Minority

“Grandpa, can you please tell me a story?”  Honey asked.  She was an earth pony, like the rest of her family.  She had yellow fur with a teal mane and bright blue eyes.  Honey and her mother, Sugar Song, came to check up on Feather Quill, her grandfather.

“I don’t know, Honey.  It’s time for you to go home.  Besides, you must have something better to do than listen to my old stories,”  Feather said.

“No I don’t, and I like your stories!  Please, grandpa?  Pretty please?”  She was using the puppy dog eyes.  Feather could never resist the puppy dog eyes of a foal, especially not his granddaughter, and Honey knew it too.

“Fine, but only if you mother says you can stay a little longer.”  Feather turned to look at his daughter.  On the couch was a mass of pink fur, with a green mane poking out the top.  Sugar was one hundred percent asleep.  Feather got up, and walked to his daughter.

“Sugar?  Sugar, if you are going to stay asleep, don’t say a single word,” Feather said while nudging her.  Being already asleep, she didn’t hear him.  It didn’t help that he was whispering as quietly as he could.

“I don’t think she’ll wake up too soon.”  He said while smiling at Honey.  He walked back to his chair, sat down, and levitated a pipe to his mouth.  Feather never smoked, it was just something to chew on.  “Let’s get started.  After all, most ponies won’t see an earth pony levitating things around everyday.”

~~~~~

Feather’s story started at the Canterlot College, were he worked.  He was a teacher in the foreign language department.  He taught Grévy, the language of the zebras, and was fluent in every way.  He knew every word, including the slang.  Feather had always had a knack for languages since he was a colt.  He always did his work by himself, lesson planning, grading test, and etcetera.  It was all done in the privacy of his office, or his apartment.

He was always alone to hide his telekinesis.  When he worked, there were papers being levitated left and right.  He had one test with all the answers filled in, and just referenced the student’s tests to it.  Once a test was graded, he put it in a pile, and levitated the next one to start the process over.

It was like that the entire time he had worked there.  He was always working alone.  That was how it was until Summer Reading, a co-worker of Feather’s, walked in on him. When he realized that he was being watched, he turned around to look at her.  She was scared, and rightly so.  Since Feather had no horn, there was no aura of magic surrounding the objects.

“Feather, what’s happening?” she asked, starting to back out the door.  Her face was contorted in a mix of fear and surprise.  Her eyes had widened to a ridiculous size, and her pupils had shrunken to smallest he had ever seen pupils shrink.

At the time, it was the worst moment in Feather’s life.  When he noticed that she came into the room, he had lost his concentration.  The papers had come crashing down to the floor with a thump.  He was so nervous that he could barely form words, and started to stutter.  “N-now just hold on a minute.  T-this isn’t what it looks like!”

“Please, just tell me what is happening.” she asked, taking another half step back.

“What do you think is happening?”

“I think that I’m going insane.  There is no way that this could possibly be happening!”

“Summer, just calm down.”  Feather pleaded as he started to walk toward her.  He was hoping that her good nature would hold true.  He had worked with her for years.  He had gone to the barbeque that her husband held at the end of every school year.  She was a good mare, and would not harm a fly to save her life.

“Stay away from me!  Don’t ever talk to me again!” She commanded.  Just as soon as she had entered, she was gone.  Feather heard the sound of her hoof steps running away.  He just sat quietly in his office chair, drinking in the silence.  It was the closest he had ever been to being in trouble because of his power.  He started to pack his stuff into his saddlebag and get out of the school as soon as possible.

~~~~~

Celestia had already raised the moon high into the night sky when Feather finished packing his saddlebag.  Every thing he needed to finish grading the tests had been packed up.  A spare test with the answers filled in, extra ink and pens, but most importantly were the actual tests.

Feather was always the last one out of the building, and tonight was no different. Because he was the last one out, he became a good friend with the janitor, Squeaky Clean.  Squeaky was a friendly stallion, and in his entire time of working at the College, Feather could only remember one time that he had missed work, and that was when his mother died.  However, he wasn’t there.

I wonder where he could be, Feather thought to himself.

The school was the quietest Feather had ever heard it.  Something was off.  Even at this hour, there were some stupid ponies running around campus, but for some reason, the halls were empty.  The front door was just down the hallway from him.  When he got there, it was locked.  He got out his keys from his saddlebag, and started to unlock it.  All that he managed to do was get his key stuck in the lock.

He groaned, but with a bit of force, he pulled the key from its place.  Now that he had his key back, he was off to find a side entrance.  When he turned around, there was a red pegasus standing there.  He had a coat on that had the hood pulled up to cover himself.  All that showed were his hooves.

