She looked up at me, like I was an icon of faith. It felt so good.
That was yesterday.
And now today is beginning, and I know it’s gonna be good, I can feel it.
I mean yea, this is her first day at High School, but we've arranged her schedule, I gave her a rundown of the atmosphere and energy of the High School, and I think she’s got it.
We’re just finishing our breakfast now, Mum made us an omelet, which is totally delicious. Rainbow and I are both pretty wiped, her more than me, she doesn't seem too bummed though.
Even if she is just hiding it, she’ll forget once she sees the school and starts meeting people.
Rainbow looks up at me, she’s wearing a grey tee shirt underneath it, as well as a grey pair of slim jeans. And for the first time… shoes! Sneakers naturally, dark red. Her hairs looking scruffy, but clean and organized, and her eyes look relaxed and calm. She looks at peace, kinda blissful.
“Well kids,” Mum says, “you two best hurry up or you’ll be late to your first day of school!”
“Not quite the first day, Mum.” I say.
“Well for Rainbow it is, I’ll clean up your dishes, just get out that door! You’ll want to show Rainbow around a bit before classes start, maybe run through her schedule and get a look at her classes. I tried to arrange them to fit your classes where I could.”
“Thanks Mum.” I say, I look to Rainbow, who’s already taken her schedule out, and hands it to me. I look it over.
Block 1: Chemistry, Mr. McLaren
Same as me, cool.
Block 2: US History, Ms. Cantos
Same, right on.
Block 3: French, Madame Serge
Nope, I have Spanish… shit… Ms. Serge is a bat.
Block 4: Study, Cafeteria
Groovy, back on schedule… that was the worst play on words I’ve ever thought of..
Block 5: Creative Writing, Mrs. Polka
Right on, she’s awesome.
Lunch
Sweet, same lunch.
Block 6: Gym, Mr. Mender
Same Gym block, sweet.
Block 7: Algebra 2, Mrs. Curse
Ew, at least Serge is funny, but Mrs. Curse is just a witch. And we have different math classes to top it off, I’m with Mr. Fitzpatrick.
Block 8: English, Mr. Cenci
I have Mr. Hansen, but Cenci is super cool to.
I hand Rainbow her schedule back, stand up and throw my coat on.
“Your schedules pretty nice, I think you’ll really like it. I can help you get to your classes for the first two, but once Block 3 hits, I gotta sprint to the third floor. But then we meet back up, however, come 7th Block, we split for the remainder of the day. I can show you the way to most of the classes, but you may be running around a bit here and there.” I say to Rainbow, who is putting a tight grey converse jacket on.
She smiles at me, and we walk out to the foyer, I open the door and lay my hand out for Rainbow. She smiles, and hooks her arm with mine, and we walk out closing the door behind us.
She rests her head against my body as we walk down the path towards the gate. Her breath and mine crystalize in the crisp morning air. The warmth of her head on my arm fills me with a blissful joy, and from the practical aspect, combats the brisk air with warmth.
We reach the gate not after long, and we enter the park, vacant as it so often is Monday mornings. The occasional bird chirps, and rustles of branches make the space between noises more present and looming.
We exit the park, and the streets are sparsely populated by other students and across the street from us, I see my best friend. Collin.
He saw me first, rather he saw me and Rainbow first. He looked shocked, almost disgusted, and ran across the street to me. A few cars honking at him and screeching to halts as he runs across the road like a buffoon.
“Kit! Yo, I uh—“ he sees Rainbow and stalls, he’s just made it to the side walk and is just standing there like we just turned invisible. “Uhh, Hello there, I’m Collin,” He says to Rainbow, he looks down and sees our arms linked, his glare shoots right back up to me. “I uhh, I’m a friend of Kits, and well uh… I’m here to say hi! Uhh, bye, I gotta go do human things—fuck—that was rude, I mean earth things—Fuck—things—better, k bye!” He sputters as he runs off down the side walk towards the school.
