It was the first day at my new high school. I had switched in the middle of the year. I just couldn’t take the bullying anymore. I had been in a preppy private Catholic school where the only way to be cool was to have rich parents, which I did not. I had only gotten in on a scholarship. I was the center of every joke at that school, and it only got worse when someone had found out I was a Brony. I had just entered this public school for the chance to start fresh. I was told to go to the front office to pick up my schedule. I glimpsed over it and saw that I had math first. Ugh I hate math.
Did I mention that it’s Tuesday? I hate Tuesday with a passion. Monday feels like a new beginning, like coming out of the water, you could start fresh. Wednesday was cool. It was the middle of the week, and it was like a chance to look back to see what you did wrong, then look forward to plan how to correct it. But Tuesday sat there, like a boiling cauldron of muck and grime, no matter how much you push to get through it, you are slowed by the bubbling lead of boringness that is made of missing Monday, and wanting Wednesday. It’s like Hell in a witch’s cauldron.
I walked to the locker with the number to match the one on my paper. As I turned the combination I felt like something bad was going to happen. As soon as I opened it there was a loud sound of a kazoo, as confetti and streamers blasted out of my locker. “Surprise!” I turned to see a tall kid with a small afro; he had a red shirt with a smiley face on it, white parachute pants, and a pink wristband with the words “Party Hard” on them. “Hello there new student, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Perry Johnson, call me PJ for short, though some people call me ‘Party-J’ ‘Party-Johnny’ ‘PJ-Par-Tay’ and a bunch of other stuff. What’s your name?”
“Du-um what?” was the only thing I could say.
“Oh you must be the exchange student from France. Bonjour!”
“No I’m American, but who are you?”
“I just told you, man this is the first time I’ve had to say it twice. I’m PJ.” He said trying his best to slow down.
“Ok…Why is there confetti and streamers in my locker?”
“That’s your welcome wagon; well I got in trouble for bringing the actual Welcome Wagon because it set off during a test, and I put the confetti in the oven and the cake in the confetti cannon, again.”
“Ok…but what do you want?” I asked, afraid of the answer, and then I realized, he acts like Pinkie Pie.
“Well duh…to take you on the PJ Prim and Proper Prudence Peterson Public* Power Pleasure Tour.” He wrapped one arm around me and with the other presented some invisible text.
“Why the ‘T-word’ at the end?”
“English is a limiting language…anyways on with the tour.” And before I knew it we were in front of the cafeteria. “Cafeteria. Staff is always happy to help, but just don’t get the chicken nuggets, seriously, you will regret it.” And in a flash we were in front of the Chemistry Lab. “This place is where we get to make stuff go ‘BOOOOOOOOM’ and ‘FIZZZZZZ’ and all that good stuff.” and then we were at the gym, “Remember, girls locker room on the left, boys on the right, and don’t get those confused. I still have the scar from where a cleat hit my face.” Then we were in the auditorium, “All the world’s a stage, and this would be stageception. Don’t whistle on stage and don’t mention Macers*!” we were off again and stopped in front of the School Seal in the front hall, “These are Stanton the Stag and Donna the Doe, our mascots, and they're Elks. Don’t step on their faces!” he pulled me close by my shirt, “Bad things happen when you step of their faces!” his eyes seemed to bulge out when he told me that. Then inexplicably we were in front of my locker again.
I looked down at my watch, ten seconds had passed, exactly. Wow.
“Anyways have a fun first day of school!” PJ said and disappeared into a nearby doorway.
Did I just meet my worlds version of Pinkie Pie? No it couldn't be right? Yet I had this nagging feeling that this PJ had some connection to the pink party pony.
During lunch the guy sitting next to me was talking to his friends loudly. He wore a football jacket with the word “Captain” sewn onto the front above the right pocket. He was small, but muscular, the back of his jacket said “Randall ‘The Dash’ Newton.” His jeans were a little loose and his hair looked like the wind is what he uses to clean and style it (and it did a good job). His hands were callused all over. The shirt he wore under his jacket was a light, cyan blue and he wore large sunglasses. "Hey you're the new kid right?"
"Yes." I said knowing that this would end badly.
"How are you doin' man?" he said in his raspy voice.
"Fine."
"My name's Randy, Randy Newton and you?"
"Are you going to stop beating around the bush or what?" I said irritated.
"What do you mean dude?" raising his sunglasses to his forehead revealing light brown eyes.
"What do you want? My money, my phone, what?"
"Dude I think we've got a case of profiling going on here. Just because I'm an athlete doesn't mean I want to beat you up." he put his hand on my shoulder. He seemed to have a moment of realization, "Oh that's right. You came from that preppy private school, well let me tell you here, we are all Stags and Does here, and no there is no pecking order, I make sure of that as one of the student council members."
