//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21: Feather Compact 
// Story: Sisters of Willowbrook 
// by Starscribe 
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Charlie never would've admitted how much she enjoyed the next few hours. It wasn’t just that the fillies had an awesome fort to themselves, which was true. It wasn't even that they gave her some pointers about how to glide down from the higher levels, and didn't once comment on how bad a job she did. What it was might be a little harder for her to quantify, though. Maybe something as simple as being around some friends with no expectations.

Maybe it was camaraderie. Sunbeam and River didn't mind having her around, even as a total stranger. When Velvet Moon arrived half an hour later, they welcomed her in too, even though her appearance was the strangest of all. Apparently ponies could have bat wings and fluffy ears, or fluffier ears than usual, in addition to whatever other strange quirks of appearance. 

Velvet seemed to expect a need to justify herself to Charlie, and began with a deluge of explanations about why pegasi and bats actually had quite a bit in common and it was silly to exclude any of them when there were so few in town. Sunbeam and River only laughed at that defense.

"We're not replacing you!" River said, flinging open the clubhouse door. "You're in, that's in."

Sunbeam nodded in agreement. "It's Firefly who... ain't in yet. Fully." Her wings sagged a little. "You probably will be! Don't be sad. We just have to make sure you're not a spy for the land ponies."

Velvet looked suddenly suspicious at that, though the expression was so exaggerated it probably couldn't even fool a child. "Are you a spy, Firefly? Are you gonna tell 'em our secrets?"

"No!" she exclaimed, with enough conviction that even she was surprised. These were children playing in a backlot, she shouldn't care anything about what happened. She should probably be searching for a way home. Except that she hadn't even believed in magic until it had stolen her from reality and dumped her here. "I don't even have any friends in Willowbrook," she admitted. "I got here a few days ago. I only met my, uh... my dad. And he's the pegasus who showed me you were here."

This seemed to satisfy her companions, and they returned to far more important things like seeing who could walk out the furthest on an unsteady branch. At least until a group of ponies came marching by the fence. Every other girl in the fort looked up instantly at the sound. 

They darted for the top level almost in the same moment, the only floor with a coherent wall. 

"Come on!" Sunbeam hissed, gesturing urgently. "Get in!"

Charlie had no real reason to flee, yet the powerful emotions of these other ponies was contagious. She hurried up the ramp, slipping twice before she finally reached their fort. Velvet slammed the door closed behind her, shoving a little piece of metal in to latch it.

As far as forts went, it was hardly a comfortable place to hide for any length of time. It wouldn't even keep them fully concealed from the outside, since there were open cracks in some of the boards big enough for them to look through. Charlie pressed her head up against one of these, squinting through to see what was so frightening to her new friends.

She saw half a dozen ponies, walking together. They wore white and gold uniforms, and their faces were mostly obscured by shiny metal helmets. They even wore wooden batons on their sides, though none had them drawn. One hesitated near the fence, stared in for a few seconds, then hurried to catch up with the others.

"Who are they?" she asked. She thought she was whispering, but even that wasn't quiet enough for the girls. She got several harsh glances in reply, and she tried the question again more quietly. "Who are those ponies and what do they want?"

Sunbeam reached out with one hoof, dragging her across the floor to the most sheltered corner, where few shafts of light entered from outside and the window was entirely obscured. She didn't resist, at least not intentionally. But her wings puffed at the gesture. Seemed more like a bird thing than a horse thing.

"They're here from the crown," said River. "SMILE, probably. It's always SMILE."

Velvet nodded weakly. "Looking for things. They know that not everypony in Willowbrook likes the princesses as much. They want everyone 'convinced'."

Charlie tucked both of her wings, a gesture that required conscious effort on her part. "But we're just kids. Why would they care about us?"

"We're ponies," Sunbeam said, exasperated. "We don't have goats in Willowbrook. Or cows or nothin'. That's rich pony stuff."

"There's a donkey at the end of Clover Circle," Velvet said.

"Yeah whatever. That's basically just an earth pony with less magic."

They remained subdued for the next half hour at least, until a large carriage bearing white-gold flags rolled past the fence outside. Then it was back out of the safety of the fort, for more important things.

Gliding didn't seem hard at all, really. Charlie couldn't say how much of that was weighing so much less, and how much just came from the low heights she chose to jump from. Whatever the reason, by the time playtime was over, she could glide comfortably down even from the top of the fort. The other girls could make it further than she could, and could actually make it back up again. But considering it was her first day, she felt nothing but pride at the achievement.

Velvet was the first one to leave, a little past lunchtime. She muttered farewells to the others, explaining something about her nocturnal family, then was off over the fence. 

"But doesn't nocturnal mean sleeping during the day?" Charlie asked, as soon as she was gone. The three of them gathered by the side of a building now, where an external hose-connection gave them a place to drink. She didn't even feel a little strange drinking straight from the faucet, not with as long as she'd been outside playing.

"We don't talk about that," Sunbeam said matter-of-factly. 

"Velvet is really shy," River agreed. "She's always been a little weird, it's a bat thing. She shows up at weird times, and leaves at weird times. Even the teachers let her do it."

