Josh jolted awake to a buzzing noise from the far side of the room. Groaning, he laid back down, zipped up the sleeping bag and pulled the flap inside, but the noise persisted. He opened the burrito and slid off the bed. His feet hit the cold tile floor and his face almost did the same as they slipped out. He shot his foot out before him and caught himself. The bed rested higher off the floor than others, and he curved too much on the way down. Didn’t help that he never took off his socks, though they did keep the cold out.
Now that he was awake, he crossed the room and unplugged the charged device, swiped the fingerprint scanner to unlock it, and swiped the red X to turn the alarm off. He noticed the time and nodded. Then he realized needed to pee. Real bad.
Stepping into the hallway, the bathroom door creaked open, Josh froze in place, and Fluttershy walked out. She stopped and stared at him with a smile before realizing he had a full view of the yellow mounds underneath her loose tank top and spun around with a small squeak. Not that it did her much good as it gave him another spectacle to stare at, accentuated by the hem she tried to push down. Despite her full features, he turned away out of respect.
“Uh...good morning, Fluttershy.”
“G-good morning,” she said before jumping into her room and almost slamming the door.
Urgency returned and he shuffled into the bathroom. As he walked in the air was thick with warm, soothing humidity. The door swung inside and stopped on a wall. Opposite this wall was a long counter with a long mirror above it through which he could see the dripping shower, and beside the counter was the object he needed.
Once he finished and washed his hands, he jerked the door open, without letting it hit the wall, and slid out the room on the balls of his feet. He rushed back to his room, sliding across the threshold and grabbing the knob to pivot on his heel and thrust the door closed without slamming it.
He picked the phone back up before sitting down on the bed. Five minutes had passed and he now had nothing to do. He packed his bag the night before and he just needed to put on his jacket and he’d be ready to go.
Then he remembered what Rarity said yesterday. He looked at his current clothing, the same he had on last night, and he couldn’t help but agree that it was bland. All loose and black. He rose from the bed and opened the wardrobe and found the pants he told her about. He swapped the sweatpants with the gray jeans, tucking in his shirt and putting on a Pokemon belt. The mirrors showed his full body from both sides, and now he looked like a dork with his shirt tucked in. Then he saw the black dress shirt with the vertical white stripes.
It is the first day, afterall. Wouldn’t want to start off the year with bad impressions, he thought. He donned it, leaving the top and bottom buttons undone and the shirt untucked. He looked himself up and down, standing straighter than before. It felt tighter than he remembered.
He stuck on his boots and slung his satchel across his shoulders, pocketed his phone, wallet, and a black folding knife with a purple dragon embezzled in it, and exited the room once more. Fluttershy’s door opened as he passed it and she came out wearing a pink, sleeveless shirt, and blue jeans. She had a yellow backpack on covering her wings, the black straps of which seemed to pull her chest together. Despite that, and the way her jeans hugged her lower body, she looked really cute.
Fluttershy frowned and dropped her head, her mane covering her left eye, and said “Um…hi.”
“Hmm? Oh! Sorry, uh, don’t mind me, I’m just lost in thought. It happens a lot, but I’m usually staring at a wall, or computer screen.”
“N-no problem. You look n-nice, by the way.”
“Yeah. You’re looking pretty good as well.”
“T-thank you,” she said, her cheeks growing rosy as a small smile grew on her face. “We should probably get going now.”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, opening the door. “After you.”
She passed through the door in front of him. The backpack had an image of three butterflies on the front pocket with pink wings and blue bodies. He followed her out into the foyer, and they saw Rainbow sitting on the couch. She wore blue jeans over her crossed legs, and she wore a blue jacket with a golden lightning bolt on the zipper and white wings on either side of it underneath her folded arms.
“Good morning, Rainbow.” Fluttershy said with a smile.
“Morning,” she said also with a smile, but it faded when she turned to Josh. “What’s up, human? You’re looking spiffy today.”
