//------------------------------//
// Departure 
// Story: School Days 
// by Dai Kirai 
//------------------------------//

	THA-THUMP!
Stormy felt his body lift up off the seat before coming back down and shoving his head forward as the bus slammed on it’s brakes.
“Dear Sweet Celestia! What the buck!” Stormy yelled as his face met the back of the seat in front of him. He rubbed his muzzle and looked around, face flushing as he saw the people staring at him. The pegasus rearranged his wings, realizing they had flared when his body thought it was falling.
He looked to the woman sitting on his right who spat a feather out of her mouth and had a small wet spot on her shoulder. Stormy realized he had fallen asleep on her shoulder. “Sorry.” He mumbled and stared at the ground. Hearing the local bookworm holding back a laugh. The pony glared at Ed who never pulled his face away from the book. There were several feathers on the ground.
The lady looked at him then turned away and looked out the window. Stormy couldn’t read if she was mad, thought it was funny, or annoyed so he stayed quiet. “Wish I could just fly there.” He muttered, hoping no one heard him. 
At the same time he didn’t want to go home, didn’t want to deal with his parents, or even his brother. He wanted to go back to being alone and just doing his job. That’s not an option anymore. He reminded himself. He needed to go by the library to check out some books on Earth, get a final health screening, and thank a guard for their help one last time. 
The pony felt a tapping on his shoulder. “What gate are you supposed to get off at?” Edward asked, pointed outside where the sign for American Airlines sat.
Stormy closed his eyes, trying to remember, he knew it was the same gate he arrived at. “Six. Gate six.” He said after fighting with his memory. 
“The one we just passed?”
Stormy jerked to look out the window, the bus was pulling over at gate seven; he grabbed the saddlebag and ran for the exit, prancing behind someone else who stepped down slowly from the van. He trotted for a bit still woozy from his short nap; he looked at his watch to see how much time he had before his flight. It was currently 8:29pm and his flight was at . . . the pegasus scrounged through his saddlebags, ignoring the books and pulled out his boarding pass . . . 9:15pm. 
Stormy Skies thought back to his pre-trip warning, that he needed to be at the airport two hours before his scheduled flight. There was screenings and finding the gate among other things. The pegasus sped up, running through the sparse humans, weaving through and glad this was concrete and not that slippery material inside, as his hoofs got traction allowing his rear to twist and make sharper turns without the use of his wings. He hadn’t planned on this, it never would have occurred to him the huge spaces involved on Earth, he thought with his orientation ending at 5:30 that four hours would be plenty of time. 
His head scanned up for the sign stating Alaska Airlines, but with the tall people around he might as well have been in a forest with the sign being the stars hidden behind their leaves. He thought about it though, the only thing they had done at the first airport was give him his ticket, technically he already had that, and from there it had a gate number he could follow. 
Stormy took the first door into the airport he could find and followed the signs and the people with bags for the security checkpoint. Unfortunately he forgot about the change of flooring materials and with his first shift weight his feet flew out from under the pegasus. He pawed at the floor, trying to stop before he knocked someone over, humans weren’t as stable as a pony and with their height were probably easily damaged. 
Stormy was going to try to roll onto his stomach and use his wings to fly up, thus stopping his forward momentum. The non-frictionless material of the floor did that for him though as he slowly stopped, still turning about. Just lying there, the pegasus got his bearing before standing, he had never been good with the whirl-a-tron, hence why he never worked on bringing up water to Cloudsdale. 
Slowly getting back to his hooves, Stormy walked delicately to the security station, amazed at the line as it curled and twisted with at least fifty people in line. Where did they all come from? This is more than was outside. The line wasn’t fast either, he had met tortoises that moved quicker. 
After what felt like an eternity it was finally his turn and was waved forward. Stormy placed his saddlebags in the grey container to pass through the grey box and stepped up to a weird cylinder. The two uniformed guards on the other side of the tube, something the pony still didn’t understand as there seemed to be so many uniforms for the same job, mimed what they wanted him to do. Stormy shifted his weight and raised onto his rear hooves, arms outstretched and the tube whirred around him. 
The guard behind the desk and the one next to the tube gave each other obscure looks as the pony was waved out and to the side. “The x-ray had some strange readings, we need to check you as a precaution. 
Stormy stood there as the guard moved his white gloved hands down the haunch then through the pegasus’ feather. The pony saw another guard going through his bag, stopping short as she lifted up the book he was reading before putting it back in.
