Recess Of The Mind
I sat back in the desk next to Scootaloo, watching as Miss Cheerliee looked at me with concern. The teacher was silent for several seconds after I sat back down, her eyes firmly fixated on me, before she started to speak again.
“Okay, class. Today, we’re going to start learning more about…”
“Are your parents really not ponies?” a voice behind me asked in a whisper. I looked behind me to see a white coated unicorn staring at me. Her hair, mane, was pink and purple, and she had a high pitched voice that I thought sounded like a toddler's. She had green eyes that were genuinely curious, if not a little disbelieving, of the fact I about my parents that I told Scootaloo.
“Yes,” I whispered back to her. “My parents aren’t ponies.”
“What kind of creatures are they then?”
I shook my head and quickly looked forward, not wanting to talk about it at that moment. “I might tell you later,” I said dismissively, placing my eyes on the teacher.
“She doesn’t even know what a cutie mark is!” Scootaloo whispered to the girl loudly as I tried to hide my embarrassment by the use of the word ‘she’.
“Really? That’s crazy!”
“I know! She should totally-”
“Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle,” I heard the teacher interrupt them. “Is what you’re whispering about anything you’d like to share with the whole class?”
“Um, no,” Scootaloo got out. “Sorry, Miss Cheerilee.”
With that, the two of them went silent as the woman started back on her lesson. It was largely uneventful, and the class stayed largely quiet as she taught what was a basic math lesson. Every so often she’d call on one of them to answer a question, although she never called on me. It felt like a typical school day, and was, in a word, boring, but also a tiny bit nerve-wracking. This day felt like it was going on a lot longer than it should have been for a dream, but I tried to convince myself that it was because my dream was lucid.
It felt like a couple of hours had passed since the class started before Miss Cheerilee ended the lesson. “Alright my little ponies,” she said, “it’s time for our break. I don’t think I have to remind any of you to stay near the school and be back inside in one hour, do I?” She then looked straight at me and told me, “Asher? Would you stay back here for a little while, sweetie? Everypony else, you’re free to go.”
I let out a small breath, internally cringing at the use of the word 'sweetie' as I watched everyone else practically run out of the room. Scootaloo stayed behind a little bit longer with the pony who sat behind me and called, “You should totally hang out with me and Sweetie Belle when Miss Cheerilee lets you leave!” With that, the two quickly ran outside with the rest of the students.
I watched as the teacher made her way up to my desk and looked down at me. “So how are you enjoying our classroom so far, Asher?” she asked with a kind smile.
“It’s fine,” I answered politely. “Good.” I paused for a second, adding, "You seem like a nice teacher."
“Thank you. I'm glad you think so. I saw you made a friend in Scootaloo. She told me your parents weren’t ponies. Is that true?”
Another wave of apprehensiveness shot up through me, and I closed my eyes. I’d never been so nervous in my whole life as I was in the last few hours, but I forced myself to keep calm. I opened them again shortly afterward, answering, “Yes, that’s true.”
She still had a smile on her face when I opened my eyes again, but she seemed more concerned. However, she still tried to continue to talk to me in the same cheery tone. "That's interesting. What kind of creatures are they?"
I could feel my apprehension turning into discomfort. "I'd really rather not talk about it right now," I told her.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, wearing an apologetic smile. "Can I ask about how you moved here, though?"
I felt like she was trying to figure out something about me, which wasn't surprising. She was an adult, I was a child. Scootaloo probably told her about me, she saw me walk awkwardly, and I probably looked to her like I was going to be sick earlier. She'd naturally be concerned.
"Well, I'm not moving here. I'm only going to be here for a little while."
"Oh, okay. Can I ask how long?"
"I don't know. Probably only a day, then I'm going back home."
"I see. Can you tell me where home is? I mean, where is your family staying while you’re here?”
My words trailed off. “Um, well I…”
“Yes?” she asked, her smile dropping, the concern she had for me showing itself.
I don’t know why I was feeling the need to lie to her. This wasn’t real. Whether or not I told the truth wouldn’t affect anything. Still, I decided to be vague, and said, “I don’t really know.” I saw the look on her face, and quickly added, “But I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
This time, she trailed off. “I see…” She gave me a blank stare for several seconds, before continuing. “Well, if there’s anything you need while you’re here in Ponyville, please don’t be afraid to ask, okay?”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I answered, noncommittal.
With that, she put her smile back on. “You can head outside for break now. I’m sure Scootaloo and her friend Sweetie Belle are waiting for you.”
