I frown at the shaggy blue unicorn as she smiled at me from the empty early morning streets of Maretime Bay next to the smaller blue unicorn with her two-toned curly mane and the pink pegasus with her tapered wavy bluish-white mane, right to left… “Mutant gas aliens from the Planet Xenon?”
Izzy snickers, “Yeah! We were getting weird!”
Twinkle pipes up with wide brown eyes, “Did it work?”
Misty turns her head right towards Twinkle, “I thought it sounded pretty strange?”
Twinkle looks over towards the unicorn filly, “Well, it worked for me?”
I widen my eyes at the trio, “Look! I can appreciate a good creative prank as much as most ponies! But now is really not the time!”
The small teal green alicorn on my left finally raises her head to speak, “Yeah! I’m gonna fly all the way to school with my new wings for the first time!”
Misty looks back at Twinkle, “She wasn’t doing that before?”
Twinkle replies incredulously, “How would I know?”
Jessi sighs, “So while I love all of you, me and Miss Glimmer here have to do this alone!”
Izzy stares at me, “Miss Glimmer?”
I smile, “Yes! My name is Starlight Glimmer and I was going to escort young Miss Trotsky here! You see, it’s kinda my fault she’s now an alicorn and so I’m taking responsibility! Yes! Miss Trotsky here is my responsibility! I was going to escort the darling young Miss Trotsky here too...”
“Jessi!” Jessi interrupts.
I sigh, “Jessi here to the school, so she can finally reveal that she’s an alicorn!”
Misty looks at Twinkle, “Being an alicorn is bad? Opaline didn’t seem to think so?”
Twinkle repeats herself as her little body jitters, “How would I know? I just got here!”
My smile lowers slightly, “Yes, well, so if you could all just please leave now, and let us get back to it, then!”
Twinkle looks at me and says, “You know, I also got wings?”
Misty nods at me with wide green eyes, “It’s true! She does!”
Twinkle stares up at me with wide brown eyes, “I could come for moral support?”
Izzy turns her head far right towards Twinkle, “Don’t you also have school?”
Twinkle replies while keeping her gaze on me, “Oh, please mom! Like I can’t skip a day!”
Misty turns her head left towards Izzy and nods, “It’s true! She’s very smart!”
By this point, I’m grimacing as I can’t tell whether I should be amused or annoyed? I can only stare down at Jessi to my left and ask her, “Jessi! Do you want Twinkle Shine to fly to school with us?”
Jessi lifts her head to stare at Twinkle who stares back with big sincere brown eyes and smiles back, “Uh, y-yeah! More ponies is a g-good thing, right?” before turning her head towards me and smiling nervously…
I smile down at her as I can already tell she really wants her best friend there with her… “Of course it is, little filly!”
Twinkle smiles at Jessi, “See? Now aren’t you glad your best friend is a mutant gas alien?”
<*****>
I stare up at the dimly illuminated morning sky now as the sun begins to peek into Maretime Bay from the east and I know I’m about to go to school…
Starlight Glimmer looks down at me from my right where she never left, “Okay Jessi! Take two! Are you ready?”
The pink pegasus pony of about my size on the left chimes up, “Now with Twinkle Shine and she ate a gummy!”*
Starlight looks up at the pegasus, “What?”
I stare up at her and smile, “Uh, never mind!” I blink and sigh. “Well uh, I guess I’m ready as I’ll ever be?”
Twinkle chimes up, “Yeah! What could go wrong?”
I hear Starlight try to reassure me, “You’re gonna do just fine!”