Stormy was not comfortable, not only was this taking much longer than it had before, the guard wasn’t the most gentle and touched more than one sensitive area. The pony thought every inch of his body had been run through, suppressing the need to shake, to let his fur fall back into natural position. And then he felt his tail lift, without thinking, or even realizing what was happening, he felt both of his rear legs lash out to buck the human. 
Stormy turned around as quickly as he could, the guard was on his butt and looking shocked. The other guard quickly moved over to help his friend up. The pony could feel all the eyes on him. He was now afraid what would happen, he didn’t mean to buck the human, it had just happened. The guard did not look happy and reached for what had to be a phone on his shoulder. 
The guard’s friend though laid a hand on his shoulder and waved the pony on. Stormy more than happily ran to his gate. More than happy to leave that incident behind him. It took more than a dozen minutes though to find gate C4. The seats around the gate were empty and the door behind the counter was closed. A brown haired woman dressed in blue stood behind the counter typing on a computer. 
“Where is the flight to Washington?” He asked, not even able to see over the counter and not wanting to reach up and leave his stomach exposed. 
The human looked around for a minute before looking down over the counter; she stared for more than a few minutes. “It just left.” The words came out hushed and quiet. The woman continued to stare. 
Luna send me to Tartarus! He cursed. “When is the next flight?”
She shook her head and went back to the computer. “It looks like nine thirty in the morning. Normally it would cost a hundred dollars to change a ticket.”
Stormy’s head dropped, he ran through the numbers of how much money he had brought with him, and that would be the last of it, even now, with watching his money, it vanished quicker than a cloud in a tornado. 
“I guess I could use a workaround for employees.” She kept glancing at the pony. 
Stormy jumped. “Really? Thank you.” He enthused, humans really were great creatures. How do they have such bad reputations at home?
“Would I be able to get a picture with you first?” The lady beamed, eyes alight with joy.
His heart fell a little, not that it showed on his face. A favor for a favor wasn’t a big thing, he just remembered earlier in the day when that one had snuck a kiss on him. He didn’t have much of a choice though. “Ok.”
The woman came around from behind the counter, he finally saw her name as Annette who quickly hugged him and pulled out her phone to snap a picture. She then returned to her station and within seconds handed the pony a new ticket and then started doing something with her phone. “Just remember there aren’t any food places open between midnight and four.” She said as Stormy walked away, still intent on her phone.
Stormy felt eyes on him as he walked, and several more flashes. He began to feel even more self-conscious. He never liked being in public or under scrutiny, it would inevitably lead to the comparisons with his brother. 
Stormy wandered around for a while, passing by more than one place for food as none of it looked appetizing. Eventually he found a bunch of chairs all looking at a screen, a woman in a red suit looked straight into the camera. He followed the news anchor as she shifted in her chair, the cameras always looked right into her face though, which even he could tell was covered in something fake. Words crawled along the bottom of the screen, he just barely made out “Equestria” before it was gone.
“We have an update on the incident in the Heibe province of Eastern China.” Stormy didn’t know how the person had memorized all these lines or if she just read up on it. “Smoke Stack, one of the pegasi hired by the Chinese President to help clean up the smog, has been moved from critical to serious condition tonight.”
“Video has surfaced of the incident Friday afternoon where Smoke Stack was beaten in public by a mob after kissing a local woman. We warn you that this video is not recommended for sensitive viewers.”
The screen switched to a grey stallion talking with a young human girl, she was holding his wing. A sign Stormy knew of a serious relationship and trust. She bent down as he fluttered up and kissed her on the lips. There was yelling and within moments the pony was surrounded by a mass of humans, the girl was tearing at one of the attackers only to get shoved away. 
Other bystanders soon came and tried to help. Two Royal Guard unicorns teleported in at the same time several men in green uniforms accented with red ran up and started to subdue the mob. A hole opened in the crowd as the two sides started at each other and some ran off. The woman darted in while she had the chance and covered the pony’s body with her own. 
Stormy felt physically ill, he couldn’t even think. He looked at the humans around him, wondering what he might do that would insult them and cause such a reaction. The pegasus shuffled his wings and swallowed hard. He could only imagine the reaction back home. That wasn’t his only problem though, Smoke Stack had been a classmate and coworker who had loved cleaning up after fires and fixing the environment. That pegasus had always been a bit weird but always fun, trying to get other ponies involved with more than just clouds. 
