//------------------------------//
// More Than One Way to Fly 
// Story: School Days 
// by Dai Kirai 
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	The second thing Stormy Skies noticed about the airport was all the humans. The pegasus had expected humans to be harder to distinguish from each other with their similar skin tones and lack of unique hair colors or cutie marks, but there were still an array of differences. Unlike ponies, they came in every size, there was a clear height difference of at least a foot among the humans among hair styles and a wider range of skin tones than he was expecting. What humans lacked in their dull colorations they made up for in their colorful clothing. While most seemed to be wearing shades of brown or black there were quite a few, especially children, wearing things from bright pink to royal blue and even purple. The patterns added to some of the shirts were designs that Stormy had no clue about and added even more variety. 
Stormy headed to what could only be the entrance, the glass doors automatically opened whenever someone approached. Something unexpected happened when he entered; it was cooler inside than it was outside. The opposite wouldn’t have surprised the pegasus, heating a room was easy; but cooling them? It wasn’t even that hot out, only the mid 80’s. There was a massive row of service counters, each with a different name above them. 
Stormy reached back into his saddle bags, he couldn’t remember exactly which airline his flight was through. Some of the companies’ names and logos made sense; Delta having a triangle. But others didn’t. Lufthansa had some sort of bird, but the name was something foreign. He found the ticket while rummaging, it was for ‘Alaska Airlines’. The printout tasted funny, human paper tasted fake with a hint of metal and the ink was bitter when compared to the Equestrian variety which was a bit sweeter. 
He kept walking down the aisle trying to find the correct ticket counter, there were so many all trying to compete with each other. Eventually he found the correct area but had to wait in line. It was hard to tell the time on Earth, he didn’t quite know where to find a clock and inside, even with so many windows, it was hard to tell by the position of the sun. He really hoped this wouldn’t delay him too long, he didn’t even know if he’d made it the requisite two hours early. 
While the pegasus waited, he looked closer at the humans. One group hugged and waved goodbye to another group, there were small children being watched over by parents, but there were no other ponies that he could see. Most of the people were also carrying large bags that had to be rolled along the ground. 
Before Stormy knew it, he was at the front of the line and the female, woman or mare he had to remind himself, asked to see his confirmation. The woman’s hair was chestnut brown which blended with her chocolate skin. The pegasus hoofed over the paper, still dry despite being carried in his mouth. 
The woman behind the counter typed some things onto the computer and a strange sound issued from behind the counter, it sounded like a printer. But what else do I need? Why did I need that paper?
The woman put several small papers in what looked like a small booklet and handed it over. “You’re flight will be on concourse C-12 and has been delayed. Please watch the boards for any further delay.” She said smiling. “And that also includes your return ticket so don’t lose it. Do you have any bags to check?”
A confused look crossed Stormy’s eyes, he didn’t think it was that obvious but the lady caught it almost instantly.
“You check a bag if you have a suitcase that is too large to take on the flight or don’t want to carry around the airport.” She informed the befuddled pegasus. “We make sure it arrives at your destination with you.”
Stormy thought for a moment, that was a nice feature, but all he had was the saddlebag and he needed the stuff in there. It contained his money for this trip, some paper to takes notes with even if he didn’t have a quill, his documentation and some books and schedules designed to help him navigate once at his destination. “No thank you.” He said.
The woman just smiled, looked past him and ordered the next person in line to step up.
Stormy quickly moved out of the way as another human walked up to the counter. Not knowing where concourse C-12 was he went in search of a map. There were plenty of places to get food, which he would need soon, but he wanted to find his gate first. His search proved useful in finding a map, just not a useful one. The map was clearly not to scale and just gave general directions, mostly saying he needed to take a tram to the far end of the airport. 
The pegasus trotted off into the needed direction which lead to something called airport security. So he followed the signs, sure it couldn’t be that bad. It couldn’t be any worse than Canterlot Security or the screening at the portal. He found another line, the same direction he needed to go, the lines reinforced with a blue-rope between metal poles. Thankfully the line moved quickly and soon he could see the white doorless door frame up ahead. He stopped dead in his tracks, almost tripping the human behind him who moved up out of reflex. 
The last thing Stormy wanted was to go through that again, but even if it was different, every new screening method had been some new kind of horror he never could have predicted. The pegasus moved forward though, he only had one direction to go; there was still a schedule to keep and something so quick shouldn’t be that much of a problem. He set his saddle bag on the conveyer belt the others were putting their stuff on, including for some odd reason their shoes. 
