Chapter II
"--IIIIIIIIIIITCCCCCCHHHHH!"
After the metallic shine of the mirror, suddenly, Connor's body felt like it was traveling at blinding speed, stretching his entire body like a noodle. Everywhere his rushed and pressured eyes looked, there were bushels of shifting colors and lights. His brain was pressed hard against the inside of his skull, only this time, it was much harder than what a regular super roller coaster could do. And speaking of roller coasters, he also noticed he was spinning in wide, circular corkscrews.
However, the rush he was enduring only lasted for less than ten seconds. He noticed that above his head, a bright light shined onto him as he plummeted head-first toward it. He felt his eyes water from its brightness, which grew stronger the nearer he got.
Then, suddenly, it all became silent and dark as soon as the apex of the brightness had been passed.
And it was quiet.
He couldn't feel himself anymore. He felt as if all his limbs were floating, numb and lifeless. Hell, he couldn't even see his own limbs. Everywhere he looked, it was black and thick like peanut butter.
He wanted to panic, but his lungs didn't allow it. Even if he did scream, he couldn't hear it.
He was deaf, dumb, and blind. All of his body had shut off.
"...Hey..."
He felt his ears twitch as if something had given them life. He smiled. So he wasn't alone after all.
He wanted to shout back, but all he could summon was a muffled groan, not even louder than a snap of a finger.
"...Helloooo?..."
Now, Connor was getting antsy. He wanted to respond but once again, he could only groan like a hungover drunk. There was no way that he could communicate with the ethereal voice in the distance. He began to lose hope.
"You okay?"
Suddenly, he felt something lay upon his back, shaking him. At the same time, he noticed a bright, horizontal light appear in his sight. His eyelids felt really heavy.
"Did you miss your coffee run or something? Come on, dude..." the voice said in a rising tone of caution.
Then, the horizon line opened up completely, unveiling a patch of greenish grass with brown leaves scattered lightly on top of it. Suddenly, a foot stepped into his sight, clad in...
...Jeans?
...Sneakers, too?
"Unnnnngh," Connor mumbled, planting his forelegs into the grass to push himself up.
"Whup! There he goes," the voice exclaimed, chuckling a bit. "He's awake now. He really must've forgotten his coffee or whatever he drinks where he's from."
"Ugh," the stallion muttered. "Where... where am I? Agh, my head..."
The stallion lifted his hand to stroke his fore--.
"WAH!!" he shouted, yanking his most familiar and long-lost appendage to his eyesight. "I... I have hands! I have hands again! Then... Then, that means--!"
Then, he pawed all over his body, his face, and his legs. He had no muzzle. He didn't have hooves anymore. His ears were on the sides of his head. He had skin. He had no tail. He was wearing a white T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.
"I... I'm human..." he mumbled, stunned. "I... I must be dreaming again. NO, I WON'T TAKE CHEMISTRY AGAIN! SCREW OFF, FAKE MOTHER!"
Then, whipping his hand behind himself, he pinched his buttocks fiercely, making him yelp. Then, opening his eyes again, his human features were still right where he saw them.
"I... I'm NOT dreaming!..." he gasped, elated. "This... This is real! I'm a human again! I'm human! WHOOOOO! Hell, yeah! How I have missed being like this!"
Although he was excited for being his former self again, something in the air did not settle with him. He felt a lot of invisible harpoons puncture him in all directions, in every pore in his body.
Then, his ears picked up the sound of whispering, slithering all around him.
Looking blankly up from his hands, he looked up to see a small crowd of teenagers staring directly at him. He flinched in surprise, scrambling back an inch, feeling the sudden wave of intimidation slither into him.
Also, something else was irking him. Squinting, he noticed that these weren't normal teenagers. They shared similar features like him, but...
...Their skin??
Their skin was in different colors. A girl standing near him had lavender skin, covering her from head to toe. Another girl had lime-green skin. The punk rock guy standing behind the rest had pale grey skin.
"What the hellll?" he mumbled quietly to himself. "Ohhhh, my God, I'm surrounded by aliens..."
"What is all the commotion here?" said a loud, firm, yet feminine voice, which sounded very familiar.