I continued eating my lunch quietly.
"Here let me show you something." he stood up, cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, "Stags, Does what's your cry?"
The entire cafeteria erupted in noise and the cheer, "V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!"
"Stags, Does, what do ya say?"
"We charge and we buck and we win all day!"
"Does, Does do your thing!"
All the girl's voices rose up in response, "We fight to the top 'til we get that ring*!"
"Stags, Stags what do you do?"
This time all the guy's voices shouted the response, "We pierce our antlers straight through you!"
"Elks?"
"ELKS!"
The noise slowly died down as everyone went about their lunch. "See we're one big, 'gang*' if you wish. If one Elk is in danger, the rest of them come to its aid. We're loyal to the core, especially me. Loyalty is my policy." he gave me a shiny-toothed grin and for a split second, I thought I saw Rainbow Dash in place of him. Must be the cafeteria food getting to me.
"We weren't like that at my old school." I said, "The Tigers were all like a hungry frenzy of jungle cats ready to pounce at each other. If you're parents didn't have the money to get you a cool car or video games, then you were a nobody."
The bell rang and there was a mad dash to the door from all directions. "Which class do you have next?" asked Randy.
"Uuuuum..." I reached into my pocket and grabbed the orange paper with my schedule on it that I received in the office. "It says, Biology, room 231."
"Ahh, you've got Mr. Elkridge." he pointed to the right, "Go down that hallway and turn when the hall does, halfway down it there are some doors. Go through them and up the stairs, take a left and it's the third door on the left."
"Thanks." I replied and took off.
When I got to the class room there was one girl in the room, she wore a white sleeveless tank top, an orange skirt with monarch butterflies on it, black finger less gloves, black knee-high boots, and her eyes were a glowing lake of gold. She was breathtaking to be honest. "Hi." she said, "You must be the new kid, I'm Autumn, the Senior aide for Mr. Elkridge this period. Your seat should be right there." she pointed to a desk in the middle of the room. "We're working on an experiment today that we started yesterday, but your partner was absent as well yesterday, so you shouldn't be too far behind." her soft angelic voice was like music to my ears, and if I had Pegasus wings, it would be a very awkward wing boner moment right now. "Is everything alright?" she asked, "you look really red around the cheeks and forehead."
"Um uh no I'm fine." I said flustered and took my seat. Then I finally got a look at the room around me, there were animals everywhere, not even in cages, how was it possible?
Autumn must have seen me looking at all the animals, "Oh these are our class pets, they get along very well, Mr. Elkridge says it's me but I'm not sure." a white bunny then jumped into her arms from a very unrealistic distance. "This is Angel, he's a nice little rabbit, and we have birds, rodents, and a snake and other reptiles and amphibians. They've all had their shots of course, and they're all fixed."
"That's really cool." I replied, slowly realizing that this school was looking more like Ponyville with each new person I met.
The five-minute tone sounded and students flooded into the room.
After the teacher said "begin" after a very brief recap of the day before I was shown to where my partner was waiting. He was white, very white, like ill-looking white.
"Hello there." he said. He had blonde hair with blue stripes and wore a silver medical bracelet with the first-aid cross on it. He wore a light blue sweater and black jeans.
"Hi." I said staying about a foot away from him.
"Oh come closer you. I don't bite, and I'm not contagious. I'm just an albino, see?" he held up his medical bracelet and I saw that "albino" was one of the first things on the very long list. His red eyes seemed to stare straight through me.
"Okay." I said and scooted closer.
"I'm Indy Virgil." he said and started to work on the project.
About halfway through class he said to me without looking up from the half-dissected owl pellet (one of twenty we had to dissect total) "Don't even think about it."
"What?" I asked.
"I see the way you keep looking at Autumn. Firstly she's a Senior, you and, along with the rest of this class, are Juniors. Secondly, she's not looking for a relationship right now."
"You mean she's taken?" I asked.
"No. Thirdly, she is my friend, and if you even think about her funny..." he paused still not looking at me. "I'll destroy you." for a second I thought I saw Rarity's death stare in his red eyes.
I gulped, the fact that he barely even look at me scared me.
"And finally." he continued after a pause. "I've already got my eye on you for myself mister." He finally looked up at me his head still down and gave a playful smile.
"I'm not sure how I feel about that." I responded.
"Oh you're straight, well so is spaghetti, until it gets hot."
"That's Captain Jack's line." I said.
"You can't blame me for trying."
"Okay class, ten minutes to clean up, and please remember to wash your hands thoroughly, they may just look like balls of fur and bone but they can carry a lot of bacteria!" Shouted the teacher.
