//------------------------------//
// Going Without 
// Story: School Days 
// by Dai Kirai 
//------------------------------//

	Stormy moved groggily, having trouble finding which leg was his front and wondering how to remove the blanket. His head throbbed from lack of sleep. The pegasus knew, just knew, he had looked at his watch in shock at what time he had gotten back to his room but for Celestia’s sake he couldn’t remember other than it was near three in the morning. 
It took a moment but Stormy found the railing on his bed and figured how to stand, and leapt off his bed. This morning when he opened his wings to flutter down they opened. With slow graceful flaps he gently met the ground, quiet as a feather. The pegasus looked at his wings and smiled, rubbing one against his muzzle, feeling each feather respond to the touch and move. Glaring at the light above seared his tired eyes. 
Stormy looked about the empty room, he knew he was forgetting something important about last night, Carpe Noctum and something about his wings as his wings stifled a yawn. With his head turning to the window, a gentle breeze blew through his mane while the light burned his eyes. The pegasus took a quick trip to the bathroom and grabbed his Bruin Card to go get some breakfast, a strange perfume filtered under the door of rose and lavender. His stomach roared in response, remembering one of the best dishes he ever had. 
Opening the door the pegasus turned to his left and saw Kat in another pink dress and wringing her hands. He came up behind her back and went to tap her on the leg before remembering the problem of the previous night. The pony moved to her side and lifted up a wing to wave so she could see him. 
Kat turned around, a shallow smile on her face. “We didn’t know what was taking you so long.”
Are you still mad? Why wouldn’t you knock? “I didn’t mean to hold up breakfast.”
“Breakfast? Breakfast is over. You’re about to miss registration for classes.” Her weird accent more pronounced than usual from her own experiences with the previous night. 
Stormy looked down at his watch. 9:25. 
“You don’t want to miss out on any of your classes.” The blonde human had already turned away from him to stride towards the elevator; Stormy had no way to argue with her. 
Sue was holding the elevator. As the group entered, Sue and Kat went into their own silent conversation while the metal box descended its short distance. Stormy stood at the back feeling distant.
The ‘silence’ continued until the three of them entered Chevonne’s room. Stormy entered last and saw the scene from the previous day with their NSA sitting at the desk and Edward on the bed, book in his hands.
The red-head turned around, a small sigh of relief escaping. “I was worried you got lost.” She laughed. “Who is going to register first?”
Sue looked over to the bed. “Ed should go first since he had to wait.”
“I already registered. You should hurry up though, Linguistics was already waitlisted.” Edward never looked up from his book.
Sue tapped her friend’s shoulder and signed something. Kat went up to Chevonne while Sue blocked Stormy’s way into the room.
The black haired woman bent down at the knees until she was eye to eye with the pony. “Kat may be on the way to forgiving you, but don’t think for a second I am. You have no idea how much it meant to her to meet another lifeform, let alone a pony. And you called her broken.” She stared into his eyes, black rocks boring into him. The contrast of the fire in her eyes with the ice in her voice tingled up the pegasi’s back. 
Stormy looked to the ground and pawed the carpet. 
“Because you have never said or done anything stupid in your life.” Edward called from deeper in the room, somehow hearing the quiet tones. “You would never pick on someone for something they can’t control would you?”
Sue looked between the two males; a look of shame crossed her features before turning back to the pegasus. “I will forgive you this one time if Kat forgives you.” She said and stood, moving towards the computer seat that her friend had just vacated. 
Stormy took this opportunity to move into the room and sit on the floor near Edward. “How did you know what she was saying?” He looked up to the linguist. “How did you get her to stop?”
Edward kept reading, either not hearing or just ignoring the pony’s questions. 
Soon it was Stormy’s turn on the computer. Getting up on the chair and positioning himself was slowly getting easier, he saw the screen was on the sign-in page. 
StormySkies
***********
The pony took a pencil off the desk and held it in his mouth to type with, attached to the back of his Bruin card was something called a post-it note stuck to it with three strings of numbers written down. Stormy entered the three CRNs on the appropriate screen, having scribbled them down to make it easier for himself being unable to type quickly. 
After pressing enter another screen popped up asking for clarification and a small red section was on it saying his geology class was waitlisted. I could just take meteorology. He pondered, falling back into his old habit of running.
“Just click to waitlist it.” Chevonne said from behind the pony. “Some classes have seats reserved for other orientation sessions or people sign up for classes just in case. Seats normally open up.”