That was as far as Charlie's inquiries would get on that particular score. Besides, she was getting hungry enough that she might start picking at the undergrowth the way the other girls were already doing.

Thankfully, Dust Storm arrived about ten minutes later, carrying a paper bag in his mouth. He landed on the other side of the fence, glancing between the three of them. 

"Firefly," he said. "It's time to get going. You girls behaved yourselves, didn't you?"

Her new friends nodded eagerly. "We did!"

"It's nice to have another Pegasus in Willowbrook."

"Right." He nodded towards the fence. "You'll need my help to get over, right?" 

She nodded sheepishly, and thus began the embarrassing process of being lifted up and over the wall. She landed on the other side, then her eyes settled on the sack he was carrying. "That smells like lunch."

"It is," he said, smiling cheerfully. "We don't usually eat out, it's an irresponsible use of limited bits. But I wanted to apologize for leaving you alone unexpectedly." They walked a short distance to a bench beside the road, before he revealed what was inside.

Like a sub sandwich, almost. A sub sandwich made by a vegan alien who had heard the food described, but never seen one. She picked at it for a few seconds, but hunger was ultimately a stronger force than disgust. 

Before Charlie even realized what was happening, she'd already finished it, and they set off down the streets of Willowbrook again.

"I did promise you a dress," he continued. "And we'll need one for your first day of school. We'll see what time we have left for flight practice after that, okay?"

She groaned at the mention of school, pawing awkwardly at the ground with a hoof. "I know this probably seems like a... weird thing to say, but I don't need school. I know basically everything. All the stuff they teach in schools."

"Really?" He stopped at the edge of a street, suppressing a laugh. "What's the sum of five and twenty?"

"Twenty-five," she said, exasperated. "And the cubed root of 2197 is 13, 9 times 7 is 63, there are 180 degrees in any triangle, the formula for velocity of a moving—"

Dust Storm gently pushed her mouth closed with one hoof. Her little outburst had attracted some attention—adult ponies running nearby shops and stalls staring at her. Mostly she saw annoyance on their faces, but there was some suspicion too.

Nothing stopped me from saying all that, she thought, with a thrill of exhilaration. 

"That's very good, sweetheart," Dust Storm finally said, lowering his hoof. "You're really going to impress your teachers tomorrow. But school is more than just numbers. It's reading and writing and history and science and music and art and friendship and much in-between."

He lowered his voice to a whisper, urging her to start walking again. "More than anything you learn, it's about the creatures you meet. Friendships you make now can help you in the rest of your life. When you're a little older, you might need some of those connections."

She didn't argue—it was obvious enough that any attempt would just get him to silence her again. Besides, he was right. She barely understood this world, and everything about it confused her. Being able to recite a few things he'd memorized in middle school didn't mean she knew how to be a little horse. Or even worse, a grown-up horse.

God, don't leave us trapped here that long. Derek, you better be designing the return-spell right now. Or so help me, I'm going to... Something.

That little tangent was enough to bring her back to reality. "Didn't you say I could see my friend at school?" she asked, as they reached the open doors to a shop. A used clothing store, judging by the many racks hanging inside, and the smell of already worn. Like so many other things in this place, the familiar smell of sweat was replaced with an equally unpleasant barnyard smell. It was horses, because of course it was.

They walked all the way to the "fillies" section near the back, where dozens of different articles of alien clothing crowded for space. Not a single pair of shorts or trousers here, though there had been a few labeled "gentlecolts."

"I'm afraid fillies' clothing isn't something I understand very well," Dust Storm admitted. "But the clerk should. Miss Crinoline has a few daughters." He waved one wing, drawing her attention. "Miss Crinoline! Could we have your help for a moment."

After genuinely enjoying her morning, what followed was an hour of what Charlie could only describe as “ritual embarrassment.” The doting, elderly Miss Crinoline had all of zero interest in anything Charlie had to say. Indeed, at times it seemed she couldn't hear at all.

Dust Storm offered very little help for some time, settled down in a nearby chair to watch. Occasionally he shot down one proposed dress or another, suggesting that they would fail to meet the standards for the school. In the end, that only left a few options.

"I just don't want something so girly!" she insisted. "Can't I use darker colors? If I have to wear something like this..." She took a few steps towards the "colt's" section. But that argument was lost barely after it had begun, unfortunately. And she hadn't pushed for guys' clothes for very long. For boys, they mostly had vests and caps. At least some of the dresses would give her back a little modesty. 

"No, dear," Crinoline said. Her voice was harsh, making it quite clear how likely she was to win an argument. "Your coat is such a lovely orange and yellow. Anything too dark will look completely out of place."

In the end, she gave up fighting entirely, and let them dress her in something white and frilly. It was the shortest, restricting her movement the least when she tried to walk around, and threatening to drag the least when she moved. Besides, white wasn't girly! White was like black, it went with everything.

That it had little sunflowers sewn into the hem was acceptable losses, compared to the other things she might've been saddled with.

At least Dust Storm didn't make her wear it home.