One of the things humans don't get about ponies in school is literature, and why we don't tend to like it much. Sure, there are ponies that love to read, but classic literature is just a chore to get through.
The heart of the matter is we don't feel like it is particularly written for us. True, that can be applied to a lot of stories and humans, but at least those stories are filled with humans. There aren't ponies in classical literature at all. This isn't really the fault of those classical authors, as there were no ponies on Earth when they wrote their stories, but it is something that as a pony you can't help noticing. It gives you a disconnect from what you're reading to not have any ties to it. Some ponies can, but I wasn't one of those ponies.
It wasn't like all the school boards didn't recognize this problem. There were attempts to get a more balanced reading curriculum with ponies in mind. They liked to include books with animals in places of humans, such as Animal Farm. Reinterpreted things from fantasy literature as classics, like The Last Unicorn. They also tried getting translations of many of the Equestrian classics. All those things did a little better, but they didn't really hit the mark. Even the Equestrian classics didn't really reflect the ponies on Earth, and the absence of humans in those books was just as off-putting.
We were a people without a long history. We did have some ties to human history, but there was a disconnect from that history that was hard to explain to humans. Just like they couldn't understand why we couldn't get into the Equestrian classics instead, it wasn't our culture and history; we didn't have that long culture and history. Again, some ponies loved all those old books, but the number of us who were bored to tears by them was far higher than humans bored to tears by their books.
That didn't mean that the rest of us hated reading. There were plenty of books that were being written in the present day that filled the void that the classics could not. Maybe one day some of them might become classics themselves, and fill that hole. There was also a vibrant community of writers that reimagined popular TV series and books with a mix of human and pony characters. I followed a bunch of these kind of loosely. My friend Maggy was really into the reimagined Star Trek, and I knew enough about it to recognize most of the characters and a few of the major plots.
There were 'purists' and 'true fans' who objected to these remaking of their beloved things, and they'd yell and scream about how we should just write fresh new things and leave their old things alone. I could understand where they were coming from. They had strong attachments to these older versions, and it was understandable they had strong attachments to the versions the first fell in love with, but they didn't seem to understand where the rest of us were coming from. These were things that were established in the culture, with established fandoms, and those established things kind of left ponies sitting out in the cold, wanting to be included, but not feeling included. It was really hard to introduce new pony characters to already crowded casts. So we found ways of writing ourselves in by switching out some of the old characters with pony ones. Most older fans were fine with it, as it brought in new life and concepts to things that hadn't had the status quo shaken in years, but there was always that very vocal minority that wouldn't stop complaining about ponies having to insert themselves into their beloved franchises.
There were also the ponies that tried to express the experiences of Earthling ponies as compared to Equestrians using writing. An Earthling earth pony had very different experiences in their lives than an earth pony born in Equestria. They'd write about taking up farming for the first time as an adult, having worked some retail job as a human. They'd talk about their experiences trying to defend the land that they'd started trying to farm. An Equestrian might not understand the experiences of a pegasus who had never seen a city made of clouds. The Equestrian night ponies couldn't understand the pain and suffering the gender imbalance brought to the Earthling night ponies. Earthling crystal ponies and Equestrian crystal ponies weren't even alike in magic. No, Equestria's culture and experiences were not ours.
However, I did find an olda old classic from human literature that I did enjoy very much, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Here the protagonist being human was actually something that I could bond with, because she was a lone human in a world full of strange creatures. She had that outsider-looking-in mentality that only saw everything as strange, while the residents saw everything as perfectly normal. The world of Wonderland also was awash with creativity. You never knew what kind of thing was around the next corner, or by what logic it operated. It was truly a world of wonder, beauty, and excitement. As a creative type I found the images from the story captivating.
The most captivating of the characters was the Cheshire Cat. The character would challenge preconceived notions, seemed to always be happy and having fun, and many of his abilities and physical attributes lined up with my own; he could float around weightless, turn invisible, shift shapes, and be completely immaterial. Those things sounded a lot like my abilities when I was projecting, so it felt like Alice was encountering an enigmatic version of me. I could imagine it as me, trying to guide Alice to look at things in different ways, without ever telling her how she should think.
This is how I first began to associate myself with the Cheshire Cat. This strong association with him also made me want to try to emulate a few of his other characteristics. I viewed him as a friend and helper, but also mischievous and a prankster. I got up to a number of pranks over the years, but never too often. If you prank too often then people expect it, and you can't take them by surprise, and that dulls the effect. I also never did anything really mean, because I could only enjoy a good laugh if my pranked victim was capable of laughing along with me.
I was very happy to see Maggie had waited for me at the cafeteria, and had even bought me a slice of strawberry cheesecake and a veggie-burger. I related to her all that I'd been up to while I was getting my key and she rolled her eyes playfully at me. It didn't take long at all for me to scarf down my food, and then we were off to sign up for clubs and sororities.
The sign-up and information area about the different groups was actually in the cafeteria. The cafeteria had two floors to it, with the second floor overlooking the first. That meant all we had to do was go up the stairs and we found humans and ponies standing around information tables displaying colorful Greek letter banners along with a few other groups with Latin names.
One thing that we definitely wanted was to join groups together. There were some limitations, of course. Some groups wouldn't let you join other groups of similar nature (primarily the sororities). There were however some groups that were open to having members in multiple different organizations, mainly groups dedicated to specific causes, politics, or fields of study. We spent a long time browsing each of the tables.