“Thanks, where are the others?”
“That’s none of your--” She paused, turned her head down and closed her eyes. “The others went to breakfast, but Rarity’s still in her room. Probably frantically trying to find the perfect pair of shoes for her outfit from her hundreds.”
“I don’t have nearly that many, Rainbow.” Rarity came out of the room just past the couch. She wore a grey pants suit over a black dress shirt. The grey was slightly darker than her coat, but it was made from some sort of metallic fabric that made it look silver when it caught the light. She had a black purse on her right shoulder and a pair of short, black heels with a thick heel. The outfit was slim and… fitting, but the color and fabric almost distracted him from her figure.
“I’ve seen that look before,” Rarity said, making Josh pick his jaw up off the floor. “I thought we left Spike back at home.”
“W-who’s Spike?”
“Spike is a dragon, darling.”
“A dragon?” He pictured a large creature swooping down and torching him to nothing.
“Yes, though he’s barely into his teen stages. He’s had a huge crush on me since he and Twilight moved to Ponyville, but he’s still only as tall as my bustline, and the age difference is just too great! I suspect he’ll be quite handsome when he grows, but I suppose I’ll just have to let Sweetie have him.”
“Yeah, too bad for you, can we eat now? I’m starving!” Rainbow said.
“Yes, we don’t want empty stomachs on our first day.”
They piled into the elevator. Rainbow pushed the button for the first floor and the doors closed. Josh leaned on the bars as he felt the floor drop out beneath him. Rainbow leaned on the wall as well next to the button board, her arms folded across her chest and her head bowed with her eyes closed. Fluttershy stood with her hands held in front of her. Rarity also leaned with her left hand on the rail, her body turned towards him. With her shoes, she stood a couple inches higher than Josh. The light and shadows cast over her and highlighted her features. Her shoulders thrust back, showing off the curve of her back and behind, and pushed out her chest. Her right leg bent, the pants stretched taut over it and defining her thick thigh and calf.
Josh tried to stare at the steel door, but he couldn’t keep himself from glancing at her. After a particularly long look at her, he turned his head down. Despite being about the same color, his outfit dulled in comparison, and not just because of the fabric. He didn’t have a jacket to go with it, it didn’t fit quite right, and just didn’t look as nice. Sure, it looked better than his other outfit, and at least he dressed up at all, but now he knew just how unimpressive it was.
He scoffed under his breath. Here he was, worried about his appearance when he never did before, always wearing the same sweatpants and jacket everyday. He didn’t even like to dress up, and now he’s imagining himself in an Armani suit, with a nice head and face of hair, and looking like the typical badass.
“Is something the matter, dear?”
He snapped out of his stupor to see they had arrived at the ground floor and Rarity held the door open for him.
“Oh, nothing, sorry,” he said, vaulting out the door.
“No worries,” she smiled. “I often get lost in thought myself.”
They walked out the dorm, Josh holding the first door open until Rarity walked into the frame, then pushing off it to grab the next.
“Well thank you! You’re such a gentlecolt.”
Josh grunted and smiled in response. He followed them towards the mess hall, but once again lost himself in his head. He imagined himself in a glossy, black suit stepping out of a black car, he didn’t have much of a preference, with black sunglasses, a light beard and mustache and hair styled like Nightwing’s. The more he thought of it, the more awesome it looked. Most of it only took a bit of money and hopefully he’d be able to grow fuller facial hair. The suit, for one, he could get now.
He came back to reality and focused on the white mare in front of him, a familiar knot growing in his chest. He gave a huff at his reluctance. She wasn’t going to explode from a simple question. He just need a little help. He always needed a little help. He dropped his head and gave another huff, this one louder than the other.
“Is something on your mind, dear?” Rarity asked, making him whip his head up.
“N-nothing!”
“Really? Because you’ve been in a trance back there for quite a while. Is something on your mind?”
“Well, yeah, actually. I was just wondering, what sort of fabric is your outfit made of?”