This talk does nothing to make me feel better as I stare up at the atmosphere, now turning a pale sky-blue shade with the rising sun… I gulp and squat while straightening my new wings to my sides… I take a deep inhale, in and out my mouth before I begin flapping my wings and I keep my eyes focused on the sky. That’s my destination! That way to school! I think to myself as I furrow my brow with determination and begin moving my wings with greater force and velocity…
I soon feel my hooves leaving the ground and I tilt my body forward to to begin to travel that direction and I soon feel a cool morning breeze on my face and blowing through my mane as I feel it fly across my back… I know I’m not alone, but at that moment, I felt trapped inside my own head… Like, all I can do is stare forward in a sort of tunnel-vision as I flapped my wings harder and further towards my destination…
The world flashes into clarity in my consciousness as the magenta alicorn flying with me on my right asks me, “Are you doing okay, Jessi?”
I realize that I almost forgot that I wasn’t by myself as I say back to her, “Uh, y-yeah! I think I’ll be okay?” as we all fly north and see the sun poking out from our right… Twinkle is gliding and occasionally flapping her wings further forward than me and to my left, but doesn’t say much as she continues to fly forward…
I know she’s intoxicated, but just having her here still makes me feel better, although Starlight’s words continue to do nothing to soothe me as she says, “No worries, Jessi! You got this!” and I gulp…
I don’t know how to tell her to shut up?
She asks me, “How much further, Jessi?”
At that point, reality settles back into my head once more and I see Maretime Bay below me… I see some ponies beginning to come out and open their shops for the day in the commercial district on my left and a gray earth stallion wearing a pale blue bathrobe coming out of his house to get the paper with his mouth catches my view on the other side… But at the same time, nopony seems to take note of us up here? “It’s on the North end of town! It’s there, so the farmer ponies don’t have to go into town to go to school!”
I see Starlight nod at me in my periphery, “That makes sense… Just take it slow Jessi! Descend when you are ready!”
I’m gonna die! I think to myself as I slow my flapping and feel a cold gentle wind as it flies through my wavy grayish-white mane and my eyes begin to focus on the landscape coming into view… It’s beautiful and so serene… Hard to imagine my death would be down there? I think as I begin to glide down with a slow flap towards the schoolyard, now coming into focus with the chain link fence around the empty playground as small ponies were going inside…
I finally finish my descent right in front of the building, beyond the fence, in front of a stone statue of a whinnying earth stallion with a fierce look in his eyes.
As I hear the clack of my hooves hit the cement in front of the statue, I can hear whispers around me…
I hear the word, “Alicorn!” said from somewhere behind me and I see a tan earth stallion foal with a brown mane on my right near the school, close to the door…
Who frowns at me and says, “Jessi has wings!”
I look at the small pony who noticed my new appendages, “Yes, I’m an alicorn now!”
He raises his view, “Is that why you always wore that vest?”
I can already tell there’s no going back now and gulp as I say, “Yes… I didn’t want you to know that I had wings…”
His eyes widen, “Why? That’s really neat! I guess that’s why when you disappeared for a couple of days, you suddenly showed up again in that vest? Uh, why do you think you need to hide your wings?”
I stared at the colt then… Time seemed to move still as the correct words began to form within my mind… “Because my wings make me different, Lyle…“I blink… “I don’t think other fillies and colts will like me anymore if they knew how different I really was… I keep thinking that it’s better if I just go away forever… “
His eyes widen, “W-what? Why would we hate you just because you got wings now?”
“And a lot more magical power!” I add.
He blinks, “Well, yeah! That too! But uh, that doesn’t make you a different pony, does it?”
I frown, “Um, n-no! No it doesn’t!”
Twinkle then turns her body towards me from where she’s standing on my right, “Um, they don’t seem to be taking out the pitchforks and I’ve yet to see a single torch?”
Starlight Glimmer smiles down at me from the other side, “See Jessi? It’s safe! We’re all friends here, okay?”
I stare up at her, “But I thought that the world was evil and just wanted to hurt me? That if I was weird or different, that they would hate and fear me? I thought that because of what I was, that I didn’t belong?”
“Jessi!”
I blink up at her, “Y-yes Starlight Glimmer?”
“Just because you’re an alicorn doesn’t mean you don’t belong! In fact, it kinda makes you special!”
