“But why, why do I have to go away?” I asked.
“Because, Coal, your parents want you to go,” was the reply I received. “Now, off you go. If you miss the train your parents will be furious with me.”
With those parting words, she nudged me forward through the doors onto the train that would carry me away from my home, and the life I’d grown accustomed to over they years. The doors slid shut behind me as I proceeded to my seat. As I sat down, prepared for the long voyage ahead, the intercom crackled to life, and a voice I suspected was the conductor's sprang forth; “Good morning passengers, we’ll be arriving in Manehatten in a few hours, and to all of you lucky fillies and colts on board to attend the Manehatten Academy for the Magically gifted, I would like to say congratulations.”
“Lucky.. yeah, right,” I grumbled.
The train lurched as it began to move; taking only minutes to accelerate to its top speed. I sat there in my seat, my head directed towards the window, but I was long gone; retreating to that secluded place amongst my thoughts that I’d long since become accustomed to.
“Hey, are you sleeping,” a voice asked.
I awoke suddenly, pulled from my stupor. I shifted my gaze from the window towards the origin of the voice, and found that it had originated from a scrawny-looking white and brown pegasus; who had at some point taken the seat beside mine. He faltered for a moment as I looked at him. His brown overgrown mane falling over his eyes. He shook his head quickly to clear his vision before he spoke once again: “Are you all right,” he asked, “you looked like you might’ve fallen asleep with your head at a bad angle.”
“I’m fine, thanks,” reciting the well-practiced line that I’d been using for years. Truthfully, my neck was more than a little stiff from staring out the window for who-knows-how-long. “I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Oh, alright... sorry if I bothered you then,” he replied, relaxing back into his seat.
“You didn’t, don’t worry,” I said, “you probably did just save me from a bad stiff neck actually, so thanks for that.”
“No problem, happy to help,” he said. “So, if you weren’t sleeping, what were you doing,” he asked.
I looked at him for a few moments, contemplating my answer, I returned my gaze to the window before I spoke; “I was just thinking,” I replied.
“May I ask about what,” he asked, “you didn’t even notice me walk up and sit down, did you?”
“No,” I admitted, “I was thinking about my parents, and why they’re sending me to Manehatten.”
“Oh...” he replied, falling silent; it was obvious that he wanted to know more, but was hesitant to keep questioning me.
I sighed, “My parents have never cared much for me,” I began, “They only ever bothered talking to me when there was some ulterior motive; like getting me to go to parties with them, so that they could act like the parents that they weren’t and try to impress all the other nobleponies.”
I looked over at him, wondering if I’d exaggerated his interest. His gaze was as inquisitive as ever, but there was something else lurking there now too... pity, perhaps?
I continued, “When I got old enough to know what was going, or maybe, because the other nobleponies tired of me; my parents stopped talking to me completely. They’d send a pony every now and then to check on things, and they hired a nanny to watch over me for them. Months would go by without a single sighting of them. I doubt the motive for this is any different; they’re just using me again to supplement their reputation, they don’t care about me.”
I glanced over at him. The inquisitiveness was gone from his gaze now, replaced by that other something, and suddenly I felt silly, gushing to this random pegasus about myself. Silence reigned for a few moments before I spoke up again; “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you listen to all of my problems..”
He perked up at that, “It’s alright, I don’t mind listening.” “So, what’s your name,” he asked.
“My parents called me Grey Hoof, but I go by Coal,” I replied. “So what’s your name?”
“Another pony with a nickname, huh? My name’s Feather Flurry, but I go by Aegis these days.”
I couldn’t stop a small laugh from escaping me. I looked over at him, worried that he’d taken it as an insult. He was smiling still. A thought flitted across my mind; Maybe he hadn’t heard?
“What’s so funny?”
The smile was still there.
“I was just thinking that nickname seems a little ironic. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re kinda small for a pegasus,” I said.
His smile grew wider, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d fallen into a trap.
“Looks can be deceiving.”
I’d heard the saying many times, but there was something in the way he said it that caught my attention. I opened my mouth to speak again, but the intercom came to life before I could speak.
“Hello everyone, we’ll be arriving in Manehatten in just another ten minutes. Please, take this time to prepare to disembark.”
“I suppose that’s my que to go find my brother,” he said with a sigh, “it was fun meeting you, I really enjoyed talking with you.”
My original response now purged from my mind, I replied with a simple “you too” as he turned and trotted up the aisle, and out of the room. I really had enjoyed talking to the colt, and now I was alone with my thoughts again.