“Are all human kids like that?” Rainbow asks in a chuckle, her tail bouncing with comedic surprise from Collins oddness.
“Hopefully not…” I say, mostly to myself.
We keep walking, other people look at us, some with approval, others with indifference, and some, not many, but some with disgust. As is expected, but all things aside, I’m rather impressed with societies attitude towards Rainbow.
After a few more minutes, we finally reach the high school, and see a bunch of kids outside surrounding someone, a girl, with a pretty high pitched bouncy voice. Rainbows ears perk up, maybe she knows her?
The people around laugh, and cheer as some act of comedy takes place from within the circle.
Then…
Jumping high above the crowds head, is a pink coated character with huge bouncy hair, and a smile that should be inhuman… oh the irony…
“PINKIE!” Rainbow yells in delight as she expands her wings, knocking me back, and flaps into flight directly towards the pink character, who I’m guessing is ‘Pinkie’.
“O MY GOSH RAINBOW DASH!” Pinkie yells in mid-air. She falls back down, and Rainbows gust blows more space in the center of the crowd where she lands. Pinkie gives her a big hug, and picks her up, saying something at hyper-sonic speeds that only she seems to be able to understand.
“I missed you SOOOOO much! I thought I might be the only one here in New York!” I finally here Pinkie say, perhaps the only audible thing I’ll ever here her say.
“I missed you to Pinkie!” Rainbow says, the rest of the crowd around them claps in approval. I am impressed with the way these guys are taking it!
They talk some more, but I can’t make it out over the noise of the crowd, now deep in speech, undoubtedly over something Pinkie was doing before or the reunion occurring right before their eyes.
I make out some speech in the crowd about Pinkies performance, something about how they never thought anyone could make their face ‘that crazy’, whatever that means…
Soon, the bell goes off, and the students hurry inside, one of them, a guy named Chris, goes over to pinkie, who’s in a blue t-shirt and white skinny jeans, takes her arm and runs her inside, I assume to show her where her class is. Sweet of him. I run over to Rainbow and do the same.
We get inside and I look around to find the route with less traffic, but then over the speakers, Principle Heightmans voice begins speaking.
“Students, Teachers, and Staff, please come to auditorium immediately, take a seat, and get comfortable.”
Rainbow looks at me rather confused, I give her a reassuring look, and take her arm as we turn left down a hallway.
Students around us are talking about what the assembly is about, most of them have come to the conclusion that it’s about the ponies. Others are talking to some of the other ponies in the hall making their way to the auditorium. Rainbow nudges me and start pointing at the ponies in the hall.
“I don’t know all of them, but over there is Pinkie Pie, you saw here before. There’s Lyra and Vinyl Scratch, uhh, that’s Braeburn, Thunderlane, I raced with him once. Oh, over there’s Cloudchaser, and uhh—” She’s cut off by the sudden transition into the auditorium. The room is large, and is shaped for acoustics, the seats in horseshoe formation, pun intended, and the stage wooden with its curtain drawn.
I rush up to the lower row seats, the better ones, and sit down, she does the same, Pinkie sits down right next to Rainbow, and Chris sits right next to me. Chris is a tall kid, long shaggy blonde hair, skinny in shape, and has a knack for charisma. Honestly, I’m not too surprised he gravitated to Pinkie to help, I mean, he’s a real nice kid, and would help anyone at a moment’s notice, but it’s pretty clear why he chose her. He looks to me, and why, just why, but he makes all of us a little gay for him… I have no idea what it is, maybe it was the perfect way he rolls his head, or his green eyes, or his lovely hair…
“Hey, Dreamy, I’m not good enough?” Rainbow says, punching my arm.
“NO! I was just! Nevermind!” I say quickly.