Then, out from the crowd, a woman half a head taller than the rest marched into the center sac of the ring. Her skin was light blue as a baby's bib and she had long, wavy, blue and periwinkle hair that fell to her buttocks. She was wearing navy-blue pants and a pink blouse with a white collar that wrapped around the front of her neck and buttoned to the side. On the collar was a navy blue silhouette of a half moon. Her cyan eyes flashed at him as soon as she stopped in front of him.
Connor squinted at her. She looked very familiar... Was that...?
You, student..." she spoke, placing her hands firmly on her hips like she was a warden at a prison. She held her clipboard gripped in her hand while she did so. "What are you doing, sprawling on top of the grass like that?"
"Er..." he trailed off, looking around at his surroundings. Everywhere he looked, he saw eyes, staring intently at him, watching his every move.
"Wait... Student?" he asked. "Student of what?"
Suddenly, a ring of giggles and snickers sounded around him, which made him concerned and a little insecure. What was he missing?
The woman shot up an eyebrow at his rather stupid question. "Student of Canterlot High School, of course. What is your name?"
"I'm... I'm Connor Powell," he gingerly responded, hoping that he wasn't saying anything that would get him into further embarrassment or trouble.
"Connorrrrr Powell," she repeated his name. The way it escaped her mouth made it sound like his name sounded rather strange to her. "Is there a reason why you're distracting these students from their work just to check on you?"
From the moment, he froze.
The reason? Because he was kicked in here by real asshole of a bunny Fluttershy called a pet.
I'm not supposed to be here, he thought to himself. I was brought in here against my will. If I stay here any longer, it'll make Twilight's quest to get her crown back impossible. Plus, that woman said I was a student of that high school? Oh, no...
"Oh, er, nothing!" he said, jumping onto his feet, brushing dust and grass bits off of him. "I... I was just, er... sleepwalking last night and I just happened to end up stopping here. Sorry to bother you, ma'am, and, er, your classmates. Sorry, everypony..."
A voice from the crowd chirped loudly from the silence, "Did he just say, everypony??"
"Oh, my gosh, he did!" another voice squawked.
Then, the giggling and snickers heightened in volume, louder than their previous.
"Dammit, I meant, everybody! Everybody. Sorry, everybody! Anyhoo, gottagobyebye!"
He turned to leave until a hand clasped over his wrist, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Ohhhh, no, Mr. Powell." The blue-skinned woman pulled him back before she lifted her other arm to show him the clipboard. "You're not going anywhere. You're the new foreign exchange student who transferred here, yes? I believe you have class to attend to, and you're exceptionally late, to add onto that."
"Wow! The foreign exchange student you speak of is 'Connor Powell', too??" he gasped, feigning elation. "Holy shit, what a coincidence! However, my first name is spelled with only one 'n'."
"First of all, you and I both know that is a rather ridiculous and poorly executed lie; second of all, do you realize who you are speaking to? I suggest you watch your language while you're talking to me or your superiors. Otherwise, that would mean detention. Now, come along, Mr. Powell, you've got class to do," she said bemusedly before turning around, walking back to the school.
His face had been drained of all warmth and blood, and Connor planted his foot into the ground so he could launch himself in the other direction, but the woman had a strong grip, making him fall back down onto his rump and be dragged over the concrete walk.
"No! Please don't take me in there! I can't go back!!" he shouted. "I graduated!"
"You'll the full right to say that when you actually do graduate. Come along," she said bemusedly still.
Connor could see a crowd of laughing teenagers shrink into the distance as he was being dragged away from the portal and up the stairs. He kicked his heels into the ground frantically, trying to find some way to resist, but alas, the woman had the strength of a bear.
"No!! I can't go back to high school! I don't want to take chemistry again!!"
"Watch it, young man," she cautioned, pulling the door to the school open. "Don't make me take you to the principal regarding this unruly behavior."
"No! No!! NO!!"
Oh, God! The air that leaked out from the building! It reeked of pencils, erasers, old book pages, and cheap floor cleaner. It was getting stronger as he neared the passage.
"NO!!"
"I'm warning you!" she said as she walked inside.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
----------
"Pleasekillmepleasekillmepleasekillmepleasekillmepleasekillmepleasekillmepleasekillmeplease--..."