The train came to a halt a few minutes later, and as I stepped off of the train, I looked around for the pegasus colt that I’d met on the train, but found nothing of significance other than the pony my parents had hired to escort me to the Academy. I approached him and he turned and began walking without a word. I followed, head down.
“So it begins,” I grumbled.
There was a buzz, and moments later the gates swung open. My escort turned and left without a word.
No doubt off to get paid, I thought with contempt.
The Academy was huge, to say the least. It was made up of four buildings, each big enough to be a school in itself. The grass was cut short as far as the eye could see; amongst it was not a single anomaly. It disgusted me. Walkways surrounded every building, branching out and connecting all of the buildings; coming together into a medium-sized fountain inbetween the four buildings. It was there that I noticed small congregation of ponies, or more specifically, unicorns, and moved to join them.
It made sense, I suppose. The other races couldn’t be magically gifted without magic, could they? I mean, there wasn't a flight school for unicorns, right?
As I neared the crowd, a magically-amplified voice filled the air; “-when orientation is finished you will all be shown to your respective dormitories. Now if you will all follow me, I will show you to the first of our academic facilities: The Arcana. The pony whom I assumed to be the instructor made her way out of the crowd, and proceeded to the first of the buildings.
Because of the size of the campus, the walk to the building was a long and boring one. Much of what wasn’t silence was filled by the blathering on of the instructor about the “high quality and standards of our academy.” She was insufferable. I’d been eager to reach my dorm and get some alone time before having to interact with anymore ponies, but it seemed that that simply wasn’t going to happen.
The Arcana was growing ever larger as the distance between it any myself diminished. It wasn’t long before that magically-amplified voice filled the air once more.
“This is the Arcana, it is here that all of your studies will take place," she said, gesturing towards the enormous building, "we offer a variety of courses on the development and strengthening of magical ability. Later on, you will receive a list of available courses, and you will be able to decide for yourself in which area of magic you would like to direct your studies, but for now let us continue with orientation.”
The instructor turned and began walking towards the next building. I was a little-less uninterested now; I hadn’t been expecting options of any kind in how I finished off my required schooling. The question that presented itself foremost amongst my thoughts was; What should I take?, following close behind was the arguably-more-important question; What is there to take?
“And here are the staff dormitories. You are never to enter without an invitation, and should only do so if there is a dire emergency that the staff members need be made aware of. Understood?”
A chorus of half-hearted acknowledgements came forth from the crowd of students. The instructor, satisfied with this, gestured towards the building directly across from the staff dormitories.
“Those are the male dormitories, and those,” she said, gesturing now to the building directly across from the Arcana, “are the female dormitories.” “See that you don’t get the two mixed up,” she said. “Now, you will need to break up into gender-specific groups and proceed to your respective dormitories. Once you arrive there, you will meet the staff members assigned to watch over your dormitories. They will show you to your rooms, and distribute the course lists and sign-up sheets. You should have all of your courses selected by the end of the day tomorrow. Classes begin the day after. What you do with your time between now and then is your decision.”
With that, the instructor turned and walked into the staff dormitories, and left us. Groups had already begun to form; there were two for each gender, male and female socialites had broken away from the whole to form their own groups and were already chattering away, the other two groups seemed to consist of quieter ponies. I joined the quiet group of fillies as they began making their way across campus towards the female dormitories.
The walk was uneventful and blissfully silent. It was a long walk to the female dormitories, but we made it there before long. As we walked through the main entrance, we were greeted by an orange and green unicorn who was a little too cheery for my taste.
“Hello everypony,” she said, smiling a smile that was far too wide, “I’ll be showing you to your rooms now, won’t that be terrific?”
Somewhere in the back of my head, I was thinking of that same overly-cheery voice saying; “I’ll be taking your skin now, won’t that be terrific?” Why that thought came to mind was beyond me, but it was inexplicably funny, and before I knew it I was laughing; perhaps a bit too loudly. When I’d calmed down I opened my eyes to find everypony was staring directly at me.
“Umm, sorry...” I said, directing my gaze at the ground.
Everypony stared for a few moments more and then began moving to catch up with the unicorn that had begun showing people their respective rooms during my fit of laughter. I felt like a fool, but that thought remained; making being overcome with laughter an ever-growing threat.
I stepped into my room and closed the door behind me with a sigh of relief; realizing it was already furnished, I tossed the course list onto the desk beside the door and moved to close the curtains. The room purged of light, I lay in bed. Content to take in the silence and the darkness; I preferred it very much to the company of other ponies, even the not-so-noisy ones. The darkness seemed to grow closer with each passing moment, not that I minded, and before long, it was all encompassing.
