Another

Another

By C4TCHFire

Nothing was out of the ordinary.

He was in the abandoned classroom on the second floor once more; a nice spot, in his opinion. The room stayed warm in the winter and cool in the warmer seasons, large amounts of sunlight filtering from the row of windows on one side of the space. The peaks of the pink, blossoming trees tickled the bottoms and sides of the windows, giving whoever was on the inside a pleasant view of the foliage during it's proper season. A number of oddly vintage-looking tables and chairs were arranged around the room (left there by someone who clearly didn't need them, as he had first discovered them with a considerable inch of dust on them).

He himself had taken to the liberty of adding bookshelves around the room to compliment the furniture, and together, with the help of some friends, filled those bookshelves with books. Every day, after the dull tones of the bell had punctuated the end of school, he went to this room, let his bag down, and read. And that's exactly where he was once more, turning the pages of a light novel he had bookmarked at it's third to last chapter the previous day, eager to finish it. Again - very important - nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Hey! Man, this guy is so boring!"

Something firm and simultaneously sort of cushy prodded at his head. A hoof. He distinguished an aggressive, boyish voice, and the color of light blue dissipating from the corner of his eyes. She'd been jabbering the entire time, and caught the last bit of her rambling,

"..could've been at least sorta interesting, but now he's all about books, just like egghead Sparkle over there!"

"I'm not an egghead, Rainbow Dash! And please, leave him alone!"

"Goodness gracious, darling, your hair is lovely and all, but it could really do with some combing.."

Another hoof prodded tentatively at one side of his head, Rainbow Dash busy with the other side. The voice belonged to the ivory pony, the one with extravagant and, in his opinion, much too curly purple hair.

He closed his eyes. Realizing his muscles were tense, he tried to relax and continued reading.

"E-excuse me mister, but what kind of food does a 'human' eat? I.. um, I got some vegetables from the garden.. and some of these oranges that were meant for the frugivores.."

The softly vanilla-colored one was offering something bright in front of his face.

"I have to say, Twilight, this ol'.. er, what's it again. The 'he-man'..?"

"That's 'human,' Applejack."

"Well, this fellow here sure ain't very sociable, is he?"

The orange, apricot colored pony had trotted up to him with a resounding "clip-clop" sound ringing against the wooden floor and gave him a hard shove.

"Y'know, you've been here a few days, I think you can lighten up a little there, partner!"

"Deary me, what's that dreadful strand of hair doing sticking up there? I do apologize, but if I don't fix it it will be quite the death of me, I assure you.."

"Heeeey! Egghead! Done reading yet?"

"Oh! I'm so, so sorry! Do you not like oranges? I knew I should have just left those at home - oh, t-try one of these mister! Everyone likes a good turnip.."

Twilight Sparkle looked up from her studies, staring across the room at the boy, surrounded by a great canvas of different colors. He sported an ordinary teenager's look, averaging a moderate height for a high schooler (Twilight herself barely up to his chest) and relatively in shape - however, sitting down, all the other ponies were free to approach him unhindered by something like size difference. His slightly messy, medium-length maroon hair complimented a pair of expressive, dark eyes, which she noticed had a certain shine to them when something interesting had caught his eye - however, they looked positively lifeless to her at the moment, as if forced to focus on the pages in front of him. And he was dressed in the same clothes he was wearing the day he arrived in Equestria (granted, it had been washed). A dark uniform comprised of a white dress shirt, a yellow sweater, a dark pair of pants, and an unbuttoned, black coat laced with shades of azure and gold that oddly seemed to work. He didn't have any fur, scales, hair, or anything else either - weird, considering Twilight usually ran into creatures that had a coat of something on their bodies to keep them warm during colder times.  The boy's own skin was a delicate, creamy color, and mostly unblemished - but his personal features were nothing to marvel at. He wore the expression of a person who had lost all meaning to live, and rigidly sat, his eyes scanning the same sentence on the same page numerous times.

Rarity sat directly behind him, poking and prodding at his maroon hair, sometimes using magic to work out any kinks that she herself couldn't do with a hoof. Rainbow Dash fluttered above him, forcefully tapping on him, clearly trying to provoke a reaction of some sort; Fluttershy awkwardly held various foods in front of his face, anxious but clearly curious. Pinkie Pie was busy at Sugarcube Corner that day, thank Celestia for that - meanwhile, Applejack sat nearby, staring at him with a frown, as if gazing long enough at him would tell her exactly why he sat in such a stoic manner, the stocky book cradled in his hands, seemingly ignoring her and all the other ponies.

Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Of course, that's about as untrue as any lie could possibly hope to get, because though Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's faithful student, and the world around her had not changed much since the arrival of this human, everything was out of the ordinary for the maroon haired youth sitting at the other end of her library, and it wouldn't do much good to keep pretending. It was a shame, really, because the daydream he was having moments before was quite a good one, accurate too.

Finally fed up with the constant prodding from all directions, he let out a deep sigh and let his book down on the miniature wooden table in front of him, letting the book snap shut on it's own. He didn't get angry often, and certainly he wouldn't today, not in this company. However, it wasn't like he could force himself to keep reading any longer in this situation, and therefore gave up his facade, his fatigue now very clearly visible. Excited to have gotten a reaction out of him, Rainbow Dash backed off and gazed at the back of his head expectantly, all the other ponies backing off for a moment at the sight of signs of life within the boy.

I haven't been able to think for the past few hours.. so, let's start from the beginning, just for the sake of my sanity.

His name was Kirigaya Hiro - or, since most people put surnames last, Hiro Kirigaya. He was a sixteen year old high school transfer student from Kawagoe City, located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. His blood type was B+, his nationality a mix of Japanese and English descent, and he had been attending a public school in Manhattan only days before everything changed, when he had been plunged headfirst into this new, different, rather pastel (in his opinion) world.

Rainbow Dash had gone back to tapping on his head ferociously,

"Hey, nerd! If you're done reading, why not come out and play? I'll show you some of my new tricks, it'll be totally sweet!"

Rarity clapped her hooves together in excitement, "You know what you would look positively lovely in? A dress! Say, if you're done reading, why not join me in the Boutique?"

"O-oh, I don't suppose all animals like turnips as much as I thought.. u-um, a nice sunflower maybe..?"

"Y'know, er.. 'Hero,' is that right? We're harvesting some apples today! And, y'know, the whole family's helpin' out and all, but I could use an extra hoof - er, pony- no.. hye-man to help out!"

Applejack followed up her broken and hesitant words with a hurried afterthought, "O-of course, I'm not askin' you to do this for free! You can feel free to stick around for dinner after, y'know? The harvest's really good this year! Real good.."

The orange-colored pony sat there awkwardly, still trying to figure the maroon-haired youth out.

Twilight was beginning to feel sorry for Hiro when a small (his height still dwarfed by Twilight even sitting down), had trotted into the room with a tray of drinks and set one down next to Twilight's study. Spike observed Hiro from a distance, a rather pitying look in his eyes as he whispered,

"He's getting it rough, isn't he Twilight?"

Before the purple mare could even open her mouth, the door to the library burst open in an explosion of pink and confetti, upsetting about a dozen books from the bookshelves around the room.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeere's the party!"

No matter how hard Hiro focused, he couldn't return to the memory of the soft-shaded, pleasant room he had visited every day after school. In the light of all that was happening, his past life was fading away faster than he'd have believed it.