“Oh, it’s a sort of blend of satin and wool, why do you want to know?”
“I just really like how it looks and I wanted to see if I could get a suit like that.”
“That can be arranged. I have a couple more bolts of it left that I could use.”
“Bolts?”
“Rolls of the fabric, like a spindle, but on a larger scale.”
“Oh, so you made that yourself?”
“Yes I did, as well as many other outfits. That’s why I wore this one.”
“So you could show off your work?”
“Exactly, and judging from all your staring, it catches the eyes quite efficiently.”
Josh’s face flushed as he turned away, “Y-yeah...you do look beautiful.”
“Well aren’t you sweet! You don’t look bad yourself.”
His face grew even redder, “Thanks, but I’m nothing compared to you.”
“Honey, everyone has their own style. It doesn’t matter what I wear, you have to make your outfit work for you, and I’d say you wear it splendidly.”
“I guess.”
“Besides, everypony pales in comparison to me,” she said.
“Hah, yeah, just you wait. I’ll have a black suit exactly like that and you’ll have some competition then.”
She gave him a wide smile, “We will see about that. Oh! Look at this beautiful building!”
They rounded a corner and a massive building sidled into view. The three-story mess hall looked like a scaled down version of the colosseum. They approached it from the north side and saw that the entrance was on the west side facing the rest of the campus, while the other side overlooked a grassy field to the east. Stone gave way to glass from the entrance, and the dome was completely made of glass. The entrance was preceded by a large staircase leading to the second floor. At the top were stone columns holding up the entablature, which was embezzled with a sun figure in one corner, two armour-clad female warriors kneeling back-to-back with shields out front and swords prepared to strike, and a moon in the other corner. Josh recognized the moon as Princess Luna’s cutie mark, something he memorized quickly since he couldn’t stop staring at it as she danced around last night. Anyway, if that was Luna’s cutie mark, then the other one, the sun, was the cutie mark of the other princess, Celestia.
He continued to stare at the embezzlement as they climbed the steps. Rarity’s figure rose in front of his gaze, giving him quite a good view as she ascended. This must be kind of like what you see when looking out the window of an airplane, with the illuminated grey clouds hovering above the city. Then the sun blinded him as the tree next to the stairs dropped from his sight. The one drawback of the window seat. Figures.
They reached the top and glass lined the entryway, with a stone frame which bore the words “Crustum Coliseum.” He knew coliseum meant colosseum, but he never heard crustum before. It brought “Crust” to mind, but the “Crust Colosseum” sounded off for a building.
The first doors opened up to a foyer in which there were five tall arches. Some faculty stood in front of each arch with short lines of students leading to them. The students were handing the faculty some cards, and the mares pulled out their IDs. The cards had their pictures on them, a number, and there was a black bar on the back of them, like a debit card.
“Um, do we need to give these guys our IDs?” Josh asked.
“Yes, they are our meal cards after all.” Rarity said.
“Oh yeah,” he remembered hearing the registration woman say that they keys were also their IDs and meal cards. Which brought up a new, and problematic, memory. “Well then I have a problem, because I never did get my card back from Rainbow.”
“Rainbow!” Fluttershy said, startling everyone. “You told me you’d give it back after the party.”
“Woops, heheh, I forgot about that. Can’t one of you just pay for his meal?”
“We’re only allowed to use the card once per meal. You have to go get it now because we won’t have time for it later,” Rarity said.
“Uhg, fiiine.”
“I’ll go with you,” Josh said.
“Why? Don’t trust me to--”
“Rainbow!” Fluttershy said.
“Alright, alright. Just don’t slow me down, human.”
She and Josh set out back to the dorms, but as they got outside, Rainbow’s wings billowed out and she took to the air, traveling at a high speed. Once he got over his initial surprise, Josh slid his arm through his satchel’s handle, gripped the strap and took off after her, slowing the rate at which their gap grew. He leaned forward, pulled his bag to his back and curled his toes as he stomped along, cutting through the air and increasing his velocity just enough to match her’s. Rainbow looked back at him and smirked, seeing him work so hard for a speed she casually kept up.