I close my eyes in frustration, because I just can’t seem to get these ponies to understand! “But I don’t want to be special! I wanted to be like everypony else…”
She smiles and giggles, “Well Jessi! Nopony really gets to choose, you know?”
Suddenly, I hear Lyle chime in from his position by the door, “Um, I don’t hate you because you’re an alicorn?”
I turn my head back left to stare at the small brown colt from a distance as he stares back with his blue eyes, “Um, what?”
He frowns, “Um, no! Why would that make me hate you? I mean, ponies are integrated again now, right? So many of our students have wings and a couple even have horns! We’re not gonna hate you just because of some extra equipment! You just happen to have both! That’s all!”
I blink as my mind begins to process all of this… “D-do you mean to tell me that all this time, I was scared for nothing?”
Twinkle adds from my left, “Well, if you wanna be super golly blunt about it, yeah, pretty much! But you’re coming to my house to tell me about what happened, right?”
I stare deep into those enormous brown eyes of hers and while I know she’s being manipulative, I also know it’s for a good cause and so I say, “Of course, Twinkle! You’re my best friend! Just uh, call Little Snack and let her know I can’t show up today!”
Twinkle widens her eyes, “Okay!”
Starlight asks me from my right, “So, ready to go in, kid?”
I stare up at her, “Uh, do I have to?”
Lyle then says from by the door, “Hey, Jessi! Uh, look! I know you’re nervous or something, but uh, why don’t you stick with me, eh? It’ll be okay!”
Twinkle turns her gaze from Lyle back to me, “He doesn’t seem very threatening?”
At that point, I see Starlight’s larger mare body come towards me… I see it, and I can do nothing to stop her as she then embraces me in a tight warm hug!
I squeak, “EEP!”
She releases me to my hooves and stares into my eyes, “Now listen! I have to go now! If you ever have need of me, call my name! Do you understand?”
I stare up at the solemn magenta alicorn and say, “Yes, I think so?”
She smiles, “Good! Now have a good day in class, Jessi!”
I turn to begin trotting towards the smiling brown colt near the door, with my wings now on full display at my sides…
<*****>
At that point, early in the morning, something extremely rare happened… My phone actually rang while it was sitting on my desk in Hitch’s office!
I widen my eyes as that’s very unusual! I lift it with my forehooves to see it’s Twinkle Shine! I swipe on the screen to answer and bring it to my right ear, “Hiya Twinks! What’s up?”
“Oh, golly! Jessi can’t come to the station after school today, cause she’s coming over to my place, instead!”
“What?”
“Yeah, you see, she’s been hiding the fact that she’s an alicorn from her classmates…”
I repeat myself, “What?”
She giggles slightly, “So, yeah! She actually flew all the way to school today and well, we need to make sure she’s okay!”
My eyes widen, “Oh, wow! So you wanna do it at a house instead of a sheriff’s station! Makes sense!”
“I’m glad you understand Little! Uh, will you be okay?”
I blink, “Oh, I’ll be fine! I’ve spent most of my life by myself! Another night won’t be so bad! Besides, I can always just text Misty, if I get too lonely?”
“Well, right! I’ll see you later, Little Snack!”
“Right!” I say before moving my phone to the front of my face and swiping my right forehoof again to end the call…
I look up, “Well, that sucks!”
Hitch trots in from the back with a white box of donuts on his back, “What sucks?”
I turn my head right to face him and smile, “Oh, I just ran out of coffee! More donuts dad? Really? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were a cop?”
He snickers back at me from the doorway, “Oh, don’t be ridiculous Little Snack! I would never enforce the law!”
I smile and giggle, “Yeah!”
He stares at me, “Hey, you did let your friends know about the awards ceremony tonight, right?”
I stare back at him wide-eyed, “Why, yes! Yes I did! I need to go make a phone call now, on a completely unrelated matter!”
(To be continued…)