A Fallen Leaf
A fanfic by FoxxehSquirrel
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based creation. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasboro, and was created by Lauren Faust. No copyright infringement intended.
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Chapter one: Like A Waterslide
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It was October 23rd. 8:30 in the morning. A building stands, unattached to every house around. A large, brick building. Hanging on the side of the building is a banner that had the name of the building printed in very large, neat letters: Humanville High School.
The banner was decorated with confetti and glitter. There were very bright pastel colors splattered across the edges. Autumn could tell that the banner was relatively new, seeing as how the corners and edges were still crisp and didn’t seem to show any signs of wearing down.
He noticed a single light hanging above the set of heavy double doors. Though the bulb was not lit, he could only imagine what it must look like at night, being the only thing shining in its proximity. Just above the light and below the banner, was another sign that said “Welcome!” in obtrusive hot pink letters.
Autumn Leaves was standing there, daydreaming about what his life would be like for the next two years in this institution, its pale red and brown bricks standing out in the sunlight. He was transferring in as a junior, as he had completed his freshman and sophomore years at the Canterlot High School for Gifted Students.
Autumn’s parents had been given a special task of managing the Humanville Water Purification Center, or HWPC for short. He had just arrived in the small town just a week before today, so he could get used to the feel and scenery of his new home. The view from his room wasn’t that bad. He lived on top of a hill overlooking the town. It would be unfair to say he was rich, but his house is definitely noticeable from the lower parts of Humanville. He had just moved from Canterlot, in which mostly wealthy ponies reside. It still had the formal taste of Canterlot, but with hints of the rustic charm of his new town.
So, as I was saying before, Autumn was standing and staring for so long that he hadn’t noticed a big, yellow school bus pull up behind him to begin unloading its daily haul of passengers. Students upon students passed him, many paying no attention to his presence. He noticed a girl with short blonde hair, and a wonky eye that made her look kind of silly. He also spotted a boy who wore a brown suit with a red bow tie. His hair was somewhat spiked up. He gave off an air of intelligence. And Britishness.
Towards the last of the passengers, one girl with wild, electric-blue hair and purple shades bumped into him. She was wearing a white tee shirt and a pair of white pants. There was a pair of headphones hanging around her neck. A musical note appeared to be on the outside of both of the speakers. He could hear loud electronic music with frantic bass that he could feel when they touched.
“Oh, um . . . “ Autumn stammers. “Excuse me.”
The girl lifted her shades, revealing a pair of large, magenta eyes. For some reason, Autumn had thought they had been red at first, but with closer inspection, he saw that they were indeed more purple-ish. She blinked once, then smiled, revealing shiny white teeth.
“Nah, it’s cool. I wasn’t watching where I was going.” she replied.
She then less than gracefully turned around as another girl with blackish-grey hair, wearing a grey dress lighter than the gray of her hair prodded the first girl along. After they started walking again, the girl in the dress noticed the pink bowtie around her neck had become crooked. She quickly adjusted it then blushed, fearing somebody may have seen her.
She must be pretty uptight, Autumn thought to himself. He then shook his head. Look at me. I’m already making assumptions, and I don’t even know what she is like. He quickly got over it, as he began to slowly walk towards the double doors of the building. It seemed like an eternity before he reached them. He paused for a moment to think if he really wanted to do this, but he realized he had no choice. So he reached for the handle and pulled.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a blur of a rainbow passed him through the open door. He stood there out of surprise, then he realized what had just happened, and caught a glimpse of the figure at the last second. It was a girl, with all of the colors of the rainbow dyed into her hair. At least, he was pretty sure it was dyed. He saw that she was wearing a light blue tank top, and short black track shorts. She was sporting a pair of white and light blue running shoes. She quickly jolted into a room at the end of the hallway.
He was confused as to what was happening, but he just decided to shrug it off. He stepped into the building, and the door closed ominously behind him.
“Must have been the wind,” Autumn remarked. He then turned back around, only to see some of the many posters and artworks that have been hung on the walls of the school. There were paintings and drawings of various boys and girls in heroic and comical poses. Some of them were done very well, others not so much. There was a large mural displayed above a case of awards, trophies and photos of sports teams. The mural displayed two young girls playing it what seems to be a castle courtyard. One had pink hair, while the other had shorter, dark blue hair. He thought they looked familiar.
There was one picture, however, which stood out to him. At first, he thought it was just something in the corner of his eye. But after he turned towards it, he was greeted with multiple rays of sunlight reflecting off of extremely clean and shiny gems of all shapes and sizes. There were fire-red rubies and baby-blue sapphires scattered all across the picture to make it positively glowing.
Next to the picture, there was a photo of a beautiful girl whose purple hair curled like one of the water slides at the Canterlot Water Park. He used to enjoy going there as a kid, and still relished the thought of going again. She was wearing a very white dress made of silk (don’t ask me how I know that), and a necklace that had three shining diamonds in charm form attached to a clasp at the bottom. Below the picture was a name, but he didn’t care much for that. He was too stricken by the photo to notice.