Stormy was surprised, he had expected her to try and convince him to change classes or to suggest replacements, but she walked him through the rest of the process to get the three classes he had selected.
Chevonne pulled a small box of prepackaged donuts from somewhere, they sat in a blue package and tasted funny but it was food the pony really wanted as his stomach continued to growl.
“During session one several students missed breakfast so I prepared.”
“Fank Youf.” Stormy said around a mouthful of donut, a plastic kind of chocolate glaze covered it, nothing like the last donuts he’d had. It still filled his stomach as he ate three of the things. Everyone else just took a single donut, said their thanks and ate slowly. 
“We need to head for the next and the last lecture of orientation which is mandatory, followed by an urban legends campus tour and then farewells.” Chevonne grabbed a small package from her closet; it was the pony plush from Target. “We should get to it.” As she moved for the door. 
The trip back to Ackerman was rather calm with everyone still tired from the night before or lost in their own little worlds. Chevonne was writing something down while Ed read and the two girls signed back and forth. The trip was almost becoming familiar to the pony, like going to work every day but with less sleep. Stormy stifled a yawn.
Ackerman Grand Ballroom looked the same with the large room packed with chairs and already half-full. The pony felt he was getting used to humans. The time seemed to flash by as he would blink and more rows would be filled by students, all human this time; the pegasus couldn’t see any other ponies from his vantage point. 
Stormy worked to stifle another yawn, but a second followed right after and opened his mouth wide, noticing more than a few stares after he finished. When a third came, he used his wing to cover it, but in the tight confines it brushed against Chevonne on his right.
“You look like you could use some coffee.”
“Coffee?” It sounded familiar but he couldn’t place it. 
“It’s a drink, lots of caffeine to keep you awake.” The NSA offered. 
“And make you jittery, keep you up for days, can make you anxious, make you more stressed or increase blood pressure.” Edward stated calmly from his other side, receiving an evil eye from Chevonne.
“Maybe some orange pekoe tea?” Stormy asked, wanting to stick with what he knew, let alone one that was pulled out for special occasions. He still didn’t know why his wings had failed the day before.
“Don’t think they have anything that specific, but we can try to find some after.”
A human walked up on stage, Stormy didn’t catch his name and most humans looked the same as did their names. The pony had trouble paying attention.
“Life is not all about what is in the classroom, but also what you do outside of it.” He spoke, moving from one end of the stage to another. “Most of your time here will be spent outside of class, even if you spend most of it doing work, there are still plenty of opportunities you should look at.”
“You have probably been hearing this quite a bit the past few days and that is because it is true. This is your chance to try more and do more. Join house government and help your other Bruins have a great time. Get an internship doing what you enjoy and build that resume. Join model U.N. and interact with students from many other school and work on current world issues. Volunteer to motivate others to strive for higher education by going to schools to help kids read. There are so many things to do.”
“But with so much going on you may get sick. Illness can spread like wildfire if you don’t take precautions. There are face masks in the Ashe center as well as hand sanitizer in several locations. There is a completely free gym with a rock wall and quite a few classes including hiking or skiing trips.”
Stormy listened to the droning voice, losing interesting and only hearing half of what was said. 
“And at least a few of you may have psychological problems or depression; maybe you need help with stress. Counseling and Psychological Services or CAPS, your RAs will also try to help you in any way possible. 
Stormy felt his head slip and smack into the chair in front of him, snapping back straight and slapping Chevonne and Edward with his wings, as well as the back of the heads of some people in front of him. 
The NSA shot him a look halfway between mad and worried and before she could speak the pony felt a hand on his shoulder. 
“Let us find you that tea.” Edward offered, standing up and walking to the aisle. Stormy followed him out the room. 
“Be glad Suzanne isn’t here or she would call you an idiot. If you couldn’t handle staying up so late then why did you?”
“I never stay up late, or do this much. I didn’t think this would happen.” Stormy refused to look Edward in the eye.
“Ok. Let us try to wake you up. Do you think tea will help or stretching and moving?” Edward walked down the stairs while the pony followed.
Stormy wasn’t sure, maybe some tea. “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” He thought and stated each part as they came to him. There were a few ponies that drank cold tea; but Stormy never liked how it changed the flavor.
The linguist stopped with his feet on different steps to look back at the pony. “You sure you aren’t,” emphasis on the n, “familiar with Earth?”
“No.” Did I say something wrong?
Ed shook his head and continued on, the pony realizing something was off about him.
“There is a place to get drinks on A-level; they should have your tea there.”
