet? Why is the weather so different for them than home? Is it wild? Or are the powers that be are just terrible at weather management? Breezefeather opened her mouth to ask about the weather. Just then, a clatter and a clash were heard, and the chattering of children came through the floorboards from upstairs.
“Well, so much fer staying quiet. Kids are up an' at ’em,” Jed remarked.
Sure enough, Breezefeather saw the two children clamor and stomp about and briefly fought over the bathroom. It seems that Crystal won the argument as James stood outside the door, arms folded and face cast sour in a grumpy emotion. She chuckled at both Smith kid’s antics and briefly wondered what having a sibling would be like. Noting that the quiet hour was over, Breezefeather slipped her boots back on just to get off the cold floor.
“So,” Jed started, “fer them chores of yer’s, why don’t cha help out the kids? They’ll give yah directions on what tah do.”
Chores were simple if a bit time consuming considering all the horses that needed individual attention. After a couple of hours, they were done and had returned to the farmhouse, Breezefeather was notified that there was a tester already at the school, ready to help get Breezefeather placed or graduated officially, and the bus would come along shortly for Casper High. The first bus that arrived was novel. A massive yellow vehicle with the words, “Casper Elementary School” first pulled up and took the younger Smiths off to their school. Now Breezefeather had to wonder how she was going to get to Casper High, as her bus hadn’t arrived yet. Just within a few more minutes in the cold weather, another bus pulled up, half-full of kids stating, “Casper High School” written on its side. The door folded open and a large, gruff human woman garbled out, “Get on or I’m leavin’ ya.”
Friendly, Breezefeather sarcastically thought and hopped on the bus. There were all sorts of students of all wakes of life. To avoid the stares she was getting, she walked to the back of the bus and sat down in the furthest seat. It didn’t work. All the stares still bored into her, though the faces were aghast, now. Breezefeather whimpered slightly and sank down into the seat. She wasn’t shy per-say, but such critical stares were certainly not welcome and made her feel uncomfortable.
More students piled into the bus, especially once they got closer to the school. Once the bus was three-quarters full, a few students with bright and expensive-looking clothes stepped on the bus. Two were female, one of them had a pink halter-top on and a rich, red jacket on and thin blue jeans. Her skin was a few shades lighter than Breezefeather’s and her eyes were blue-green, and her hair was long and black, if a little curly and wavy, thought that looked styled as such. She wore a lot of makeup for Breezefeather’s liking. More so than Rarity, the fashionista pony of Ponyville.
The other female was of a very light skin tone with long, straight blonde hair, a pink flower barrette adorning it. Her eyes matched the darker-haired girls. She had a white t-shirt on, though slimmer than Breezefeather’s to where it was form-fitting, with a backward “P” on it. She also had a matching jacket on and wore red pants that came down only to halfway past her shins. The blonde also had almost as much makeup on as the first girl. She noticed both girls had immaculate nails, painted green and black and they were marveling at each other's.
The two males were large and identical in build. The first one had Neighponiese facial features with hair just slightly darker than the first girl’s hair, though cut very short. He wore a jacket that looked thick and yet it looked to be more matte than imitation leather. The red and white colors did seem to shine just a bit. She noticed that both boys wore the same jacket and had the same hairstyle, only the second boy’s hair was blonde. All four students walked towards the back of the bus.
Uh oh, Breezefeather thought. Now I know why they were all staring. I sat in someone’s seat.
As to confirm this suspicion, the dark-haired girl said, “Um, excuse me, but you’re in our spot.”
Breezefeather said, “Sorry about that, but everyp- body was staring at me, and I wanted to get out of their view. Sitting in the front would have been uncomfortable.” Breezefeather slouched a little bit and looked down. She didn’t want to hurt any potential friendships.
“I say there’s no harm.” Everyone looked to the dark-haired boy. “What? The girls are thin enough to triple up and sit on that seat, whereas us guys can sit on the other seat!”
All three students stared at the dark-haired boy for a short while before the garbley woman called from her spot, “Sit down!” Breezefeather scooted to as close to the window as she could and motioned for them to sit, a hopeful smile on her face. Groaning, the girls sat down next to her, the blonde acting as a buffer between Breezefeather and the dark-haired girl. The boys sat in front of them, blonde boy towards the isle and dark-haired boy towards the window.
“So, when’d you move to town?” Asked the dark-haired boy.
“Oh, just yesterday,” Breezefeather replied. “I used to live off the grid with my folks before I decided to explore town.”
“Why are you just now going to Casper High, then?” the blonde girl asked then. Everyone turned to her, curious.
“Well, you see, I wanted to explore the town, but then some officers found me and thought I was skipping school and since I also lived off the grid, there wasn’t any record of me.”
