A Fallen Leaf

by FoxxehSquirrel

Chapter 2: Like A Portal

A Fallen Leaf

A fanfic by FoxxehSquirrel

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based creation. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasboro, and was created by Lauren Faust. No copyright infringement intended.

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Chapter 2: Like A Portal

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Autumn wasn’t prepared for what was about to happen. He held mixed feelings of curiosity, fear, anguish, and anxiety. The pink thing standing in front of him was just standing there, grinning. And not your ordinary ‘happy, rainbows and sunshine’ grin. This one spread from ear to ear (almost quite literally), and held like a stone. It was almost like her face had been broken and rebuilt to always be smiling. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past her.

This girl seemed to still be a bit younger than Twilight and Applejack. She had curly pink hair that really poofed up in the front. She was wearing a hot pink tee-shirt over a lighter pink long-sleeved shirt. She had a short pink skirt that fell to her knees, like Twilight, which matched colors with the top piece. One thing he noticed, however, was she had a pair of small earings attached to her lobes, though he couldn’t get a good look at them.

A bombardment of questions and laughter began, as a calmer, more adult voice spoke over the intercom. Autumn also noticed more than a few heads turned his way, which made him want to just disappear and never return. He couldn’t handle all of this pressure for much longer, and was beginning to doubt that choosing to take the acting class was such a good idea after all, if there were any other people in this school like the smiling mass of pink standing before him.

“Hi I’m Pinkie. Who are you? Are you the new person? Of course you are! I’ve never seen you before! Will you be my friend? Of course you will! Why wouldn’t you? Do you like cupcakes? I do! Aren’t they DELICIOUS? Where did you come from? Do you want some candy? Because I’ve got some and I would LOVE to share it with you!”

The girl kept talking, not needing to breathe. So many questions. So many in such a small amount of time. Her grin didn’t break, as she continued the assault.

“What is your favorite color? Mine is PINK! But that is kind of obvious. Do you like pink? Because I do. Wait, I just said that,” She then broke out into a fit of laughter and began rolling on the floor. Even more heads were turned this way. Autumn tried to hide behind Applejack, before she bent down and pulled Pinkie off of the floor. As she was getting back up, he noticed that the earings were three balloons: A central yellow balloon, flanked by two blue ones.

“Calm down, Pinkie. Before you break something,” The blonde began. “Now, Autumn, why dontcha introduce yerself ta her so we c’n get past everything.”

Pinkie jumped back up with the help of Applejack, still with that crazy grin on her face. Autumn swore that that grin was going to haunt his dreams for years to come.

“Hi, I’m Autumn,” he began, as he held out his hand, expecting a handshake. “It’s nice to-” He was interrupted AGAIN, when instead of accepting the handshake, Pinkie jumped at him in a great big hug.

“I’m Pinkie. But you already knew that,” She said, through her still exposed teeth. “We’re gonna be the bestest of best friends!”

Autumn already knew he was going to regret coming here. He could feel the figure being pulled off of him.

“Pinkie, stop that. Or you’ll hurt him,” Twilight came to his rescue and apologized for Pinkie’s behavior. “She’s always like this.” Autumn pushed himself off of the floor and dusted himself off. You know, for being one of the supposedly ‘sanitary and top-rated’ schools in Equestria, that part of the floor sure was dusty.

“Yeah, I kinda figured,” He replied. He heard the other person on the intercom system stop talking, as a second ding came. Autumn figured that it was for telling students to get to class. The halls sure were full now. “Is that the bell for class?”

“Why yes, it is,” Twilight began. “Perhaps we should go. You can come with me.” She said goodbyes to the other two, then dragged Autumn off to the math class. They had to climb a couple sets of stairs, as the math and science departments resided mostly on the third floor. At the top of the stairs, Twilight stopped to wave at somebody in a classroom. She was a darker skinned girl, who had a mohawk with black and white stripes. Even though Autumn felt intimidated by it, the warm smile on her face put that fear to rest. The girl looked to be wearing traditional African clothes. She had a necklace of many small wooden masks around her neck. The mask at the bottom of the chain had a strange swirl on its forehead.

“Now, the class should be right around this cor-” she started, as they turned the corner. Much to her dismay, they stopped in front of an admittedly pretty girl. She had long, straight silver hair and was wearing sky-blue and lighter purple clothes. Nothing outside of your standard shirt and pants combo. She stood there, blocking Twilight and Autumn’s path. “Not now, Trixie. Can’t you see we’re busy?”

“We? What’s this, you’ve found yourself a new boyfriend?” Trixie began. Her voice sounded very pompous and boastful. You could tell she was full of herself from a mile away. Even the perfume she wore (don’t ask) promoted selfishness. Twilight blushed at this remark. Autumn just stood there, too surprised and flattered to do anything.

“What? Boyfriend? It’s nothing like that!” Twilight quickly replied. The blush only grew stronger. She thought that it was a good thing Autumn hadn’t noticed (at least, she hoped he hadn’t), otherwise their friendship to come would be that much more awkward. “He just transferred here from Canterlot! I’m just-” She was interrupted as the other girl started to talk again.