In fact, he was so captivated by the girl, that he didn’t notice somebody else sneaking up behind him.
“Well, shewt,” a voice behind him said. He thought he recognized a southern country accent in the voice, which also sounded female. He reluctantly turned, not wanting to look away from the beauty he was currently occupied with. When his vision met the new person, he immediately noticed how much tanner she was compared to the girl in the picture. Granted, that girl was pretty pale to begin with. “Ah knew Rarity is pretty an’ all, but Ah didn’t think that just a picture o’ her could do that.”
The tan girl that was talking to him had long blonde hair which was tied into a ponytail at the end with a red band. She was wearing a brown cowboy hat, a plaid button-up shirt with an orange tee-shirt underneath, and jean shorts. She also had boots on. I guess you could say she was the local cowboy (or cowgirl, if you would rather have that) in town. Her face was mottled with freckles, and she was wearing a big smile which accentuated her strong features and green eyes.
“I- Wha?” Autumn replied, startled by the sudden intrusion. Were it not for her, he probably would have been staring at that picture for the rest of his life.
“Now Ah haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new, or sumthin’?” the girl asked. Autumn could easily pick out the curiosity in her voice. She waited for an answer while he tried to get his thoughts straight.
“I, uh . . . Yeah,” Autumn began. “I just moved here from Canterlot last-”
“Canterlot?” the girl interrupted. “One of mah best friends is from canterlot!” She said this line particularly loud, which caused a few heads to turn, and caused Autumn to blush a little out of shyness. He did notice that one head, however, lit up when she said that.
“Did I just hear somebody say Canterlot?” a voice said. Another girl, this time a little younger and shorter, approached us. She was wearing what looked like a school uniform. She had on a brown sweater over a white shirt, with a rusty red tie tucked beneath the sweater. The sleeves were long and hugged her arms snugly. She wore a medium-short skirt that hung down to her knees. The brown of the skirt matched the brown of her sweater. The boots she wore matched the rest of her outfit.
She had long violet hair with thin streaks of pink and lighter violet. She was wearing a headband to hold her hair in place. On the accessory was a picture of a star, then six smaller stars around it. He felt like she looked familiar. Something about her made him think of school back in Canterlot.
“Eeyup,” the blonde answered. “This fella used to live there.” She pointed a thumb towards Autumn, who then tried to back away a little. He couldn’t get away in time before she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “He seems awful quiet for one o’ them rich folk.”
The purple haired girl blinked. “Well, it is nice to meet a fellow ‘Canterlotean’. I’m Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?” She extended out a hand, and had a small smile on her face. If anything, Autumn thought it was kind of cute.
“I’m Aumntnmn . . .” he mumbled. Twilight blinked, then asked again.
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I’m Autummnhm . . .” he mumbled. I guess being outward to others wasn’t exactly one of his strong points.
“Sugarcube, ya’ need ta speak up! How are we gonna know who you are if you won’t tell us yer name?” the blonde asked, turning to face him.
“Now now, Applejack, I’m sure he is just a bit nervous, today being his first day and all,” Twilight responded. At this point, Autumn was shaking in his shoes. Not enough to be noticeable, but he definitely felt it. Twilight turned back to Autumn. “Now, why don’t you just try to calm down, and tell me your name?”
Autumn was feeling conflicted feelings. He felt scared that his privacy was being invaded by two people that were trying to make a big deal about knowing his name. And he also felt flustered that they would pay attention to him. He hasn’t exactly been good with other people, especially girls.
He took a deep breath.
“HiI’mAutumnit’snicetomeetyou.” he blurted out, all of his nervous energy being released at once. If anything, it just made him more nervous and embarrassed.
“Oo-kay,” Twilight responded, a look of confusion falling on her face. “No matter. I’m sure we can get you to open up more. All we need to do is help you.”
Autumn blinked. People aren't usually this nice to him. He felt a little better.
“Now, where do you need to be? I can guide you around the school.”
“The main office,” he said quietly. But it wasn’t too quiet that the others couldn’t hear him.
“The main office?” asked the one called Applejack. She pointed to the door underneath the mural. “It’s right there.” Autumn look to where she was pointing, and sure enough, there was a sign next to the door that read ‘OFFICE’.
“Oh, uh . . . Thanks.” Autumn replied as he began walking towards the door. Applejack and Twilight stood there, watching him as he talked to a woman at the front desk.
“Kinda reminds me of Fluttershy,” Applejack suggested. She scratched her head with her finger. “He’s all quiet an’ shy an’ stuff.”
“Oh, come on, Applejack,” Twilight replied. “He just needs a little time, is all. Then he’ll come out of his shell. And I can’t help but feel like I know him . . .”
A couple short minutes later, Autumn returned from the office with a folder and some documents. One, however, stood out to Twilight. Probably because it was the one on top.
“Ooh, is that your schedule? Lemme see.” She commanded as she snatched the paper from his hands.
“Hey, I-” Autumn was interrupted by Twilight once more, as a large smile began to grow on her face.