It didn’t take long to get back to the dorm at their speed. Rainbow landed and slipped through the entrance and shoved it closed, but he managed to set his foot into the space between before the door locked. Glad he was wearing steel toes, he flung the door open and chugged to the elevator, Rainbow already slipped into the stairwell. The doors opened as he pressed the button and a group of Equines occupied it. He shoved his way inside, the Equines protests lost on his ears, and hit the button for his floor as well as the button to close the doors.
Wheezing like an asthmatic, he leaned on the railing. The familiar metallic taste filled his mouth and his throat burned as he let loose a series of ragged coughs. He managed to regain a regular breathing pattern and posture before the doors opened again with Rainbow standing there. She looked a little flushed, but it was a good kind of flushed and he was certain she felt better than he did.
“Damn you’re slow! You look like you were just swept up by a tornado.” She laughed as he exited the elevator.
“I don’t have wings, nor have I ran like that in years, let alone with this awkward bag and boots,” he said between each pant.
“Whatever dude. Hurry up, I’m starving and you’re taking too long.”
“Get me my key and we’ll be on our way.”
She walked back to her room and quickly went inside. The room was almost identical to his, the only difference being there were clothes strewn about instead of wires. Then Rainbow appeared around the corner and threw the card at him. He managed to catch it, but then blocked Rainbow from moving past him.
“How about you take the elevator this time and I’ll take the stairs.”
“Why?”
“Just want to see if I can beat you in a race.”
As expected, Rainbow burst into laughter. “Are you serious?” she said, doubling over laughing. She spent the next minute trying to calm down.
“You done?”
“So, even after I completely...smoked you...without even trying...you want to do it again?”
“I figured you’d do it anyway, so what’s the problem?”
“I just didn’t think you’d want to be humiliated twice in one morning.”
“Just get into the elevator.”
Josh slipped his arm back through the handle and went to the stairs. When Rainbow entered the elevator he shot into the stairwell and jumped down each flight. Even on the twentieth floor, it only took a couple seconds to reach the bottom. He burst out into the foyer. The elevator door was closed, but he didn’t stop to check it and he slammed the outside door shut behind him.
The wheezing and sore throat returned stronger than before, but he refused to stop. He was going so fast he could barely keep his balance and within a minute he could see the cafeteria. He reached the stairs and took them three at a time. Then a flash of rainbow colors passed him and Rainbow appeared hovering in front of him before touching ground.
“Even with a head start you couldn’t beat me. I applaud you for trying and all, but I really hope you didn’t actually believe you could beat me. That wasn’t even a good workout for me. You humans are always so cocky when you really shouldn’t be.”
She spun on her heels, folded her wings over her back, and whipped her tail from side to side. He bent over, heaving and gasping for breath. Once it even out, he stomped up the next step, lifting him up the last few steps. He slipped in the doors before they closed behind her, trying not to start coughing like a smoker. They went through the line and walked into the main building.
The floor was all white tile that shined in the morning sun streaming from the windows on the east side. The walls were painted a dark purple, serving to absorb the light reflected from the tiles. He and Rainbow parted ways, she going into a line that seemed to be serving vegetarian stuff. There were many other choices for food, and even he found it easy to find something he liked. He got some sausage and eggs, and even managed to find a firm, red apple.
He finished filling a glass with apple juice and noticed a rainbow blur heading up a flight of stairs. He followed fast as he could with an open liquid, and as he climbed he took in the sea of people sitting on the lower floor. He saw men and women of all races, but it was all the dull white to black spectrum of humanity. Reaching the top, he saw the huge circular hole letting see down to the floor below, and all around the second floor were the many colors of the Equines.