“Ooh, new indeed,” Trixie walked seductively around Autumn, brushing his shoulder with her well maintained hand. “Well, if there is ever anything you need, and I mean anything, then you can just come see momma Trixie and we can fix all of these problems.” Autumn blinked, unable to speak. When he tried, all that came out was a mix of ridiculous squeaks and stutters. “How cute.” she replied, as she blew him a ‘I want you to be mine’ kiss, then walked away in a very elegant manner, her hips swaying back and forth with each step. Autumn blinked once more.

When she finally got around the corner they had just emerged from, Twilight let out a deep sigh she hadn’t realized she had been holding. “Ugh. I just can’t stand her sometimes. She is just so, so . . .” She began thinking of a name for Trixie. “I don’t know,” she finally gave up. “At any rate, we should get to class.” The blush was finally fading from her face. But not Autumn’s.

A moment later, they approached a doorway into the Calculus room. Autumn noticed a bunch of seniors - at least 20 - sitting on desks and talking to each other. When they entered the room, all eyes turned to him. Including the teacher. He wanted to hide. So many judgmental figures staring at him at once. He almost tried to run away, but Twilight held him in place.

“Ah, looks like we’ve got new meat!” The teacher began. He was a bit older than a couple other teachers he’d noticed in the halls. He had short brown hair just falling over his forehead. He had a pair of inexpensive glasses. He had a grey suit on, with a red tie. He looked very formal. “Now, if you would come to the front and introduce yourself.” Autumn gulped, then began slowly walking up to the front. This is exactly what he feared.

He thought to himself, they are only seniors! What could go wrong? When he reached the front and turned towards the other students, now attentively sitting in their desks, He saw they were all smiling. One was even laughing, although she was covering it up with her hand. Autumn had no idea what was so funny. As he began, he felt something swell up in his throat. His nervousness was getting the best of him. Then he looked over at Twilight.

She was patiently smiling, waiting for Autumn to speak. The look on her face reassured him that she was there for him. He swallowed then began talking. “My name is Autumn,” Nothing changed in the crowd. He looked back to Twilight. Nothing changed. Then he looked at the teacher, who had faked falling asleep as a joke, but then woke up with a startle when he noticed Autumn looking.

“Ah, yes. Autumn,” He recovered. “Mind telling us where you’re from, Autumn?” This question didn’t help make him feel much better. Mostly from the way his name was said.

“I’m from Canterlot.” That is when everybody else including Twilight broke out into laughter. Autumn just stood there, scared of what was happening. He felt tears begin to rise. He had no idea why they were laughing at him, and he wanted them to stop. He was just barely to make a sentence with the tears about to come on. “I don’t get it. Whad’I do?” They kept laughing. The teacher walked up to him, just finishing up his round of laughter.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. We were only joking,” he began. “Only trying to get you to loosen up a bit. You’re acting as stiff as a board. Now, let’s find you a seat . . .” He began looking around for an empty spot Autumn could sit in. Then his face lit up. “There you go. There is an open seat right in front of Twilight,” He pointed to her. He didn’t feel much better, but Autumn cheered up a little. “I believe you two have already run into each other.”

Autumn walked over to take his seat. Looking from the front of the classroom, his spot was in the rightmost column of desks, the second one back. There was one desk in front of him, and two behind Twilight. Five columns in total. He shot a smile towards Twilight as he sat down. She noticed, and smiled even more.

As soon as Autumn sat down, the teacher spoke to him. “Talk to me after class, Autumn.”

Class passed by slowly, as Autumn merely watched the teacher (whose name he later discovered was Mr. Johnson) throw problem after problem on the board. He heard some groans related to the math and a lot of pencils scratching on paper. He also heard a girl humming.

More time passed, as even more problems went up. Autumn resorted to doodling to distract himself. On his paper (while everybody else had plain ol’ numbers), he drew a picture of a strange mixture of creatures. It had the head of a pony, antlers, and a lion’s paw, and some other random animal parts. The drawing gave him a strange sense of deja vu.

After admiring his work for a short while, Autumn heard Mr. Johnson declare the class to be over. Most of the students left, except for Autumn, Twilight, and a couple of the seniors. Autumn tucked the drawing into a folder and turned to Twilight.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you,” she began. “Somebody has to show you to your next class.” She gave him a pleasant smile as he got up to talk to Mr. Johnson.

He made his way to the desk. “Not too boring, I hope,” the teacher began. “Wouldn’t want you to fall asleep during class.” Autumn felt surprised at this remark. In the Canterlot High School for Gifted Students, teachers would always regard the students in a purely polite and formal way. This was just the opposite. Perhaps he was foolish to expect more from a small town such as Humanville.

“That won’t be a problem, sir.” Autumn stood there, just waiting for something to happen. Mr. Johnson then turned to him, still sitting in his chair. It looked very comfortable.

Autumn looked into Mr. Johnson’s eyes and noticed something malicious, even evil almost. He felt like they were staring directly into his soul. Like they could see into the deepest and most private chambers of his conscience. They were almost like portals into nothing.