The guard wore a blue shirt but had a metal badge on his chest like the human at the portal had. However; this one had something Stormy didn’t expect to see as every other human had been without it so far, facial hair. The hair covered his upper lip, went around the side of the mouth and down the chin. The hair on his head had receded quite a ways and every hair was white from age. He had just asked the human in front of the pegasus to remove his shoes and spread his arms and legs. At least this time Stormy could see what would happen to him beforehoof. It actually looked pretty simple as the pegasus saw the human finish and pass through. It was now his turn. 
He stepped up to the door frame to the surprise of the guard who did a double take on the pony. 
“Step through please.” The guard ordered. 
As Stormy stepped through, he heard what was quickly becoming a standard beep. 
The guard gave him a serious look. “Spread you wings and your legs.” After doing so, they guard patted down him down, including his wings. It felt strange, pegasi were very protective of their wings and didn’t care for them being touched. It also took all of his restraint to keep from twitching his wings, especially when his cutie mark, a very sensitive part of his body, was patted down. That was something you only did to close friends or lovers, and this guy was neither. 
“Move along.” The guard brusquely ordered. 
Stormy flapped over to his bag, picking it up in his mouth and trotted down the hall until he could no longer see the security checkpoint. Then he slowed down long enough to put the saddlebag back over his flank and to find another map or transportation to his concourse.
A sign pointed to a set of stairs leading belowground to something called an AeroTrain. The steps were easy to navigate, Equestria had them and remarkably they were the same height. There were a set of moving stairs that some people seemed to ride down, but Stormy wanted to stick with what he knew best. Too many more new things might cause him to panic. 
Below was definitely a sight to see, it was an underground train. The floor was a polished off-yellow material and a train was in the station. The train car was white while accented with a deep blue and its huge open doors could welcome three people at once. Red lettering above the car said it was headed to concourses A, B, and C, so the pegasus happily made his way over and got on. 
Inside there were no seats, which suited Stormy just fine since human seats were of course designed for a human and might leave him trying to keep his forehooves from sliding off the seat, it hadn’t happened so far and he wanted to keep it that way. 
“Doors are closing.” A melodious female voice announced as the doors slid out from inside the walls of the car and slid toward each other. A human on the other side ran with a rolling suitcase in tow, but he missed the doors closing. As the train pulled away, the pegasus couldn’t understand why it couldn’t have waited for a few seconds. How often do they run anyway? He wondered, hoping it wasn’t too long. There were only a dozen people in this car and it would have easily held at least three times that many. 
His wait was rather short after less than a minute the train stopped and the same female voice said, “Concourse A, doors opening.” The doors opened for two minutes while people got on and off, then the voice informed them “Doors are closing” and they were off again, thankfully without leaving anybody behind. 
After another quick minute the train stopped. “Concourse C, doors opening.” The female voice said in exactly the same way it had for the other door, something Stormy doubted a human could do so perfectly. What happened to concourse B?  He questioned as he walked off along with the rest of the passengers; he knew it would leave with him still on it. And while it was fast, he didn’t know what other procedures he might have to do before boarding the plane.
He decided to pick himself up a watch if he could find someplace, it would be very important here, which was probably why everybody was wearing one. Every person he saw seemed to have a watch and a little plastic slab they seemed to call either an iPhone or Galaxy, there were a few other names, but those were the ones he kept hearing. But, they would be hard to use with hooves, especially while walking. 
Stormy ascended the stairs to what should be the proper concourse. He exited into a long corridor. There were spaces with at least a hundred uncomfortably looking seats in rows and a tacky grey-blue carpet. The windows were the same floor to ceiling type he had seen in the area he had received his ticket but the rest of the walls were a type of pocked white material. The closest sign told him he was at terminal C1. 
The pegasus saw there would be no more checks, in fact C4 across from him had started boarding and people were going in. He really needed to check the time. To his right, it looked like a bunch of shops that ranged from food to merchandise. At the same time his stomach rumbled, he decided he should get some food. Unfortunately, he didn’t bring any food with him; he would have to eat human food, the stuff he would be eating for the next few years. 
“Might as well get used to it now.” The pegasus tried to act happy, but he knew a human diet was far removed from a pony diet. He ate flowers and hay fries, humans ate meat. Then he began wondering why. Why do they eat meat? Is it good? There had to be something about it, griffons liked the stuff too. Stormy had just never thought to ask before, that and the smell would turn his stomach. The thought of having to end the life of something just to eat threatened to send him into a panic, or would have if he didn’t realize humans didn’t look at him like food and it more than likely being required to live. 