My seventh period was no less eventful than the rest of my day. It was Stagecraft, where you learn about all the backstage stuff that goes on in the school plays. I didn't have a pair of gloves so I couldn't do anything, and when the stage manager saw me just standing there she came up to me and said, "Sugar, what in tarnation are ya doin'?"
"Um I don't have gloves..."
"Well here's a pair of mine I'm not usin' now go on, git." she handed me yellow leather work gloves that were soiled but still managed to get the job done.
"Ok." I said slipping on the gloves. They were a little bit too big, for me and my hands slipped on the ropes. I was trying to bring in a batten when my hand slipped and the rope flew out of my hand. I watched in horror expecting the batten to come down onto the stage, but instead it flew out. "Wha-?" I started but was cut off by the stage manager.
"You should consider yerself mighty lucky that we run an arbor-heavy system here. You coulda' really hurt somebody."
"I'm sorry." I said.
"Well sorry ain't gonna cut it when you've really hurt someone. Sorry but that's the truth, one screw up could be costly." she extended a hand to help me up, but as she pulled me up my hand slid out of the glove and I fell back on my butt. "Well that's yer problem sugar. Your gloves need to be snug, like a second skin almost. Come to the shop I'll help ya find a pair."
When we walked into the workshop I got a better look at her than on the dim stage. She had red hair, green eyes, and very tanned skin. She was wearing a black button-up shirt, a denim skirt, grey leggings, and brown leather knee-high cowboy er...cowgirl boots. On her boots and belt buckle were golden apple designs. I whispered to myself, "Applejack?"
"No time for cereal now new kid. Now your arms are scrawny little things. Boy you need to get meat on those bones. You are probably a size small." she said grabbing and inspecting my hands. "Now let's see we've got these here." she said slipping a pair of black work gloves onto my hands. And then...the bell rang. So much for that.
I dropped the gloves back where the stage manager got them from and started for the door. "What's yer name again new kid?" asked the stage manager catching up to me.
"Kieth Majiks" I said.
"Strange name if ya ask me. But anyways I'm Alexis Jackson, but you can call me Alex." she said smiling.
That my friends, was the end of the strange happenings of my day, I went to my locker, went home, and watched ponies.
%i%
"Keith...? Kieth...? Kieth!" I woke up, or at least thought I did. I opened my eyes and I was standing in a dark void with glowing lights. The voice was like that of an angel.
"Hello?" I called back.
"Good you finally heard me." the voice replied. The voice was familiar, and it felt like rays of sunshine on my bare back in the summer time. "I don't have much time for what I must tell you."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"You'll find that I'm somepony quite familiar." then into the light stepped a shining, figure. She was Princess Celestia standing there with her white wings extended out to the sides making her look twice as big.
"Wha...How?" I stammered.
"I assure you that this is a dream. But that does not mean it is any less real than your waking moments." she was just tall enough that her horn could poke me in the eye. Those "Equestria Girls" height measurement charts were very precise. "Now here is what I must tell you: 'The five, the five, the five you find, will lead to what can no longer bind. The one is one to show what for, this evil must be stopped before.'"
"Really? In verse? Why does everything have to be in verse?" I said. Only now do I realize that my voice went up a pitch with each time I spoke to Celestia.
"Well it doesn't have to be, but it's more interesting that way." she said with her trollestia look.
"Could you explain a bit?" I asked.
"Sure why not? So basically, you know of the elements of harmony, correct?"
"Yes."
"Well what you didn't know is that each world has its own set of elements, and I have contacted you because your world is in danger."
"From what?"
"A great evil whose power I was barely able to defeat without the aide of my sister and-"
"Let me guess...Sombra?" I cut her off.
"Well...um...yes...actually...okay but that's not important. What is important is that you are the bearer of the element of Magic."
"What?"
"And Sombra will strike tomorrow."
"What?"
"And you have to find six new friends who parallel the Elements you know of in Equestria: Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty before 18:00 tomorrow."
"WHAT?"
"I don't have much time left, but-"
"Why couldn't you tell me sooner?"
"You weren't ready. Sadly King Sombra is."
"Wait!"
"Yes?"
"Can you help?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"I have no power in your world."
"And Sombra does?"
"He cheated."
"How?"
"Black Magic."
"Like you can't use Black Magic."
"It's complicated." she explained.
"How? How is it complicated?"
"I am a creature of light, thus it is against every fiber of my being to perform dark magic. To be honest, I barely managed to pull it off to show Twilight."
"Okay, but what do I do?"
"That's easy, watch Season 1 episodes 1 and 2. You should find your answers there." The void started to rumble and purple fog started appearing around us. "I must go now."
"Wait!" I shouted, but it was too late.
I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing. I felt a dark presence in my room, but I knew what I had to do.