“Your first class is Calculus? That’s mine too! We can go there together!” Twilight seemed very excited about the idea of making a new friend. She doesn’t particularly know anybody else in her Calculus class, because the rest of them were all seniors, and she was only a junior. “I’ll finally have somebody to check my answers with!”
Autumn looked dumbfounded. How could she be so excited about Calculus? I mean sure, he was good at math, but it was one of the most boring subjects he could think to talk about.
“Now, ahm not one fer that fancy-shmancy mathematics, but that is a might impressive that another junior can keep up with Twilight.” Applejack remarked. She reached for the schedule, but Twilight pulled it away before she could wrap her fingers around it.
“Wait. What?” Autumn used that last compliment to force himself to feel more comfortable around these two. “You mean there aren’t any others taking it?”
“Not juniors. You don’t see many going into the more advanced classes anymore. I guess the expectations of students are just getting lower and lower,” Twilight explained. “May I ask, what school did you go to before coming here?”
“I went to the Canterlot High School for Gifted Students. It is really-” He was interrupted once again. He felt it was really getting old at this point.
“Really? I went there as a freshman! Though I don’t remember ever seeing you.” Twilight tilted her head up a little and began rubbing her chin while she was trying to remember.
“Yeah, weird, right.” Autumn knew that they were in the same grade, and even shared a few classes. The problem was that he was even more shy there than he was here. In Canterlot, most everybody else was able to outshine him in something, so he hardly stood out. And sitting in the back corner of the classroom didn’t help either.
Autumn has never been an outgoing student, always opting to pass on activities that required him standing in front of others. Don’t get me wrong, he was a good student, and got his work done. He had spoken with teachers about his ‘condition’, and they agreed to let him just turn in his papers instead.
“Anyways, let’s see what else you have on here . . .” Twilight said, before Applejack finally got a hold of the sheet and took it away. “Heeeeey!”
“Oh, quit yer complainin’. I wanna see it too,” Applejack began to look through the many words on the page. She began speaking out loud. “You’ve got Chemistry, and-” She rubbed her eyes. “Acting? Sorry, hun, but you don’t seem to be the most outspoken person,” she began, then showed the paper to Twilight. “Twi, ain’t this when Rarity has that class too?” She pointed at the row that had the acting class printed.
“Why yes, I believe she does. But I’m sure he’ll still enjoy it.” Applejack took the paper back.
“Then it says English, and,” Applejack began to grow a large smile on her face. “You’ve got phy-ed with me an’ Rainbow!” Autumn blinked.
“Rainbow?” He looked confused. He had no idea who that was, but felt some sort of familiarity coming from the name.
“Yep. She is one of the best athletes in this here school. Second only to me, of course,” the blonde boasted. “But I gotta say, she is one tough cookie.”
Rainbow. Autumn couldn’t help but ponder that word. Did it have something to do with what happened earlier today at the door, when he saw a streak of all of the colors of the rainbow rush past him? He shrugged it off, then focused his attention back to the two girls.
“She can be super competitive, however,” Twilight then turned and pointed towards Applejack. “So can she. Last year during the annual ‘Running of the Leaves’, she and Rainbow Dash got into a huge fight over who was better at running. It got way out of hand.”
After a couple minutes of talking about classes and stuff, a loud chiming noise started coming from the speakers that were high up in the wall. A very loud and excited voice started blaring out random noises and crazy laughter.
“HELLOOOOOO, everybody. This is your daily announcer, speaking. I’m Pinkie Pie! Which I think is funny, because I’m not a pie. I’m a human!” The voice was rather high pitch, and Autumn could tell that she was trying to suppress giggles. It didn’t seem to work that well, as a moment later, the voice began to break out in fits of laughter. Then it happened.
“Today is a sooooooper special day! Do you wanna know why? Okay, FINE! I’ll tell you! We’ve got a new student in our midst, I can just sense it!” Autumn stood there, dumbfounded by what he was hearing. “Ooh, ooh, I think he’s also from Canterlot! Can you believe it? A student from Canterlot going to school HERE?”
“How-” Autumn began, as he was interrupted once more.
“He is also talking to two of my bestest friends in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!” Autumn could hear her gasp. Loudly. “Do you think he will be my friend? Hey, hey new person, will you be my friend? Oh, that’s a silly thing of me to ask. Of COURSE he will! I mean, who WOULDN’T want to be friends? You are such a silly person, Pinkie.”
Noise could be heard through the speaker, as well as two other voices. A struggle could be heard, then suddenly, the voice from before came again, in a very sing-songy matter. “You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”
Just then, the door to the office flew open, and out came something Autumn wasn’t prepared for. He couldn’t imagine something so . . . crazy, something so spontaneous being contained in this school. Only something of his worst nightmares could make him shake like he was now.
Standing in the doorway, was a VERY happy, and VERY pink girl. Her huge blue eyes and giant teeth seemed to glow, as she stood there, grinning at him. He wasn’t prepared for what would happen next.
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End of Chapter 1
Chapter one is done, and didn't take that long to finish. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.