The area was a mixture of odors, Stormy couldn’t tell them apart. Some were sweet, or flowery, or even powdery while others were tart or burned a little and more than one was a little rank. He started hoping all humans at least had a similar smell like Equestrian life did, that way he could at least get used to it. 
Stormy headed off to the shops, first stop was food then maybe a book on local customs, nothing beat a book about humans by humans he was sure. He felt safe getting food, he knew it wasn’t yet 12 and the lady that gave him his ticket had said his flight was delayed. He would still check the time at his first chance.
The first restaurant he came to was called Burgerphile, but one whiff and a good look at their menu told him it wasn’t a place to get food unless he wanted meat. The word ‘chicken tenders’ told him that. Another thing disturbed him more though, something he hoped was a means of survival, and the items given the most space on their board or the most advertisement were the items with the most meat. What was more worrying was that next door was a place that seemed to serve exclusively fish.
So Stormy kept walking, trying to find something more appealing. The next place he found had the food wrapped in a clear plastic. The main ingredient seemed to be rice and some sort of green sheets; several were made with fish, but as he got closer, some clearly said vegetarian. To make it even better, there was currently no line.
There were two humans working behind the counter, Stormy put his hooves on top of it to make it easier to order. “Excuse me.” He interrupted politely into their conversation. “What are these?” The pegasus asked, pointing to the unusual food in the display. 
“Sushi. It’s from Japan.” The male informed. He was dressed in white with short black hair and olive skin. “Basically rice and seaweed wrapped around some other filling like fish or avocado.”
Stormy didn’t know what to order. It did look good; one even had pieces of cucumber sticking out. His mouth began to water. It didn’t look like a lot of food, but grains could be pretty filling. “I would like that cucumber roll, and…” The pegasus looked at the display, unsure of what else to order. “What would you recommend?”
“Personally?” He asked. “I love the spam musubi. It may be a bit outside your usual fare,” The worker sounded unsure, but was trying to sell something. “If you like, I can wrangle up a sample for you. This stuff sells out so fast.”
The offer did sound good, although he had no idea what spam was, surely the human knew what he was doing, his job was to make food after all. 
“NO!” The other human yelled. “What kind of idiot are you?!” He demanded. The new human wore nothing but white with a strange hat on his head with weird squiggles on it. “Why don’t you take your break now and we can discuss this when you get back.” Even to the pegasus that was not actually a request.
The first human looked offended but took off his apron and set it on the counter before walking off.
The second human came over. “Sorry ‘bout that.” He apologized. “Name’s Takeuchi, nice ta meetcha. You won’t be wantin’ the musubi. It’s meat.”
Stormy’s stomach flipped. He wouldn’t have been afraid of trying it later, but the human had basically tried tricking the pony into eating it. He suddenly wasn’t hungry, who knew what else the human might have tricked the pony into eating; yet he needed food, it had been about four hours since eating and he wouldn’t get into LA now until 4:30 that evening. 
“Do ponies eat protein?” This new human asked. “Beans? Soy? Things like that?”
“Y-yes. Beans.” Stormy stuttered. He wasn’t the biggest fan, but this human had just saved him from something that undoubtedly would have benefitted his shop and was trying to start a conversation. Something told him to give it a minute more. 
“Sorry. Never had a pony here.” Takeuchi admitted. “You can eat cooked food?”
“Yes.” Stormy replied. Why is he asking these things? 
“Tell ya what.” The food worker started. “Give me six bucks and I’ll letcha have the cucumber roll and an order of inari, it’s basically cooked fermented soy wrapped around rice.” He smiled. Genuinely hoping his customer hadn’t been too offended. 
Stormy took a look at the display and instantly regretted it. The price on the cucumber was eight dollars, even without seeing the price of the inari, it was already a large discount. But what could he do? He would need food and worried that if he declined this person would be hurt. He reluctantly pulled out the requested six dollars using his hoof and gave it to the worker. All ponies could pick up items with their hooves, it was an innate magic, Stormy normally didn’t if it was in his pack because it took more time and he couldn’t always see what he was reaching for. 
Takeuchi took the proffered money and happily handed the pegasus two containers of food which were quickly stored in his bag, he still had one more stop to make. 
Stormy made his way to C-12; he had a delay to check on. A screen had information for several flights. His, Flight 327, was delayed until…2:30! A clock on the same screen informed the pegasus that it was only 11:26. He had a three hour wait in front of him. Good thing he bought some food. But if this happened again, more food might be in order. Stormy headed off to find someplace that sold snacks.