I was going to keep talking, but then the curtain pulls back, all the students are seated, and Principle Heightman is up on the stage. He’s shaped kinda like a large fleshy pyramid…
“Morning students, this is a very interesting time, as many of you may have noticed… we have visitors… now, the government has acted quickly, and has decided that they are to be integrated into our society, and culture. They are American citizens. And they are students. They will be receiving the same treatment you do, and will have no handicap, nor any negative treatment.”
He pauses, giving students some time to look over one another’s shoulder and comment to one another.
“We welcome you, new comers, and hope to give you a fantastic year here at—”
“HELLOOOOOOOO NEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YORK!” A voice says, sounding a little too familiar.
“Allow me to introduce myself! I am Discord, God of Chaos,” Discord says, as he pops into appearance with an entourage of sparks and purple smoke. Students are stunned, and remain completely silent. Amateurs. Rainbow and Pinkie laugh under their breath. “And I’m here to clear some things up!” He says. Mr. Heightman speaks up at Discord.
“Just who in the name of—” Discord rolls his eyes, and snaps his fingers, turning Mr. Heightmans lips upside down, and reversing his speech. Mr. Heightman stops talking, looks down at his lips and screams, and then stops once he hears it come out backwards. He looks at Discord with sympathy.
“Just listen, and all will be well!” Discord says half laughing, rather pleased with his prank. Students from all across the auditorium laugh at Discords joke, as Discord smiles, clearly happy that some people appreciate his humor.
He continues to speak, “So probably the biggest social problem I’VE noticed would be the lack of a proper name for our kind! So I figured a good one would be Antro, being shortened version of what we are, anthropomorphic humans. Also, please, don’t pull our tails. On another note, we would like to perhaps have a little bit of help when it comes to housing, so please, open your heart and help our little ponies here. Finally, let’s try and make this experience a good one, shall we? No unnecessary violence, no slurs, nah I’m kidding. Those things will happen undoubtedly, just please be mature about it. So that’s all I have to say, gooooooood night Newwwww York!” He says, snapping his fingers, popping into purple smoke, and fixing Mr. Heightmans mouth.
The auditorium is silent in awe, Dash and Pinkie are holding their mouths to prevent outbursts of laughter. I notice myself trying to hold back chuckles, Discord is pretty funny I’ve gotta admit.
“Well, uh… I wasn’t prepared for that.” Principle Heightman says, looking franticly around the auditorium for some answer or explanation. I hear some rustling in the back rows, it’s Octavia standing up, she’s wearing a black blazer and khaki pants. She clears her throat and begins to speak, she has a calculated, upper class British accent.
“Essentially, treat us as equals, as a species a more or less ‘slang’ term for us is Anthro, and finally we apologize for any disturbance our un-nominated spokesperson, Discord, may have caused. Thank you.” she sits back down, and a few people give some light claps.
Mr. Heightman opens his mouth to speak again, “Uhh, thank you, one last thing though. The Parmen-Price Foundation has begun construction on an apartment complex for the uh, Anthros who wish to attend this High School, free of charge. Details, and location will be displayed on the bulletin board in the main hallway next to the Office. Uhh, that’t be all for today. Go to your Period 1 classes and have a great day.” He said, before walking offstage holding his head in disbelief.
“Wow, that’s great that your Dads doing that but… won’t that cost like… a lot of money?” Rainbow says to me getting up from her seat.
“Well yeah… But my Dads got a lot of that. His company, Parmen-Price Integrated, makes everything from war machines, to bikes, computers, and housing appliances. He makes plenty of investments that end up gaining income, such as the park, and now this apartment for Anthros.” I say to her.
“Just how much money does he have?”
“38 billion in NET worth.” I say to her, then I realize, NET worth doesn’t mean much to her. “How much money does it cost to buy an apple over there?”
“1 Bit.”
“He’s got 38 Billion apples.” This time her expression isn’t one of confusion, rather of impressment.
We walk down to the doors, and hear all the people talking about all this buzz. Once we hit the halls, the noise levels lower as students separate to go to their classes. I walk us down the hall to our first class.
Chemistry.