“Now, here is what you will need,” Mr. Johnson began. “I trust you already know how to do this stuff, so here is tonight’s homework.” He handed Autumn a sheet of paper which had ten sets of numbers on it. It didn’t appear to be too difficult. He was also handed a textbook of about 650 pages (which was quite heavy), and another sheet of paper that asked a bunch of different personal facts. “I like to get to know my students on a more . . . personal level,” Autumn felt like he was going to say something else. “Make sure you get those back to me tomorrow morning.”

“Sure thing, sir.” Autumn replied. He dared to look into Mr. Johnson’s eyes once more, but didn’t see or feel the same thing from earlier. In fact, they were completely different colors.

Strange.

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The day passed by as would a normal school day. In chemistry, nothing much happened. Autumn recognized the blue-haired girl from earlier listening to music, then the blonde girl with the weird eyes. He thought he saw a girl with pink hair hiding behind a book, but when the class ended, there was no trace of her.

Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie all met him outside of the classroom. After talking for a bit, they all went down to the cafeteria. After retrieving his food, Autumn was distracted by thoughts of the pink-haired girl. He was so preoccupied that he lost sight of the three girls. He stood there, looking around until he saw Applejack waving a hand for him. He walked towards the table she was at. His breath was taken by what he saw.

At the table, along with Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack, there sat the girl with the purple hair he saw earlier. She was sitting gracefully, munching on a salad. Next to her were two other girls. One was the pink-haired girl from earlier. She had a necklace just like the purple-haired girl, except with three butterflies instead of diamonds. She was calmly smiling as the other girl who had rainbow-colored hair was standing on her seat and telling a seemingly amazing story.
As Autumn sat down, Applejack introduced him to everybody.

“Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, this is Autumn,” Autumn noticed them stop what they were doing just to greet him. “Autumn, these are Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.”

“Why hello, Autumn. What a pleasure it is to meet you,” Rarity said. Her voice sounded very elegant. “I must say I’ve never seen you around before.”

“Well, duh! That’s because he is new,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed to Rarity She was now wearing a light blue sweatshirt, but the same track shorts. She then turned to Autumn. “Pinkie wouldn’t stop talking about you. She said you were some smarty pants from Canterlot.”

Rarity’s eyes lit up. “Canterlot? Autumn, we simply must get together to chat sometime. It would be my pleasure to invite you to my boutique. “

Autumn didn’t know what to say. Instead, he just looked at Rainbow Dash who now had a hiding Fluttershy behind her. “So,” she began. ”I hear you have gym with me and Applejack. I wouldn’t worry too much, though. You have no hope of keeping up with me.” Autumn already thought she was too arrogant for her own good.

“Yeah. Twilight mentioned something about that,” he replied. He then remembered what had happened before he entered the building. “Hey, have I seen you before? You look familiar.”

Rainbow Dash thought he was trying to flirt with her. “In your dreams, kid. We’ve only just met,” she began. “And besides, you’re not cool enough for me.” Autumn blinked, then tried to reply when he was interrupted by Fluttershy, who was no longer hiding.

“Um, it’s nice to meet you,” she said. She was wearing a simple yellow dress. It looked a lot like Rarity’s. Her voice was very timid. He could tell all she wanted was approval.

“It’s nice to meet you too . . . Fluttershy, was it?” he noticed her light up a little. He turned back to Rarity. “And yes, I would like that.”

As the conversation died down and broke into different conversations and sounds of eating, Autumn just sat and thought about everything that has happened so far. He had already met some of the people he was probably going to spend the rest of his school years with, and they turned out to be really nice and welcoming. He felt like he would enjoy his time here.

However, there was one thing that he couldn’t get out of his head. It was Mr. Johnson’s eyes. Something felt off about them.

While he was thinking about that, Rarity got his attention then started to talk. “So, may I ask what your next class is?” she asked.
“I have Acting. Seems kind of-” He was interrupted once again.

“Ooh, that is the class I have!” She seemed to be positively beaming. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you to the auditorium. That is where we have the class. There is a lot more room for activities.”

Autumn imagined Rarity on stage reciting an old poem, but then quickly snapped back to reality when everybody started getting up.

“What’s happening? Why is everybody leaving?” Autumn inquired. He then noticed a ringing that resonated through the whole room. It was very loud.

“That’s the fire alarm,” Rainbow Dash said. “But it’s usually nothing.”

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “Except there wasn’t any announcement about there being a drill today.” Everybody then began to worry for the safety of the school.

At that moment, a group of teachers, Mr. Johnson included, motioned for them to leave the cafeteria and head outside into the courtyard, away from the danger that a fire could pose. There was an orderly line from the door, as the students moved quickly and efficiently out the front of the school.

When everybody was across the courtyard, they could see flashes and strange lighting coming from one of the classrooms. It was on the third floor. Then, out of nowhere, the window broke outwards, and something flew out. Nobody else seemed to have seen it but Autumn. He watched as it flew up into the sky, then eventually disappeared completely.

“Oh my, I sure do hope nobody has been caught up there,” Rarity began. “It would be horrible if anybody got hurt.”

That is when all hell broke loose.

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Well, here it is. The story is going to pick up a bit after this. The first chapter was a little slow.