In search of some snacks, he passed a drink shop whose major colors were green and emitted an acrid smell of a chemical he was unfamiliar with. It definitely wasn’t hot chocolate, so he kept walking. If he was going to have something to drink, it would be something that would taste good.
After a few more minutes of searching and passing several more restaurants and waiting areas for passengers, he finally found what he wanted. Books. This delay had been unexpected; Stormy thought those two hours would be needed for more paperwork or other procedures which seemed loved by governments, not forgetting the filing of forms in triplicate. This was also his first chance to read up on humans from a human source.
The small storefront was something called “Hudson News” and seemed to have everything he would need. The first thing he headed for was the newspapers, news should have good information, next would be a book, and then a snack; if he could trust them. 
The far end by the front contained a newspaper stand; it was made of metal and held several different stack of papers. Each one seemed to be from a different area: LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, Daily News, The Sun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and a few others. But there was no Hudson News which seemed odd, maybe they were just a supplier; either that or these were papers they owned and papers were just named by the area they represented. Only one seemed applicable for where he was headed, so the pegasus grabbed an LA Times, holding it with his wing while he shopped for other supplies.
The human at the counter was the palest Stormy had seen yet, with several freckles and shaggy dull orange hair, she was tall and lanky. The clerk seemed to ignore the pegasus, only looking back at him from time to time as he wandered looking for food. 
Stormy had no trouble finding the food on the opposite end of the store; it was all in bags so he could see what they looked like. The first food he recognized was a bag of dried pineapple. The mustard yellow pegasus was used to fresh fruit, but they could be eaten dried in a pinch, or if away from fresh items which was what this one seemed for. The next food he noticed were the nuts, he didn’t know which ones to go with though and had yet to figure out conversion rates enough to truly grasp how prices would translate. The pegasus just grabbed a bag of pineapple, a bag of cashews, and a bag of something called red vines to try something new hoping it was some kind of foliage; an item this place was severely lacking.
With the paper under his wing and three bags of food carried in his left hoof, Stormy ambled his way to the counter, which was taller than the others he had been forced to use. After a moment, the pegasus was able to get the leverage and a hoof to see over it. Using his muzzle, he put each bag separately on the counter then lowered it under his wing to pull out the paper. He caught a glimpse of a bottle that required biting down to sip its contents, it looked perfectly designed for a pony so it was added to his small pile of consumables.
After setting his last item on the counter Stormy had a question for something he couldn’t do himself. “What book do you recommend?” The pony had noticed the wall of brightly colored tomes, each designed to get a reader’s attention in the hopes they would buy it. Stormy would have loved to, but knowing nothing about human standards he would have to rely on the clerk’s opinion or spend hours trying to find the proper book.
The human took a step back, the nametag on his blue apron claiming his name was Bobby. He knit his brows in confusion for a bit before answering. “Well, that would depend on your criteria. Are you looking for something dramatic and heart rending? Or something with a little more action?” The clerk said, head still mulling over the problem. “I don’t think we stock anything publish in Equestria though; only what tends to be popular en masse.”
“Action.” Stormy said quickly, he had been a fan of action series. He had read Daring Do, even if it wasn’t his favorite. Her missions into the Griffon Kingdoms were probably the best in the series. Where the intrepid hero had to work with a griffon to thwart Ahuizotl in pursuit of the Battle Helm of the Lunar Princess, an artifact from before ponykind that was supposed to have the power to illuminate that which could not be seen. 
“I would recommend this book,” Bobby walked from around the counter and grabbed a black clad book that carried a golden emblem off the shelf. “It’s one of the more popular books we have with the third movie coming out next week. It may be a bit violent though.” He winced, clearly unsure what was standard for pony fiction.
Stormy thought about it for a moment. He really needed to get a grasp on human culture, and this may be his best chance. Ignoring the clerk’s warning he nodded. “That’s fine.”
Bobby looked unsure, but he took the book to the counter. He started ringing the stuff up, taking a look at the headlines of the paper as he rang it up. When he came to the book though, he stopped. “Are you sure? It can be a bit…” He paused to figure out how best to phrase his qualms. “Violent.”
Stormy was happy this human was so kind, but action books tended to be violent, most heroes had to fight the villain to claim his prize. And no matter how badly a villain was beaten, they always came back. “I’m sure. How bad can the ‘Hunger Games’ be?” He asked.
Bobby rang it up and told Stormy the total which was quickly paid.
Stormy put his purchase into his saddlebags and headed off to his concourse. He had a long day so far and couldn’t wait to dig into lunch.