"Maybe you should mumble a bit more silently?" The woman shot him a disapproving glare, standing behind him.
Not only did he manage to walk right back into school, but he also got a trip to the principal's office under one stinking day.
Just peachy...
He sat morbidly on one of the two chairs that were placed side-by-side, both facing the large, wide desk that was placed in the near rear middle of the room. Even though the seats were clad with memory foam seat cushions, making it comfortable to sit on, it was not enough to quell Connor's foul mood. Off from the glossy surface of the desk, he saw a reflection of the school crest that was imprinted on the opposite side of the room on the wall over the desk. It read in a royal, storybook-ish, formal text, "Canterlot High Wondercolts," with a indecipherable Latin phrase underneath it.
The only sounds he heard in the room were the ticking of the clock hanging on the wall and the woman's finger tapping on her bicep due to having her arms crossed.
He felt as if he so much as tried to turn around to look at the woman behind him, he would have his brains shot out with a shotgun. His lips ached to say something reasonable to her, but after witnessing the strength she wielded to drag him into the school and the fact that she bore a disarming glare, it would be best to keep silent.
Hopefully, the principal was more willing to listen to his side of the story.
His stomach flipped the moment he heard the sound of footsteps approach the door that was behind him and the woman. After the click of the doorknob, the door was pushed open.
"Oh, Luna!" a feminine voice exclaimed, surprised yet with a tone of professionalism at the same time. "What brings you here?"
Connor nearly choked on his own saliva.
"L.... Luna??" he whispered.
"I know this visit is rather unexpected," yours truly responded to the voice. "But I have someone for you who I believe might need a little talking to."
The tremor that traveled through the wood of the chair notified Connor that Luna had placed a hand on top of the backrest of the chair. He never dared to look past his shoulder to see what was going on behind him.
"What's the situation?"
"This student here was outside, sprawling on the front lawn, distracting the students from their work. At the same time, he stubbornly and rather drastically insists that he currently isn't attending Canterlot High, even the roster clearly says that he is."
"Uh-huhhhh..."
Connor swore that his ears were playing tricks on him.
That voice...
Was it...? No, it couldn't be...
Then, the mysterious woman walked past him from behind, approaching the seat behind the large desk. It wore grape-colored pants with a khaki brown blazer. Long, wavy hair with colors of pink, grayish purple, lime green, and baby blue hung down to the middle of her thighs.
Then, the woman turned to face him as she lowered herself onto her chair, revealing a elegant face with purple eyes, lip-gloss of a shade darker than her lips, and pinkish white skin.
Connor's jaw dropped.
"Is there a reason for these actions?" she quizzed, folding her hands in a professional manner.
"Princess Celestia?!" he exclaimed, bereft of composure. "Is that you??"
Now, it was the women's turn to be surprised. The white woman's eyes widened in confusion as well as surprise.
"I beg your pardon?" she slowly asked.
Suddenly, Luna's hands clamped roughly down on top on Connor's backrest.
"Enough with your nonsense!" she barked, appalled by his attitude. "And stay your outbursts! Where are your manners?? You will address her as 'Principal Celestia' or 'Miss--'!"
"Wh--! D'er--! Bluh--!" he sputtered uncontrollably. "'Principal' Celestia?? Principal?? You're kidding me! 'Principal'? This is how it's going to go?? You've gotta be freaking--!"
"Is there a problem with me being a principal...?" she asked softly, staring at him with disapproval.
Then, the room was filled with only the sound of the clock again.
Luna was screaming profanities in her mind with her head bowed, pressing the bridge of her nose firmly with her thumb and index finger.
Connor froze midway in his emerging rant as he met his eyes with Celestia's, whose disarming glare was urging him to think carefully of what he was going to say next.
Oh, shit! Ohshitohshitohshit! he screamed in his mind. I said too much! No, I can't! I can't put myself deeper in trouble than I already am! I gotta say something to change her mind! Think, dammit! Think, think, think!
"UuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhNO! No!" he said, sitting fully back onto his seat. "Noooooo, of course not! I'm impressed, actually! I mean, it's not every day you see a strong, good-looking lady to lay down the rules in a school like this! Wow, you're looking good! How do you do it, keeping this school in tip-top shape and look pretty and charming at the same time? What's your secret? I mean, I, uh-- Whoo! Is it hot in here? Or is it just you? Heh heh..."
Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick.. Tick...
A nervous grin cracked across his lips as she continued to stare at him, only with a more surprised and flustered look instead of menacing and stern.
As was Luna.
Ohhhh, shit, I'm dead...
Then, the principal cracked a smile.
"Well," she spoke in a more pleasant voice. "I'm glad you feel that way. I was beginning to think that you did have a problem with it."
"Nope, there isn't!" he smiled, stifling a sigh of relief.
Luna sighed, deeply relieved that things didn't get out of hand sooner than she thought.
"So," Principal Celestia began, pulling out a file from one of her drawers. "Back to the case, is there a reason for all the behavior you displayed back at the front lawn earlier?"
Her voice had changed immediately from her pleasant tone to her more serious tone, reminding him that she was not a fool enough to immediately forget the reason why he was brought before her.
"Well... I... I graduated!" he said, not knowing what else to say. "I graduated from high school about a year ago back where I'm from. I shouldn't be here taking high school again."
"Well, according to your records, Mr..." she trailed off, subliminally asking for his name.
"Er, Powell. Connor Powell."
"Mr. Powell," she nodded. "According to your records, it says here that back at your school, you were struck by lightning during a thunderstorm, which put you in a coma that lasted about... two months. Wow... Because of those two months you missed at school, your amount of credit in order to graduate was unsatisfactory, and the amount needed was too great to be retrieved in one quarter of school."
Hearing this, Connor heaved a great sigh of defeat and despair, resting his head back onto the backrest of the chair.
"I know this sounds unfair and unpleasant for you, but you don't need to worry. All it is is just taking one more year of high school. It's not like we're asking you to retake the entire high school curriculum. Our school system here is more flexible that way."
"Oh... Well... That makes sense, I guess," he said solemnly, appreciative that she was making an effort to make the situation feel more pleasant than it was.
"Besides, you're very fortunate that your parents decided to send you here to Canterlot High. Canterlot High provides lot of benefits and promises to its students to prepare them for the next step in their lives. With our diverse set of programs, we guarantee you will have everything you need to aid you in your studies. Also, the students who attend here are well open-minded and adaptive, so you'll have a great chance in making a lot of friends here. So, your situation is mostly a win. Don't worry, I think you'll do just fine here," she concluded with an encouraging grin.
"Well, if you say so..." he said with a shrug. "All right. I'll give this place a chance."
"That's the spirit," Celestia smiled, folding her hands together. "Welcome to Canterlot High, Connor Powell. You can leave now. In about a minute, there will be a fifteen-minute break time before class starts again. Your class will be in room 301. If you need anything else, my door is always open."
"Thank you. Prince--Er, Principal Celestia," he said, feeling slightly better due to her hospitable attitude.
After lifting himself off of the chair, he turned to the door and opened it. When he made it past the doorway, he closed it slowly, so he could part with dignity.
Celestia still sat at her desk, flipping through his files.
"Luna." She turned to her sister. "He's the new foreign exchange student, right?"
"Indeed," she responded plainly.
"Which country did he transfer from, exactly?"
The vice-principal shrugged. "My memory fails me, but it is said that he came from this certain country called..." She paused to think. "...America? I've never heard of it in my life."
"Really? Well, wherever he's from, I sure do like his customs," she smiled.
He said I was hot, she blushed. You sure don't hear people say that to you everyday. I wish him the best of luck.
----------
"Ugh... No way in hell am I going to do that..." he said to himself to the moment he left the office. "No way I'm going to stay here for a full year. I don't belong here. I gotta get back to Equestria!"
He whirled around toward the entrance of the school, making his way back to the mirror.
"I don't care how good this school seemingly is," he mumbled as he marched. "I gotta go back. It'll be a whole lot better than--."
Suddenly, a coarse, off-pitch, ear-piercing clattering rang throughout the school halls.
The school bell... Oh, how he remembered that horrid sound.