“The identity of the woman in this video is still unidentified.”
“This incident comes on the heel of Princess Luna’s visit to Beijing to discuss trade negotiations with President Huang. Princess Celestia is expected to make a speech from New York in a couple of hours.”
“What is your take on this Jeremy?” The camera zoomed out and an elderly gentleman with thin hair and a pouty expression appeared. 
“Thank you Jenny.” He nodded to the woman. “This makes things more complicated. The trade agreement was not expected to go through as the Equestrian government has stated that it refuses to trade with any country that does not pass laws for the equitable and fair treatment of its citizens. But this shows the tensions that still exist.”
“An action group at UC Berkeley, a place famous for its activists has already promised a campus wide protest for tomorrow to fight what they call the unethical treatment of Equestrians at their school by having different graduating requirements based off of race. While places like Egypt and Iran are calling for their complete removal from the planet by any means necessary.”
“How long do you think this mentality will last? They have helped with several natural disasters.”
“It may last for decades. Look at how long humans have been distrustful of each other. And these are aliens, it will take more time for humans to trust such strange creatures. And incidents like todays grade fixing scandal out of MIT would only make it worse.” A symbol with the same letters popped up on the screen.
“You mean where the faculty artificially elevated a pony’s grades to keep her in good standing?”
“Exactly. This is still a delicate and complicated situation. The number of visitors to either world is still strictly regulated by total population.” The image of a school was replaced by a graph with squiggly lines. “There are roughly two hundred visitors from Equus on Earth at any given moment; most of them in schools or private contractors for specialized kinds of work. But those visas are incredibly rare, and not restricted to Celestia’s subjects.” 
“It is no different on their end with maybe seventy five humans on their side at any given time. Diplomats, archeologists, scientists, diplomats and such.”
“Why so few? There must be more that could be supported.”
“Because Jenny, there are still quite a few safety guidelines and concerns. Especially for long term contact.”
“Thank you for your time Jeremy.” The image shifted back to just the woman. “And now to sports. The Santiago Sharks won their third game this season against…”
And just like that, without even blinking the woman had changed topics, as if nothing had happened. Stormy felt tired, he felt unsafe as small alien eyes watched him. Looking up he saw rafters plenty large for a pony to take a nap on as he stifled a yawn. He didn’t feel like sleeping near these people, he didn’t feel they could all be trusted. 
The pony heard some speaking behind him. “They ain’t to be trusted. Look at all those requirements just to offer some trade. They aren’t as helpful as they seem, what have they done for the little man?”
Stormy barely heard this as he flew up to the rafters. Looking down he saw several people stare at him. The pony took this time to walk over to a different area, someplace people hadn’t seen him fly to.
The pony finally stopped after several minutes, when no more humans seemed to be tracking him. No longer was Stormy tired, instead he was worried and confused. How could the people who had been so nice to him be related to the ones who hospitalized a pony for kissing someone? It made no sense, the two were polar opposites. Then he realized not once had they talked about the people responsible, never on any of the news had they discussed potential punishment for any of the incidents. 
He was no longer tired, as least not enough to go to sleep. For a while he sat and stared at the ground, watching people milling about and talking. It didn’t help his mood though as he wondered which were the volatile and which were the helpful. Again, he questioned the wisdom of his decision, dreading the comments when he returned to Equestria. 
His body built up energy from the stress and all he wanted to do was go for a fly, something that was not an option, not with the only air space already taken and him not wanting to be seen for a while. So despite hesitating, Stormy reached back into his bag for the book, blanching at the thought but at a loss for anything else to do. 
The air was uncomfortable though. For some reason the building was getting warmer as the night went on and more humid. Do they want summer showers in here? If they don’t remove this water that’s just what they will get. He remembered when a classmate had tried bringing a cloud inside for a nap and one thing led to another with the classroom getting flooded.
Reaching into his bag he noticed an unfamiliar blue shape next to the black of his book. “Spark Notes: The Hunger Games.” A Small piece off green stuck out from one of the pages, Stormy pulled it open. A ten dollar bill had been used as a bookmark, a small piece of paper on the same page.

For if you get confused reading “Hunger Games.” This will tell you the basics of what it is.

Good Luck.

There was no name, but it was obvious who it was from, which only made Stormy more confused. So he settled down with his other book and the bottle of water, hoping morning would come soon.