“A-level?” Stormy remembered there were five floors, were they counted in letters?
“It’s the second floor, the one with some fast food.” As he spoke they exited on the proper floor.
Edward turned left right after a place called “Taco Bell” into a place that was just a waiting room and a counter holding pastries behind glass.
“Oh, it’s a donut shop!” Stormy looked around at the dark interior, “They sell drinks?”
His guide ignored the question as he moved up to the counter which was above the pony’s head. “One Earl Grey tea and blueberry scone please.” Edward asked, voice pleasant as if this was some huge favor he was asking. “Thank you very much.” He said and grabbed the cup and a small white bag. “Have a wonderful day.” He turned from the counter and handed both items to the pegasus. 
“What?” He took both items unsure what to do. “But, I could have paid for it.” Stormy sat and pulled out the scone. “What do I owe you?”
“It is quite fine. You gave me a reason to get out of another boring speech.” Edward stifled a yawn of his own as Stormy bit into the scone.
It tasted so much better, like it was fresh from the bakery and went great with his tea. 
“Careful with the tea.” Edward warned, looking around the floor. “It does have caffeine and I am not sure if it has caffeine back in Equestria.” Both of his hands rested in his pockets. 
That’s it! His muzzle isn’t in a book. He had one earlier.
“Have you eaten any good books lately?” Came from Edward’s pocket as he pulled out his phone, hitting buttons along its smooth screen. The voice sounded familiar and sent a shiver down the pony’s spine, ruffling his feathers, the tea losing all its heat. 
“What was that?” Stormy didn’t like the idea; he knew that voice from somewhere, the sun rising and falling rapidly, himself spinning corkscrews. 
“Just a ringtone from a show I watched as a kid. The meeting is over and we are to meet at the bear for a talk about life outside the classroom with Chevonne.” 
Stormy finished off his drink and felt much better, even with the shock he felt more at ease. Something clicked. “You don’t like Chevonne do you?”
“She is okay.” Edward walked off down the hall. “Just a difference of opinion is all.”
Stormy let it drop, feeling that was all he would get, even if it wasn’t an answer and followed Ed outside.
The rest of their group sat on the stairs at the bottom of Ackerman. “What kind of activities does everyone want to try for the next year?” Their leader asked.
“To denounce the evils of truth and love” Katherine started, and the second she had finished Suzanne spoke.
“To extend our reach to the stars above.”
“Poetry.”
“Space exploration.”
Chevonne stared at them. “So were you interested in Mars One? And there are plenty of writing clubs and sessions around campus.”
“No, I would rather explore from Earth until travel can be trusted.”
“Just imagine how a crash would affect stock prices though.” Edward quipped, causing all three to turn around 
“Because that is SOO much better.” Suzanne rolled her eyes and flung something at him.
Edward caught the book and tucked it away under his arm. “But you could take them down with you in a blaze of glory.”
“Ok, mister fancy, what kind of things will you do?” She shot back and crossed her arms, grinning in anticipation.
“Join a book club.” Kat chimed in.
“Or a knitting circle.” Sue fired.
“I was thinking the rowing team looked interesting. Or maybe tennis.” Ed looked thoughtful. 
“Fancy.”
For the first time the group wasn’t asking Stormy questions or trying to force him into the conversation. While it was nice, he wanted to join in. 
“I saw something about Equestrian games that might be fun.” The pony chimed in.
“A pony riding a pony, that sounds like a smashing idea.”
Stormy quirked his head in confusion.
“Here, equestrian tends to refer to the riding on Earth horses in games of polo or athletics.”
“There should be something though,” Katherine chimed in. “We can always look.”
“Suzanne, there is another world you can see with only a plane.” Stormy offered, he got surprised looks from everyone else. 
“Can people just visit Equestria?” Katherine asked, visibly sitting up straighter as her eyes widened.
“I. Don’t know.” Came Edward’s reply, pulling out his phone. “It doesn’t say.”
Sue and Kat started their own conversation before the black haired one spoke. “We can figure that out later.” For once Stormy heard someone else’s stomach growling. “When is lunch? I may have overslept myself.”
“Lunch is offered during the campus urban legends tour, which is not required or you can find someplace else to eat. What do you want to do?” Chevonne asked. “I have other stuff that needs doing so it’s your call.” She walked away, leaving the four to decide between themselves.
“Tour.”
“Westwood.”
“Westwood.”
“Tour.” Stormy was the last to reply as the vote was split, the other one for the tour was Kat.