Pillow Case
by Taffy (Mr. Blue)
== She Likes Cloth: Chapter I, Panic With Portals ==
It’s so weird traveling between worlds, you know? It’s one of those things I just never imagined doing. It’s like… You know when you’re really, really little, and you see an older pony with braces and you think you’ll never get them yourself? And you can’t ever imagine what it would be like to have these weird metal brackets glued to your teeth and strung together with wires and stuff, but then suddenly you’re thirteen and wearing them and it’s somehow normal!
You know what I mean?
I felt just like that getting off the train at the Equestrian Portal Dock-Station-Thing-place. All so I could walk through a big sciencey doorway to an alien world. Perfectly normal! Plenty of ponies do it all the time!
I got a letter from an old friend a month before leaving. I hadn't seen her since she moved to Earth with her parents. We were both just fillies back then. We used to write all the time, and we always said we’d be best friends forever. We just, sort of, lost touch. I lost touch. She still kept writing even after I forgot to. And then I guess she forgot to too.
She did hear about us losing the shop; I think dad is still friends with her uncle in Manehatten. It’s a small town, everyone’s really close, so I guess some connections there never really die. Anyway, she heard about it somehow and offered me a place to stay. So it was either move to human earth, or try out for the town’s weather team. Mom always said I was too delicate for cloud kicking though. Too soft. Maybe…
Anyway, I was waiting in line for boarding (or passing? I guess it’s not like trains. Transit maybe? Whatever.) Anyway, I saw my very first human there. He— I’m pretty sure he was a ‘He’, it’s hard to tell with some humans. Like, the different shapes of their faces between genders are much more subtle—well he was stamping everypony’s tickets and checking their passports. I was supposed to remember him. Mom told me to write her about the first time I saw a human. He was ok I guess. I don’t know what I’ll tell her.
Those clothes though… they really do wear a lot of them. Not just that they wear them all the time, but they wear a lot to cover up, and so many of the ponies in line were wearing clothes too. It was all so weird. I hadn’t seen that many ponies in clothes since my last school dance. Mom let me borrow her old dress. I had to make some adjustments though because it was so loose on me, the wing holes were especially difficult to readjust, but it looked pretty anyway, even though the fabric was kind of rough.
So you know how so many ponies talk about how cool it is watching humans use their hands? The way they go on about it you think you’d have to stop yourself from staring all the time. I don’t get it. I mean, it’s neat I guess, but their faces are so much weirder. Like this human’s nose? It was just so big and flat! Like a squash or something. And he had such tiny, beady looking eyes. All the humans I’d seen in pictures were so much prettier, and their eyes never seemed that small.
I didn’t realize I was staring until he noticed. I quickly ducked behind the tall stallion in front of me, only to realize he was next in line. My mind quickly went into panic mode.
Oh my gosh, it’s his turn. I’m next! No, calm down Pillow. Nopony’s going to eat you. No matter what Granny says about humans. Just be polite and show the nice sta—man your ticket.
I dug through my saddlebag for my ticket and found it safely tucked into my passport book.
“Tickets and passport miss.” The human said in a bored voice.
Oh gosh! I’m holding up the line!
"Em forry" I said, holding up my passport in my teeth. For some reason that made him smile as he reached out to take it.
Did he just… OH gosh! He just grabbed that with his hands! Eww! No way I’m putting that back in my mouth now!
“Here you are miss.” He said, handing it back.
“Thank you.” My mouth was free of obstruction this time as I opted to winging the book into my bag. I wiped my wing on the sides of the bag a little afterwards without thinking.
“Platform four on your left,” He said kindly, “Welcome to Earth.” He didn’t say that to any of the other ponies in line that I noticed. Was it obvious this was my first time or could he tell from my passport?
“Thank you.” I mumbled again before moving in the direction he pointed. With his hand.
Looking back I noticed other ponies in line passing him their papers; not even the earth ponies were using their teeth.
Oh…
Oh gosh! There was a human in line just a few places behind me! And another! I think that one’s a Woman. She’s pretty.
I quickly spotted the sign for platforms one through ten pointing down a huge hallway. “Platform 4: Chicago Gateway Station Chicago, Illinois, USA.” There are too many places on Earth. I wondered for a moment if this city was anywhere near London. I read a book about that place once. It sounded neat, but really dirty with black smoke everywhere. It was an old book though so maybe they weren't so dirty anymore. I doubted Strawberry Jam would live in a place like that anyway. Her city was likely much cleaner, and full of friendly humans that wouldn't want to eat a skinny little pegasus all by herself...
Oh no! they’re boarding already! “Wait!”
"No rush miss," A unicorn by the gateway said. "You have five more minutes before we close the gate again. Ticket?"
"Oh yes sorry" I hoofed him my ticket, and taking it with his magic he punched it before passing it back. I tucked it under my wing in case I needed to show it again soon.
"Here you are, make sure to keep your passport on hoof for immigration. Just follow the green line after you pass through."
The gateway started glowing and sparkling. It reminded me of a unicorn’s horn lighting up, but more... swirly. The original gates were supposed to be clear enough to see through. Modern gates were different, so they could be opened more frequently without making the universe (universes?) explode. That’s what dad said anyway.
It's so crowded. Hey, stop pushing me!
I was getting close to the gate. Everypony was just disappearing inside! It reminded me of a time I saw a unicorn teleport, except super creepy. It was the same but, like, in slow motion or something.
Come on, you can do this Pillow! Just a hop, skip, and a jump. You're going to hold everypony up if you stop moving.
...Or they'll just push you. Oh no, I'm not ready! I don't want to go to Earth yet!
"No, please, Waaaiii—" Oh, I'm through already. Keep walking, pretend that didn’t happen. Pretend no one is looking at you funny. Humans just normally look that funn-eeaaah!
Humans! Everywhere! Aaaauugghh! They're goooonna eeeeeat meeee!