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// Assembly - Action Figures 
// Story: Tonari no Pinkie-kun! Another Master of Killing Time 
// by Takarashi282 
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Oh, gosh... I never really figured that I would be in such an area... with so... many... ponies... eep! I dislike this company. I don't want to, I don't want to, Idon'twanttoIdon'twanttoIdon'twanttoIdon'twantto... Oh, no, is this what a panic attack feels like? Oh my gosh, I'm having a panic attack. In public. In front of everypony. I can't. Nope. Never.

T-the gym is relatively big, enough to fit all the students, barely. Oh, my... I feel like I'm being squished by the girls right next to me, one of them with a lavender coat, wings and horn... one of them with a rainbow mane and cyan coat... in front of me, a pink, messy-maned one... behind me, a rather elegant-looking one right by one who is the exact opposite. 

I stick my head in my hooves. It will all be over soon, it will all be over soon... I repeat again and again in my head, trying to find my happy place. Angel Bunny eating carrots, birds singing all around me, beavers digging into trees, the rushing sounds of the river... ah, yes, I'm there now. So... peaceful.

Then the peace is shattered when the awfully loud sounds of the microphone kick in. I cover my ears, in both panic, and that the microphone was screaming bloody murder, threatening to blow the speakers. I snap open my eyes, but rather being overtaken full in panic, I spotted something... rather cute. In the messy-maned one's hooves, there was an action figure. Not any action figure, though. A cute, small automaton, accompanied by others, a large, burly one a patriarchal figure, and the other curvier, matriarchal figure. 

I manage a "D'aw!" These automatons are a family! How very cute! I cannot take my eyes off them; I don't want to take my eyes off them. The messy-maned mare tosses the kid automaton up in the air ever so slightly and gently. I can almost see a smile on the foal's face... it's just so adorable!

"Fillies and Gentlecolts!" announces a voice after the painful white noise of the microphone subsided. "Welcome to the 1014-1015 year of Canterlot Secondary School! I am your principal, Cheerilee, and I hope you all have had a wonderful first day!"

There was a groan, a giggle, and a grunt all around me. The messy-maned mare sets down the foal automaton, punches a hoof in the air abruptly, woohs, then continues to play with the automaton toy.

I take in a deep breath. I need to pay attention to the presentation, I think. After all, they may disclose useful information during this. I slowly look up and down onto the stadium, the cheerleaders popping out from either side of it. They assume their position in three blocks, one facing us, one center and split, the other facing the other stands. They yell their chants to remixed music, conducted by DJ Pon3 herself. I manage a smile through anxiety. See? This won't be too bad.

About five minutes later, the messy-maned mare is invested in the assembly, leaving her automaton action figures on her lap, upright, holding hooves. I suppress an "Aw!" Not only are they a family, but they love each other so much! I hold my hoof to my heart, twisting back and forth as if I am hugging somepony. It's just too adorable! My heart, my poor heart just can't take it! I lean back in my seat, fantasies of the family running though my head: the parents running the foal to and from school, the dad heading off to work, the mother keeping the house and doing external work of her own. 

But then something really horrible happens! The messy-maned one jumps up out of her seat, and her action figures go flying in front of her. She manages to grab a hold of the mother and the child, but the father flies further into the seating, hitting a poor mare on the head. I gasp, probably louder than I should have. No way! I think. This can't be happening! The family... they... they lost the father! I feel tears well up in my eyes. What will the mother do? What will the foal do? Oh, no, this is bad! It's... it's so sad!

I wipe away tears as, only a moment later, the father is passed back through the waves of students, floating hoof by hoof until it reached the messy-maned mare again. She hugs it in a way I would, close to her chest, tight enough that it could burst. I wipe away another tear, this one of joy, and manage a laugh. The father is back in safe hooves... at last... and now, for some reason, the crowd doesn't at all seem as intimidating as it used to be.