Rarity’s reflective suit shined like a beacon in the crowd as she waved him over to the table. He slipped through the crowd and maze of tables and sat between Rarity and the orange one Applejack. As he went down, he let out a barking cough, making his throat burn.
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Twilight said across the table.
“He looks rather pale as well,” Rarity said, “Rainbow, he wasn’t like that before, what did you do to him?”
“I didn’t do anything to him. He’s the one who challenged me to a race when he can’t even run fifty meters without collapsing. It’s not my fault he’s a weakling.”
“Rainbow!” Twilight said.
“I’m fine, Twilight. I just need to eat something and it’ll go away.”
Silence fell on their table as he took his first bite. Looking around, Twilight, Pinkie and Applejack were already finished while Fluttershy and Rarity neared completion as well. They sat at a round, dark blue table with eight white, high-backed chairs. Twilight sat across from him and, going clockwise, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, him, Applejack and Pinkie with the seat next to Twilight empty. They were packed pretty well in the crowd, which made it hard to see around the room.
“So, what’s your class schedule today, Josh?” Twilight asked.
He stopped his fork in mid air, “I don’t have any classes today until Calculus at eleven.”
“Oh, that when Fluttershy, Rarity and I have Calculus too.”
“Really, why would you have to take Calculus?”
“Well, only Twilight really needs it, but we wanted to make sure we had a couple classes together,” Rarity said.
“Alright. At least now I won’t be alone either.”
“That’s good. The rest of us have early classes. How’d you get the morning to yourself?” Twilight asked.
“Well, it just for now. the music class I’m taking is only on Tuesday and Friday mornings until October. Some strange thing where the class is split into two section, but you have to take both.”
“That is strange. Why do you think they’d do that? What are these music classes?”
“Written and Aural Music Theory. It’s probably just staging the learning process. Learn to listen to the music first and know how it all works, then learn to write it with the developed ear.”
“I guess that makes sense, so is Calculus your only class today?”
“No, I have Creative Writing at two thirty, and gym at four.”
“Don’t we all have a gym class at four?”
“Yep, they made all the freshman take some form of P.E.,” Applejack said.
“So we’ll all get to play games together!” Pinkie squeed.
“Yeah, though I think it’s sort of a “do whatever you want” thing. We can either play sports or go into the weight room. There’s even an indoor pool, though I probably won’t go in at all this semester,” Josh said.
“Why not?” Pinkie asked.
“I-I’m just not very interested in swimming.”
“More like he’s too embarrassed by his small and weak physique,” Rainbow chided him.
“You’re one to talk, Rainbow,” Applejack said.
“Hey, I may be small, but I’m no weakling.”
“Neither is Josh. He’ll show you, Rainbow. Once he’s gotten some food in him, he’ll kick you butt into next week, right Josh?” Rarity asked.
“Uhhh, I...don’t--”
“Today in gym, he’ll show you just what he can do in the weight room,” Rarity said.
“I’d be up for that,” Applejack said.
“Yeah, it’ll be fun humiliating him three times in one day.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Uncertain of what just happened, he almost missed Rarity whisper in his ear, “And I’ll get to see those muscles of yours at work. Maybe...you’ll get to see more of me as well.” His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as he turned to see her smiling at him, an unfamiliar feeling in her eyes.
She jumped up from her seat and said, “Well, shall we be off? Class starts soon and poor Josh hasn’t had time to finish. He’ll need it all for later.”
“Yeah, sorry I kept you talking,” Twilight said as she and the other mares stood up.
“N-no problem,” he said. “See ya.”
“Bye!” Pinkie said, already halfway to the tray receptacle yet fully audible.
He quickly lost sight of them as they disappeared into the crowd. He turned back to his breakfast, but he had little interest in finishing it. He pushed it to the side and pulled his laptop from his bag. He did munch on the apple while the computer booted up. The juices helped soothe his throat, and soon he found himself on the school’s internet, taking care of an online class while he waited.