“Damn, how long did you live off the grid?” It was the blonde boy’s turn.
Breezefeather shrunk down and squeaked out, “My whole life?”
“Nuh-uh. You have to have a birth certificate. There’s no way your parents would have you be born in the wild,” the dark-haired girl ground out.
“But it’s true, I don’t have a birth certificate and I don’t have any government-issued eye-dee to prove myself as graduated, but here we are.”
“That explains why I saw a cop car pulling away from the school yesterday!” The blonde boy spoke up again. “That’s kind of cool. Got some street cred already?”
“Huh?” Breezefeather asked confused. “Maybe? One of the officers seemed to think so. I don’t know why he doesn’t like me all that much.”
“Some cops are just like that,” the dark-haired girl almost spat out. “Cerdos racistas,” she muttered. She then smiled, “You know what, how rude of us, we didn’t introduce ourselves! My name’s Paulina, this is my best friend, Star!” She gestured first to herself, then the blonde girl, Star. “And that’s Dash,” she said, pointing to the blonde boy, “and that’s Quan,” she wrapped up, pointing to the dark-haired boy.
“It’s nice to meet you all, my name’s Breezefeather.”
“Cool, it’s nice to meet you, Breeze,” Quan said, smiling.
Breezefeather smiled. It was nice to make friends.
The whole ride to the school, the five friends chatted about simple things: how cold it was getting and how ridiculous it was, how good of athletes the boys were, how tough certain classes were, and speculating if Breezefeather was going to get into school or was she going to graduate. Estimates favored her getting into Freshman year, where Breezefeather was hopeful about getting into Sophomore year with them. Once the bus stopped in front of the school, they got up to walk out. As they did, Dash scanned the crowded bus, looking for someone, though he scowled, his target not found, it seemed. Breezefeather thought it was strange that they were getting off first since they were in the back, but thought it was just the students being polite. Once she stepped off, it was complete chaos as to who was getting off next. Looks like that politeness only extends to this group. Strange. Breezefeather couldn’t help but dwell on that thought for a while, enough to where she almost ran into her new friends. Noticing their worried faces, she looked at what they were staring at.
At the front of the school, there were two men in white suits with black ties. One had a dark skin tone like Breezefeather and the other was lighter like Dash. Though she couldn’t tell at first from their dark sunglasses, she could tell they were staring at the sky from the way their heads were tilted. “Are these the Guys in White I’ve been hearing about?” Breezefeather asked worriedly, covering her bracelet.
“Yeah, that’s them,” Dash said, a small amount of venom entering his tone. “They hunt Phantom down like he’s a criminal. He’s not, he’s a hero!”
“They weren’t here yesterday, why are they here today?” Breezefeather said worriedly, almost too quickly. She brought her left arm up and covered her bangle with her right hand and brought her arms to her chest protectively. She looked around and noticed, not a single student was getting near the entrance, and almost every single one of them had a scowl on their face. Save for three.
She saw a thin boy with dark hair and a white t-shirt with a red oval in the center and a baggy blue jacket over top. His blue jeans seemed a bit baggy over his legs. His baby blue eyes looked bored. A girl to his right stood by and had a disappointed look on her face combined with a look of, “why am I not surprised?” Her hair was also dark and pulled into a half ponytail. Her whole outfit, in fact, was as black as night. She even wore combat styled boots. Her amethyst eyes bored into the Guys in White. The boy to the left of the dark-haired boy had dark skin and wore baggy green cargo pants and a yellow long-sleeved shirt. He wore a hat that she wasn’t sure what was called, but Breezefeather knew it was red. He was playing around with some sort of device that he held in his hand with a little pen of some sort. He peered down at it with his aqua eyes in interest from his thick-rimmed, half-moon glasses.
Just when Breezefeather could examine them, the gothic girl looked at Breezefeather and scowled. Though taken aback a bit, she smiled and waved a bit, causing the goth to raise an eyebrow in confusion. “Do we know her, Danny?” She half-whispered. Breezefeather actually had to strain to hear that, what with all the other conversations around her.
The boy with the blue jacket, Danny, responded, “I don’t think so, Sam. Tuck?”
Tuck, still busy with his device, replied, “I didn’t find much on why the GiW were here, so I started looking her up, and there’s next to nothing other than a name in a police report.”
Breezefeather cast her eyes down and turned around, tuning them out. She didn’t want to hear what they were going to say next. Though she was curious. How would they know about a police report? How would they get that information without going to the police station? How, how, how? Breezefeather couldn’t help but think. Her thoughts were interrupted when an older man with a receding hairline and a bit of a belly walked out and she heard the chatter switch from “What are they doing here?” to “Mr. Lancer.” He held a megaphone and flicked it on, its feedback screeching slightly. Breezefeather covered her ears to prevent a major assault to them.