Cheerilee watched as the filly slowly and clumsily made her way out the door. She didn’t know what to make of Asher. It was already odd that she said her parents weren’t ponies. Combine that with the trouble the filly seemed like she had with walking, along with the fact that Scootaloo told her she was lying on the ground when she found her, and she was understandably concerned. The fact that she stumbled in her words when introducing herself as though she was hiding something didn’t help matters. It was worrying, and Cheerilee couldn’t help but think that she was running away, or that she was in an accident, or that some other horrible thing was happening.
The teacher had a general grasp on what she should do right now, but had no idea how to go about it. She knew in theory. She’d been trained on what to do, but she’d never actually faced the situation in real life. She knew she had to keep the filly from becoming suspicious and from wandering off…
And she’d just sent her outside! Cheerilee quickly rushed out of the building to see that, much to her relief, Asher was standing and talking to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Or rather, the two were talking to her while the filly listened quietly. The teacher sighed in relief, taking the opportunity to get the class’s attention.
“Excuse me? Everypony?” The whole class quickly put her attention on her, and she continued. “I know I said you all could go outside for recess, but I have something I need to take care of, and I really need you all to stay in the classroom.” She heard several cries of disappointment, and added, “To make up for it, we’ll make this break extra long okay? Now I need you all to head inside. Nopony is allowed to leave until I get back, understand?”
“Tell us what kind of creatures your parents are!” Scootaloo told me excitedly as the three of us sat back down inside. “We really want to know!”
Before I could say anything though, we were interrupted by a mean sounding voice. “Why are you two talking to the new girl?” another girl’s voice asked condescendingly. I turned and saw not one, but two girls marching up to me. One of them had a silver coat like mine and light grey hair with glasses, along with a necklace of pearls. The other one had a pink coat and hair that was purple and white, with a tiara worn on top of her head. They both sent a look my way that suggested they didn’t like me
“She acts weird and walks funny.” the pink one said to them. “Why would you ever want to hang out with her?”
“Hey, leave her alone, Diamond Tiara!” Scootaloo’s friend, Sweetie Belle, let out in a very squeaky voice. “She’s not doing anything to you!”
“Yes she did!” the girl, Diamond Tiara, argued. “She's making us stay inside for recess! A new pony shows up, and all of a sudden we can't be outside? It’s obviously her fault we’re in here!”
“It’s not her fault she’s new in town!”
“She talks weird, she walks weird, she had a weird name, and she said her parents aren’t even ponies. I knew you two were losers, but why would you ever hang out with someone like her?”
“Stop being a bully, Diamond! Those things aren’t her fault!”
I found Scootaloo agreeing with her that I was weird to be an interesting way to try and defend someone, but I didn’t let it get under my skin. They were kids and they were trying to defend me. Besides, even if they weren’t, this was a dream so it didn’t matter.
“She’s the one who caused us to have recess inside!” Diamond Tiara said defensively.
“She didn’t mean to! That’s no reason to bully her!”
“We don’t even know who she is!”
“You would if you would’ve asked her!”
I didn’t care about being considered weird, but even if this was a dream, I really didn’t like the idea of kids fighting because of me. I wanted to put a stop to it. “I’m sorry I made you stay inside,” I apologized, “but I’d really rather not have you guys fighting because of me.” I wanted what I said to sound assertive, but this… voice made it seem shyer than I was intending.
The girl with the tiara stared at me for several seconds before responding. “Whatever,” she humphed. “Hang out with her. It just proves what losers you both are. Come on, Silver Spoon.” With that, the two left, Scootaloo rolling her eyes as they walked away haughtily.
“I can’t stand those two!” Scootaloo quietly seethed as the three of us watched them leave. “They pick on us every day!”
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are the worst!” Sweetie Belle agreed.
“You can, ah, just try ignoring them,” I offered, feeling uncomfortable about the whole situation. I quickly tried to change the subject, saying, “You never told me what a cutie mark is.”
“I still don’t understand how you don’t know what that is,” the pegasus told me, not nearly as excited or happy sounding as she was before. “I mean, even if your parents aren’t ponies, you have to have heard about it at some point, right?”
“No, I can’t say I ever have,” I told the two of them innocently.
“It’s a mark you get when you discover your special talent!” the unicorn told me.
“It’s what makes you different from everypony else!” Scootaloo added.
I thought that was interesting, and briefly wondered what my special talent would be if the dream I was having was real. I was working on my business degree, and was the manager of a restaurant, but didn’t know if those things counted as ‘special talents’. I was religious, but nowhere near qualified to be a priest or any sort of thought leader. Honestly, I could have been a bit more up-to-date with my knowledge of the Bible. I wasn’t super smart or physically gifted, and honestly struggled to come up with something that I was better than average at. However, I put that depressing thought out of my head. It didn’t matter what ‘special talent’ I might have because this wasn’t real.
“None of us have ours yet, though,” the pegasus continued. “We’re all still blank flanks.”
