Messages from Canterlot High

by aricaitlyn

3: Welcome to Vasqville High

After assembling my home, I assumed Pinkie as my legal guardian. Somehow, this seemed to work; she was older than me and even had a realistic fake ID on hand. With my new "mother", I was able to enter Vasqville High School under the guise of a regular teenage girl. Well, a regular teenage girl with blue skin. Everyone I saw here had an odd shade of skin, like a mixture of Applejack and Rarity's skin tones. It was an odd peachish color, ranging from light to dark. Some of the people here had a much darker color, almost like dirt. But I learned the hard way not to act weirded out by darker-skinned folks, because apparently folks here call that "racism". That's a word I had never heard before, yet don't want to hear again.

The woman who had helped me enroll in this school had given me a schedule, something that I recognized, for once. But instead of showing nine class periods, there were only four classes available: homeroom, lunch, gym, and library, in that order. I was confused, but then again relieved that I didn't have to retake my core classes.

My homeroom class was taught by a teacher named Miss Smith. Miss Smith was a tall woman with a pale complexion who wore dark clothing. Despite her age, a few freckles graced her face, and her gray-streaked blonde hair was tied up in a no-nonsense bun. She wore a pair of thin glasses, held by a gold chain. For some reason, she reminded me of Applejack from Canterlot High.

"Class, I'd like to introduce the newest member of our student body." Miss Smith's voice had a slight accent to it, almost exactly like Applejack's. "Her name is Rainbow Dash."

I was standing in the middle of the room, feeling rather awkward by the students in the class staring me down like I was part of a crime ring or something.

"Rainbow Dash," Miss Smith continued, "are you going to introduce yourself?"

I ran my fingers through my hair. As I did this, I saw the odd lack of students in this class with rainbow-striped hair. Fitting in would be harder than I thought.

"Well?"

"Uh," I began. "I just moved here from the city of Canterlot. I hope that we can all get along!"

"Take your seat, Rainbow Dash. I've got to leave the classroom to take care of an errand." Miss Smith stood up and began to walk out of the classroom. From what I had experienced back at Canterlot High, a teacher leaving the room left the students to party. But here, not so much. The students just sat around, looking bored out of their skulls.

I walked to an empty seat, one next to an interested-looking girl with black hair that was pinned back into a ponytail. She wore thick-rimmed glasses and a black coat. Her coat was unzipped, showing a purple T-shirt. She continued to stare me down, mouth agape, until I looked away. This girl, to me, looked a lot like Twilight Sparkle, the mysterious purple-skinned girl who had united me and my old friends back at Canterlot High. Twilight was also crowned Princess of the Fall Formal, and had dethroned Sunset Shimmer.

"Alright," the girl said. "Am I the only one here who sees the horse-woman in class?"

The students looked around. She pointed at me. "There! Right there! That's no regular girl, that's one of the horse-women that was on the news!"

"Not this again!" a girl behind me remarked. "Taylor, you're insane."

Taylor continued to state her point. "What about her skin? It's blue!"

"I have a condition," I groaned.

"And her rainbow hair? Is that also part of your 'condition'? Should we call the school nurse in here?"

I sat up, suddenly entertained by this crazy Twilight Sparkle lookalike. A boy sitting behind Taylor tapped her shoulder. Taylor spun around and pushed up her glasses.

"So just because somebody looks different, that makes them a horse-woman?" the boy asked.

Taylor groaned and pulled out a notebook from her backpack. She opened it to a specific page, one with a drawing of a humanoid like her and another with a drawing of the type of creature I had become, with pony ears, a tail, and blue feathered wings.

"This is us," Taylor stated, pointing to the picture on the left. Her finger moved to the picture on the right. "And this is Rainbow Dash! Does anybody see the difference? Are there any questions?"

"I have one," a girl's voice said. Taylor and I, as well as the rest of the class, turned around to see her.

"What is wrong with you?!" the girl continued. "This sort of conspiracy crap is all you ever talk about!"

I found this moment perfect to butt in with my genuine blend of sarcasm and rudeness. "Yeah, she's always saying stuff like that." I grinned. A few of the students nodded.

"You just got here!" Taylor shouted. She turned to the rest of the class. "Don't let her trick you!"

"Well, she does look kinda weird," a kid next to me remarked. A few other kids nodded in agreement.

Taylor smiled. "You see? Actual proof that I'm right! Finally, a way to prove that I'm...I'm..."

"...crazy!" I finished, leaning back in my seat.

"That makes lots of sense!" one girl remarked.

"We almost believed her," another voice replied.

The classroom bell rang. My classmates grabbed their things in unison and walked out. Taylor stepped outside, into a courtyard area. I followed, figuring that this was a shortcut to the next class.

Taylor turned around to see me. "Maybe your crappy disguise worked on everyone else. Sure. But they'll know the truth soon enough."

I scoffed and picked up the pace, just trying to get away from her. "Nobody will believe you."

Taylor skidded out in front of me. "They will, though, if they see what's really underneath! A pair of feathered wings, ears, and a tail!"

Taylor dropped her backpack to the ground and pulled out a pair of what looked like handcuffs. "Pretty," I remarked, the only thing I could think to say at this moment.

"They're sleep cuffs. They'll knock creatures like you unconscious."

I became skeptical of her methods. "How do you know if they work if you've never actually found something like me before?"

A devious grin spread across Taylor's face. "Then we'll have to see, won't we?"