“Students there’s no reason to stand about here. Class starts in five minutes. If you’re in my class, I will count you tardy and assign extra work.”
The rush to the school was almost immediate. Breezefeather barely got a chance to cover and hold her bracelet to prevent it from being accidentally taken off and to attempt to hide it from the Guys in White as she was swept to the school. She let herself be carried along and past the pushed aside men in white suits, too busy to keep a foothold to look around. She heard a soft beeping coming from them over the clamor of the students. She didn’t know what it was but assumed it some sort of detection device and quickly rushed in with the other students, trying to get to the front of the pack. Once inside, Breezefeather rushed over to the principal’s office that she recalled from her last trip here, nearly tripping the whole way. She closed the door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Quite a mad rush, today,” a voice spoke up from the direction of the desk. Breezefeather saw that the principal was indeed there as well as someone in a dark blue suit and skirt combo with a tasteful pink tie. Her brown hair was tied into a tight bun and her matching brown eyes spoke levels of kindness and patience that could only be rivaled by that of Princess Celestia when she’s met her the few times. “I’m Agent Fairweather, and I swear the agency paired us up for a giggle, Miss Breezefeather.” The agent held out her hand. Breezefeather smiled and walked over to her, shaking her hand like she saw Jed and Officer Knowles. “Good, firm handshake, you’ll need that in the workforce.” The agent pointed to a small school desk that Breezefeather overlooked, “Why don’t we get started so we can get you in the system and then get you placed.”
Breezefeather sat down in the chair and got comfortable. Well, as comfortable as she could, it wasn’t the best chair. The agent took up a clipboard and got a normal chair from the side of the room and sat it down. She pulled a pen from inside her coat and clicked it and poised to write. “Why don’t we start with your date of birth. Were your parents able to keep a track of the days?”
After four long hours, Breezefeather had answered all of the agent’s questions and finished two of her four tests. Math and Science were fun and all, but she didn’t realize how different their science was in Equestria. I’ll have to take a few extra classes, she assumed. Her stomach growled. Agent Fairweather couldn’t help but laugh, it seemed. “Looks like it’s lunchtime. Don’t worry, head to the cafeteria and I’m sure I can work something out with them.”
Breezefeather beamed, “You don’t have to do that,” she started.
“Oh, but if you want to eat around here, unless it’s grass, you pretty much have to pay. Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s not coming from my salary,” the agent chuckled.
Breezefeather stood up and stretched. “I think I remember seeing where it was. Back here after, right?” The agent nodded. Taking that as her cue, Breezefeather headed out of the principal’s office. She headed straight for the cafeteria where there were already quite a few students milling about, mostly at the large benches. Breezefeather gently pushed the large double doors open and slipped inside.
She got about halfway to where the food was being served when she heard a, “Yoo hoo, Breezefeather, come sit over here when you get your food!” It was Paulina, waving from her group of friends. Smiling shyly, Breezefeather waived back. She managed to get to the serving area without incident. Though she did pause when she was the main course. Lasagna. Not just any lasagna, this appeared to have meat in it. She wasn’t opposed to meat, being a pegasus, she was just opposed to any high-fat meat.
“Excuse me, is this high in fat?” Breezefeather asked the elderly woman manning the line.
“’Course it is! What you expect, some low-fat nonsense?”
Breezefeather frowned, “Is there anything else that I could have? High-fat foods make me sick.”
The lunch lady frowned as well, “You won’t get your protein, girly, but there’s the sides.” Breezefeather smiled a bit, though her attention was brought back to the lunch lady, “Say, aren’t you that girl that the agent said I have to feed?”
“Um, probably,” Breezefeather asked confused.
“Well, I aught to feed you now, shouldn’t I?” She grabbed a helping of everything and piled it all on a tray for Breezefeather and smiled. It was a sly smile, and Breezefeather couldn’t help but give a wary one of her own, chuckling uneasily. Slowly, she took the tray and retreated towards the table with her new friends. As she sat down, she frowned, her friends chuckling at her misfortune.
“Geeze, why’d she give you so much?” Asked Quan.
“I don’t know, maybe she’s secretly a witch and trying to fatten me up?” Breezefeather replied.
Paulina turned up her nose, “All those fats, that can’t be good for you.”
“Not for me, it’s not. I physically can’t eat too much fat, or I’ll get sick,” Breezefeather lamented, all the students at the table raising a brow. “I can eat lean meats like chicken or fish, but pork and beef are a no.” She smiled when she saw an apple and almost went to grab it with her mouth. She stopped and reattempted with her hands and took as big a bite as she could. Almost instantly, she frowned again before swallowing, “And these apples just aren’t the same as home.”