“Who are you?” Feather asked.

“It depends.  If my informant is right, then I’m a very good friend.” The hooded pony replied.

“If your informant was wrong?”

“Than I’m just a strange stallion.  We’ve watched you for a year or two now.  We never were sure if you had what we wanted but we’ll make sure we know tonight.”

“Who is this ‘we’ your talking about?” Feather asked, getting more suspicious by the second.

“That would be us, ‘friend.’”  To the left, was another hooded pony walking out of the shadows.  This one was orange, and holding a crowbar in his mouth.  From the right was a third hooded pony.  This one was teal and unarmed.  Once again, the red pony in the middle spoke up.

“We know about the special talent you have.  Not the language, but the other one.  You know what I’m talking about.  Your telekinesis.  We just have a few questions for you.  Now, you’ll need to come with us.  If you resist we will take you by force.  So, what’ll it be?”

Feather quickly thought about what to do, until settling on an answer.  “I don’t think so.” He quickly grabbed them in spheres of his telekinesis, and through the orange one into a trophy case, shattering the glass and sending the trophies sprawling out on the ground.  The teal one was thrown into the wall hard enough to leave a sizeable hole, and stay in it.  They both were going to stay out for a while.  However, the one in the middle was still there.

“You missed me.”  Feather decided to play it differently this time.  He grabbed the pegasus in a ball of telekinetic energy, and slammed him into the ground.

This was where the hooded pony drew the line.  In a fraction of a second, he had gone from one side of the room and was now next to Feather, but his cloak was blown off.  It was Swift Victory, a pegasus racer.  He was known around Equestria for winning almost every race he was in.

Feather didn’t know whether he should be scared or happy that a celebrity had attacked him at work.  He was starting to lean closer to scared when a thought occurred to him.  Swift Victory had disappeared after winning his last race, and was declared dead.  How could he be here attacking me if he’s dead? Feather thought.

He leaned in close, and whispered into Feather’s ear.  “Sorry, you’re to slow.”  Feather felt a prick in his left fore leg and started to wobble.  His vision slowly started to tunnel, before he lost all feeling in his legs, and collapsed.  The last thing he saw before blacking out was Swift walking away to check on the other two ponies with him.

~~~~~

Just as Feather finished his sentence, Sugar awoke with a yawn, catching the attention of Honey, and Feather.  Feather had long ago forgotten just how heavy a sleeper Sugar is since she moved out.  Sugar rolled over, and fell off the couch with a groan of pain.  She had done it when she was a foal, but once again, Feather had forgotten.

“You used to do that when you were a filly,” Feather chuckled.

“I know dad, you tell me every time it happens.”

“Mommy, mommy, grandpa told me a story while you were asleep!”  It was Honey’s turn to be excited now.  She ran back to her mother and put her hooves on Sugar’s side.  Sugar just lay there and listened to another retelling of Feather’s stories.  The only difference being that it came from her daughter, and had most of it left out.  Honey retold her favorite parts, and kept trying to climb onto Sugar's back.

With a sigh, Sugar got up, forcing her daughter to give up on trying to climb her back.  She looked at Feather and asked, "What time is it?"

Feather turned to his left and looked at the clock hanging from the wall.  "About five thirty."

“Well, I think it’s about time to get going.  Are you ready, Honey?”

“No!  I wanna hear the rest of grandpa’s story!”  Honey started to pout again.

Feather never thought of himself as a storyteller.  He thought that he was mediocre, at best.  Honey had liked the story much more than Feather thought, because she was using the puppy dog eyes to try and hear the end of the story.  Just like before, Feather never could resist a foal with puppy dog eyes.

“How about this, if you come back next Sunday that I promise that I’ll tell you the rest of my story.  How about it?”

“Really grandpa?  You’ll tell me more?”

“Of course I will," Feather said with a smile."Right now you need to go home.  If you don’t, what do you think will happen to your father?  He’ll start to miss you, won’t he?  We can’t have that, now can we?”

“No, I don’t want dad to miss me!” she shouted.  She turned back to Sugar and shouted, “Mommy, we have to go home, or daddy will start to miss me!”  Less than a minute ago she was begging to stay, now she was begging to leave.  That is why Feather loved foals.   They cared about anypony near them.  Even if they didn’t know them, they would still help in any small way.  Even if they were a pain in the flank some times, Feather still loved them.

Now that Honey agreed with her mother, they said their goodbyes, and were out the door, just like any other Sunday.  He watched them go out the door before going to the window.  He watched them walk down the street to get to their house.  Feather never could wait until he saw his granddaughter again.