Maggie laughed as a Shimmerist group tried aggressively to interest her in coming to their meetings. Shimmerism had apparently been strong in the old city from before the Cataclysm, and while it wasn't as strong these days it still had a large enough following that the school had two distinct Shimmerist groups, one with lots of humans and one that was exclusively pony. From what we could gather those two groups loathed each other. However, they both combined forces and started shouting when a Blessingist club tried to get our attention. A security guard had to come by and break up their arguing before it turned into an open brawl, with a statement this was the final warning before they were all asked to pack up and leave. I overheard a student whispering about how the three groups had actually started trading blows last year, and had almost been banned from the school. Personally, I didn't understand why they were allowing the Shimmerist groups to operate at all, they seemed blatantly speciest to me.
We spent a lot of time there, but eventually settled on pledging to Kappa Pi together, which was more an honor society than sorority. I got some information about the AIA (American Institute of Architects). I couldn't actually join that until after I graduated, but the man handing out information said it was a big thing for architects, so no harm learning about it and reading their stuff early on. I also picked up some information about a co-ed group focused on providing resources for architecture students. Maggie grabbed some similar things for graphic design groups, and we both grabbed information for the Amatuer Writers Club.
We were about to go when a blue pegasus mare with black mane, wearing what looked like yoga pants that hid her cutie mark, came over from the Association of Naturalized College Students (what a weird name) table to give me a disapproving grimace. "You are Rebecca Riddle?"
I looked at Maggie and she looked as confused as I was. Had I done something wrong? I turned back to the mare that was glaring at me like I was the scum of the Earth. "Um, yeah, that's me."
Her grimace turned into a scowl. "I am Lántiān."
"Um, hi, Lántiān. Did you need something from me?" I asked, still completely confused about what was going on.
Her eyes narrowed, and her feathers started to fluff out in a way that indicated she was really on edge. "Does my name mean nothing to you?"
I shook my head, and stepped back. Maggie stepped between the hostile mare and myself. "Hey! You got a problem with Becky? She doesn't know who you are, and I know I've never met you before. Don't come up to her acting like you want to rip her throat out. What's your problem?"
Lántiān turned her glare upwards at Maggie. "Step aside. I want to see what makes her so special."
I was so confused. I'd never had a stranger come up to me this hostile before. "Who are you? I've never even met you. If I did something wrong I'll try to make it right."
Lántiān cocked her head to the side. "You really don't know who I am?" I shook my head side-to-side so hard it felt like I was rattling my brain. The other pegasus stared at me for a moment more before muttering to herself in some other language. She did an angry stomp of her hoof before turning away and walking off without a word.
Maggie looked back at me. "What the holy hay was that? Have you been sending hate mail or something to the… whatever her group was named?"
"I don't know," I replied. Then resolved to do something about it. "I'm going to go talk to her."
Maggie put a leg in front of me. "Are you nuts? She very clearly does not like you. I don't know what you did to piss her off, but going right back to her isn't going to win her over. If you're really determined to find out then maybe you should try approaching her after she's cooled down some more?"
I shook my head. "Nope. There has to be some misunderstanding. I want to make whatever it is right."
She covered her face. "Beck, you can't just… if you're really determined to do this can you just back off if she rebuffs you?"
"I can't promise anything."
She shook her head in disbelief. "Okay, I'll just stand right here and watch. If she tries to pummel you I'll come to your rescue, but it's still going to be your own fault if it happens."
I didn't answer. I just silently, and quietly started walking to where the mare was sitting. She watched me and glared the entire time I was approaching.
I gulped as her eyes bore into me. "Hi again. I think that you must have me confused with some other Rebecca Riddle. I've never met you or heard of you. Um, you wouldn't happen to have cookies, would you?"
Her mouth opened slightly, mouthing the word cookies. "Why are you asking me for cookies?"
I plopped my butt down and tapped my forehooves together, giving my answer all in one breath. "Because I eat when I'm nervous and you make me really nervous and right now I really really want to eat something sweet so I can forget the fact that I want to pee all over the floor."
She snorted. "Don't pee on the floor, it's unsanitary. I have no cookies for you. Now leave."
I wasn't going to be deterred. "Well, I will, and really quickly too, but I want to know why you don't like me and how you know my name."
"Why do I need to explain myself to you, you butter-covered rice ball?" She asked with a hiss.
I cringed. "That's a very creative insult for me. I've never heard that one before, but it works really well; since butter is yellow like my mane, and my fur is white like-"
"I don't need you to explain how my insult works! Why would you even do that? Why won't you leave?"
My ears had been flat against my head the entire time, but now we're trying to push down so hard I could feel the strain. "I just want to make whatever I did wrong better."
With two beats of her wings she was down in front of me, her face in my face. I jumped backwards in fright, but I noticed tears in her eyes as she continued advancing towards me. "You can't make it better, nothing can make it better. I am not even truly mad at you. I am mad at her for loving you so much. It wasn't fair. You've made it worse now by not even knowing who I am. She never even told you my name."
I blinked rapidly. "Who are you talking about?"
She was openly crying now. "My mother, Yinyu Wu Yan. She chose the United States to run to because of you, and died in the process. I might still have my mother if not for you. There were safer places to try to run."
I gasped as I stepped further back. She stopped crying and narrowed her eyes again at me. "You should not be the target of my rage, but seeing you makes it boil. Get out of my sight. You can't make this better. My mother is still dead at the end of the day, and if not for you there is a chance she might still be alive." She turned away. "She couldn't even take the time to tell you our names."
And she left out of the area, leaving me sitting confused and hurt. Miss Seapony told me she had foals, but had never told me their names. It never occurred to me that they might blame me for what happened to her. Why hadn't she ever introduced me to them or told me their names?
There was only one person that I could get that answer from.