“How come?” Dash asked, “Aren’t apples, apples? No matter where ya go?”
“I’m no apple farmer, but even I can tell you that’s not it. It varies from farm to farm and who’s tending the orchard.” Depressed, Breezefeather continued eating the apple.
“Um,” Star spoke up, “why are you still eating that if it makes you sad?”
“Because it’s food and I don’t want it to go to waste.” Breezefeather looked around and saw hopeful faces. “If any of you want my lasagna, just ask.” She was almost instantly bombarded by requests. Sullenly, she just held up her tray and someone took it as she was sans lasagna when she lowered it back down. Now there were only sad-looking vegetables and fruits on her tray. “Jeeze, these look pathetic. Were they in a can?”
“Probably,” Paulina said. “You should pack a lunch when you get the chance.”
“Noted.” She then heard shushes and requests to look hovering around her. Seems that trio of friends that she saw earlier had recently walked in. They look a little roughed up, Breezefeather noted. Tuck was fixing his glasses and dusting off dirt, Sam was fixing her hair, and Danny was covering some developing bruises. They walked over to their spot that was a few tables away.
“Hey, Breezefeather, check this out!” Dash called out before he hurled something their way. It hit Danny in the back of the head with a splat. Now that it had stopped moving, Breezefeather noted that it was the lasagna that she had given up. Breezefeather covered her mouth and gasped. Why did he do that? Danny did nothing to him! All he did was walk in! Everyone save for her was laughing at the table. “Take that, Fentoad!” Dash cried out, laughing even harder.
“Apologize!”
Everyone stopped and looked at Breezefeather. When did I stand up? Oh, well, that doesn’t matter. “Apologize right now!” She said again.
“What? We do this all the time. Freaktonio always has it coming.”
“And just how, Dash?” Breezefeather asked, upset. Her hands were balled up into fists right now, she was so mad, her hands just had to do something to emote it. Her ears couldn’t do it anymore. “How did he provoke you?”
“He’s a freak!”
“So, you throw things at him for what you perceive as a freak?” Her voice kept rising in volume. “What if I was a freak, would you throw food at me, too?”
“Why are you defending that freak anyways?” Paulina asked. “I mean, him and his friends are losers, you’re better off with us?”
“Or what? I can’t be friends with you? You’ll torment me like you do him?” Breezefeather was starting to see red.
“If you don’t like it, too bad,” Dash said. “It’s not like we get in trouble for it.”
“You get away with being a bully?!” If she wasn’t incensed before, she was now. They bully him and get away with it?! That’s terrible! Breezefeather had enough. “That’s it! I’m going to go back to my testing early.” She stepped away from the table and stomped off.
“You can forget sitting with us, then, Freak Lover,” Paulina called after her.
Breezefeather turned around, “That’s great because I wasn’t planning on it!” She nearly roared out the last part, windows shaking in their panes. Scowl marring her features, she whisked back around and stomped all the way to the principal’s office.
Breezefeather sat in her seat, scowling. “I’m sorry, though there’s not much I can do,” Principal Ishiyama said to her, after Breezefeather explained why she was back so early.
“Why not? Who’s to say one of their friends wasn’t out in the hallway and practically mugged the poor kid and his friends?”
“Did you see anyone in the hallway?” Ishiyama asked.
“No. I was too mad,” Breezefeather ground out. She sunk into her chair. Are they being protected or something? Aren’t the faculty supposed to do something? What is wrong with this place. “But I did see Dash throw his food at that kid! How is there nothing you can do?”
Principal Ishiyama frowned, “I don’t like it any more than you, but Dash is our star player for nearly all of our sports-.”
“You’re giving him a pass because he’s good at sports?!”
“Let me finish, please,” Ishiyama gently requested. Breezefeather settled again in her seat. “As I was saying, he’s our star player. There are a lot of folks that help us keep up repairs that are sports enthusiasts and recruiters. If he were out of commission for any reason, our funding to repair the school would be shot, seeing as we have ghost attacks on the regular. Unfortunately, this means we have to overlook some of his behavior. I like it as little as you do, Miss Breezefeather.”
Breezefeather ground her teeth. I doubt it, she thought, though she kept her mouth shut. No, I shouldn’t think like that, she resigned, after all, she doesn’t really have a choice if those jerks that fund her are only interested in sports. “I guess I can see it. Still don’t like it, of course.”
Agent Fairweather chimed in, nearly causing Breezefeather to jump out of her skin, “Well, seeing as we’ve gotten to an understanding, why don’t we resume our testing for today?” She took out more paper. About half of it had a lot of writing.
“Let me guess, Language and a whole hodgepodge of other things.” I almost forgot she was here.
Agent Fairweather nodded. “Just to see where you’re at and what you need.”