“Blank flanks?”
“That’s where a pony gets their cutie mark, on their flank,” Sweetie Belle said, pointing to her side, near her butt. She then gave me a puzzled expression, asking, “Have you never seen a pony with a cutie mark before?”
“I’ve never seen any other ponies before,” I told them. At least, I didn’t ever see ponies like them.
“What! Did you even live in Equestria?” I debated asking what that was, but decided to simply assume that was where this dream was taking place, and answered with a no. “What kind of pony are you?” Scootaloo asked me.
I shrugged, not quite wanting to say I wasn't a pony yet. “No offense,” the other one told me, “but Diamond Tiara was right. You really are weird.”
I shrugged again, simply saying, “I guess.”
“You never told us about your parents,” Scootaloo said.
“Yeah, tell us what your family’s like!” Sweetie Belle added.
“Well, I mean,” I started as I thought about them. “They’re pretty normal, I think.”
At least, I thought they were normal enough. I still lived with them as an only child in Delaware while I was finishing school, and thought that they were good enough parents. I loved them, and they loved me, but we disagreed on quite a lot. Normally, from my experience, it was the parents who were religious conservatives and the child who was atheist, but in my case, it was the other way around. There were very few points I could safely say we agreed on, and I mostly tried to avoid talking to them about things like that.
I contrasted well against a lot of the people I knew. If I had to label myself, I’d say that I was a “moderately religious” person. I went to church every Sunday. I was baptized and took Confirmation as a Lutheran. I prayed before every meal and celebrated major religious holidays and all that jazz. Outside of church, though, I mostly didn’t talk about my faith, and never discussed politics. I really didn’t like making people angry, and knew it was one of those things where, if it was brought up, people would argue. A little bit also had to do with the image I knew I would give off by talking about my beliefs, and the tiny bit of shame that would come with it. I knew I shouldn’t have been ashamed to discuss it, but it was the feeling I got, and I felt ashamed for feeling ashamed of talking about it. Because of that, I decided to simply avoid the feedback loop by changing the subject whenever it was brought up.
“What kind of creatures are they?” Scootaloo asked.
“Humans,” I said simply. I didn't want to say that I was a human yet, but had no issue with saying that my parents were. Not that they knew what a human was. The two of them gave me a blank stare like they didn’t understand, so I decided to elaborate.
“Um, well, start by imagining a… pony,” I explained. “Except without a tail or fur, and very tall. Oh, and they only use two legs to walk, and have hands instead of hooves. That’s basically what a human is.”
I received another blank stare from them for a few seconds before one of them asked, “And you’ve never seen another pony ever?”
“Nothing like you all, no.”
“That’s so weird!” she announced. “Were all your friends hu… hoom… uh, those things, too?”
By now, a few other students had come over and started to listen in curiously on what I told them. It once again brought back my unease, and that sneaking suspicion that this wasn’t a dream tried to work itself upon me again. I started to feel a bit nauseous from the conversation, despite being okay just a few seconds ago. I didn't know what it was, but, for some reason, I didn't like the direction this conversation was headed in.
“Are you alright?” Scootaloo asked. “You look a little sick.”
“I’m fine,” I answered. “I just- I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
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In my experience, dreams are never that specific. And even if they can be, they typically don't have names given out for strangers. They also don't switch perspectives to other creatures that "don't exist".
10324548
Hmmm... I guess you could say those things are true...
It's almost as though somepony is in denial
10324553
awesome, want more!
He's feeling the cognitive dissonance pressure! Soon enough it's going to flow over and the more he waits the faster it will be!
Poor Cheerilee, having to trust that the foals won't just run off. They haven't so far, but one spook and... well, they're so well behaved, normally!
Scoots is playing fastball, watch those pitches fly at our poor totally-a-dreamer!
Keep going! ;)
I think that's a warning.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/916/909/9bb.gif
HA! She said it!
Well. If it ain't Diamond Troll and Silver Spite.
That's suspicion and fear you're feeling.
Dun dun dun, it gets more complicated~
The life of a nother transformed human in equestria is overwhelming I love it!!
Why is it so difficult for almost every pony in any similar story to pronounce or at least remember the Word "human"?
It is almost as infuriating as the wizards and witches in "Harry Potter" pronouncing comlpex spells and obscure plant names properly but still mangling any term associated with muggles (i. e. electricity, genes, Television,...).
10438945
Idk man soooo many people can't pronounce basic things. I know at least three people with names that nobody can pronounce. My Name is Rutger and it seems too be impossible for anyone to get it the first try. Most Americans call me rudder XD
10486152
Rudder?
hey, at least your name doesn't sound like cows. Hell will await the day I move to americe
10324553
I thought the story was set in Equestria, not Egypt.