Then, all of a sudden, the doors in the hallway swung open in unison, pouring out swarms of multicolor-skinned teenagers, who were clamoring in relief that it was break time. A mess of voices, chatter, and laughter filled the now quiet air. If the commotion was not enough, he felt all parts of his body being nudged, pushed, and bumped into, making him feel like a tennis ball among a pack of dogs.
"Whoa! Hey, watch it! Ow! Seriously? You sure those glasses aren't fogged? Watch that backpack!" he grunted left and right.
After two minutes of being shoved around by an oblivious stampede of teenagers, the halls were clear other than the handful of students that decided to sit out and mingle with friends and make some calls. Connor stood out in the middle in the hallway, wincing at the sight before him.
"Ugh... I can't get over how weird they look with that colored skin..." he mumbled to himself. "It's like I'm walking among Laffy Taffy people."
Then, he looked down at his hands.
He sighed in relief, glad to still have his peach-colored skin.
Then, he looked back up to face the stretched and wide hallway.
Could Twilight really have went here out of all places? Was he in the right place? What if the portal had been built to open up to a random world every time somepony passes through it? What if he was in a totally different world than the one she was in? Would that mean that the whole trip was unnecessary and impractical?
"Heads up!!" called a voice from behind him.
"Huh, what?"
Suddenly, something fast had brushed directly past him, missing him by an inch. If his ears served him right, he heard the sound of noisy ball-bearings inside of a wheel.
"Whoa, hey! Watc--..." He froze in shock at what he saw.
Rolling away from him was a young, orange-skinned girl riding on top of a scooter. From what he saw underneath the bicycle helmet she was wearing, he saw strands of short, purple-pinkish hair. She was also wearing a black hoodie with a teal green shirt underneath, along with black leather boots with teal socks, and olive green cargo shorts.
"What? I said, 'Heads up', dude!" she called as she rolled away.
"What the--??" he muttered before something bumped into him from behind.
"Oof!" a voice yelped, nearly falling over.
Connor whirled around to see another young girl, who was just as tall and probably the same age as the girl on the scooter. Her skin was a faint bright yellow and she had long hair as red as apples, ornate with a hot pink bow on the back of her scalp. She was wearing a lime-green shirt with jeans and brown shoes, which was rather simple attire.
"Oh, sorry, mister! Ah was jus' catchin' up with her. Ah didn't see ya there." she said, chuckling apologetically. "Mah bad!"
And with that, she ran off after the girl on the scooter.
"Wait up, Scootaloo! We can't keep up with ya!" she called.
"Yeah, wait up!" yet another young voice called as it ran past him.
The one who ran past him was just as tall as the other two girls, and she had white skin with long, flowing locks of pink and periwinkle hair, which had a hot pink head band on top of her scalp. She had a raspberry-colored button shirt that hung low to the middle of her thighs with a white and pink baby doll shirt underneath it. She used a purple belt to keep her long shirt tight around her hips. She also wore a long, butter-yellow shirt that ran down to the top of her kneecaps, and she wore hot pink boots.
"Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, I live to be fast!" the scooter girl called from a distance. "No can do!"
Then, after whipping around the corner into the main lobby, they left Connor in the hall, mouth agape.
"Th... The..." he stammered. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders... They're here, too?? That's... That's impossible! First, Luna, then Celestia, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle..."
"...Is this...?"
He gulped, slowly looking behind himself to view the small patches of students that still roamed the halls.
The first to waltz into his eyesight was a teenage girl with creme-colored skin, and long, curly, navy blue and pink hair. She wore a yellow dress with lace at the edges of her sleeves and skirt. She walked up to one of the benches that was placed in the hallway and noticed her friend with bright, sea green skin and a blue-green, jagged, feathered hair with white streaks. She was wearing white capris, desert sand chucks that went up to the middle of her shins and a bright blue shirt.
"Ugh, Lyra..." the creme-colored girl sighed in exasperation, grasping the bridge of her nose with her finger and thumb. "Why are you sitting on the bench like that? You look like a dog."
"What?" the other shrugged. "It's comfortable! Don't hate it until you try it, Bon-Bon."
From then on, Connor's eyes widened even more than before. Everywhere he looked, he saw ethereal images of familiar pony faces floating around the teenagers that most represented him or her.
"Oh, my God..." he whispered.
"This is Equestria... I'm still in Equestria."
To be continued...