Letters from St. Valentine's High

by sev62fmj

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Tragedy
Length: 7050

A chemistry lab gone wrong throws Michael's life in a completely new direction.

A chemistry lab gone wrong throws Michael's life in a completely new direction. Michael will to succeed will be pushed to the limit as he unwittingly is made to attend the nation's most unwelcoming school (but for some reason the most prestigious) school. No documents of his attendance at St. Valentine's High School were found. Officials could only tell Michael's harrowing tale through his letters to home.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-24 00:50:15 UTC

Preface

A/N: I probably could, but I’m deciding to start this story off with a bit of background to the upcoming events. However, this prologue contains little to no pony. If you can’t stand that, go ahead and skip the prologue; it’s not required to understand the story. Like I said, it just provides background and gives more context.

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“This unit will be the base of your lab challenge. Be sure to do well in it. Remember, 5% error or less and you will be exempted from the final if you have also achieved the 90% test or quiz average and you have looked beautiful for the entire semester.” Every student was silent and intently listening to Mr. Mac’s monologue. Normally, everyone would be fast asleep. However, a chance to chance to skip the final AND get an automatic A on it was too good a chance to pass up.

Mr. Mac’s monologue seemed to end and everyone almost fell back asleep. However, he spoke up again, “Oh! I almost forgot. There is something that you will need to practice if you want to do well on the lab challenge.”

All the students snapped back into wakefulness and began to listen intently once again. “Patience: you must practice patience if you want to do well on the lab challenge. I will tell you. This lab will require a lot of patience.”

“Well shit,” Michael thought to himself. “I’m screwed.” Michael did not have much patience.

The day of the lab challenge came quickly and the classroom had an air of dreadful excitement throughout. Michael was especially afraid for today. If anything, he had gotten more impatient over the past few months. The past few months mostly consisted of studying for finals, which was something not too particularly exciting. There was also the finale of the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which Michael could not wait for.

Thinking about this impatient nature was starting to make it worse. He stopped himself and started to think about the positive things. He had completed the symmetrical crossword challenge and got an extra 1.5% leeway in the challenge. If all went wrong, he had the ace from the Period Table bingo game which would raise his grade an entire letter grade (unless it was an A in which case it would, for some strange reason, bring his grade to an F). To top it all off, he was already doing very well in this class, having had private tutoring from his older brother, who was currently taking biochemistry in college.

Things would be alright. Michael had many fallbacks. All he needed to worry about at the moment was the lab challenge. Apply 3 ounces of fluid solute to the solvent, shouldn’t be a problem. Michael just needed to apply the 3 ounces of solute to the solvent... drop by drop. Michael’s patience would be tested. Fuck.

10 more drops of 535, that’s all Michael needed. Nine drops, eight drops- something was on his sweater, and it was a heavy stain bleeding through the fabrics of his sweater. He looked up to see another student twiddling her thumbs. She quietly responded, “Sorry...”

Chemical spill. Michael cut everything he was doing and ran for the decontamination shower. And by “dropping everything he was doing” Michael dropped the his own beaker of solution on himself. The spills from both his beaker and the other student’s beaker put Michael in a searing pain. He collapsed the the ground. His fists were clenched in a vain attempt to distract himself from the pain. The burning only grew stronger as he began flailing across the floor. In his panic, Michael knocked over more chemicals from a table of old lab experiments from the week before.

Michael’s screaming had alerted Mr. Mac that something was obviously and gravely wrong. Seeing the massive screw up, he ordered all the students to exit the room via the back room. Mr. Mac slipped on safety gloves and dragged Michael to the decontamination shower and began to hose down Michael. Mr. Mac wasn’t panicked by the situation however. Coupled with his observant nature, he noticed Michael’s skin was boiling and changing into something completely alien.

“I need to do something else for the lab challenge.” He thought to himself.

“Traci, there’s a developing situation in one of the chemistry classrooms.”

“Did someone start a fight?”

“No, there’s no fighting, but Traci, you need to see this.”

“Tell me what happened and I’ll decide if it’s worth taking a look.”

“It’s.. well... Traci, I don’t think words can properly describe this.”

“Just tell me.”

“One of the students... transformed into something.”

“Something? Like what?”

“I don’t know yet Traci. But this is definitely big. The media is going to want a piece of this and when this hits the news, the federal government is going to have their eyes on us. You need to see this, Traci.”

Principal Traci Williams gave in. She rose from her desk and followed the assistant principal to the site of the incident. As they entered the hall, several teachers were peering out of their classroom doors, curious as to what the screaming was about. A look inside the classroom would reveal the students had similar curiosities. “Back to your lessons, I’ll bring the situation under control.”

As Principal Williams passed by each classroom, the teachers slipped back into their respective classrooms, trying to return to their lesson plans. When she arrived at the room of the incident, she found students crowded around the door. “Excuse me, why are you all out of class?”

“We’re from Mr. Mac’s class. He told us to wait outside and that no one is allowed inside the classroom unless he says it’s okay.” Traci looked to the assistant principal.

“It was Mr. Mac’s class,” he replied.

“Very well.” Traci turned to the students. “Go to the library, you have a study period this period.”

Quietly, the students walked away from the scene. Principal Williams spoke through the door. “Mr. Macasaet, it’s Principal Williams. Can I come in?”

A voice, almost drowned out by the shower, responded, “Go in through the back door. It should be unlocked. Traci pulled away from the door and went around to the back door. To say that she was surprised would be a vast understatement. “Mr. Macasaet?”

Mr. Macasaet, having drained the shower’s water supply, put the head back onto the mount. “I tried to wash out the chemicals.” He looked to the alien figure beneath him. “It didn’t work...”

“Don’t worry Mr. Macasaet, you tried.” Traci looked at the alien figure again. “My god...”

A pony-like creature was slumped against a wall where a human teenager had previously lain against. His maroon coat and charcoal mane was soaking from the extensive washing of chemicals Mr. Mac had attempted. A horn of the same color as its coat protruded from the center of its forehead.

Mr. Macasaet semi-cheerfully remarked, “He looks just like a unicorn!”

Michael had been consciousness for some time now. It wasn’t a very long time, only 15 minutes long. 15 minutes however lasted less than an instant to Michael’s mind. When he finally regained some sense of mortality, his mind was still limited in functions. He remembered something about an accident. What was the accident about? Who was involved?

His mind clicked. Me. The events came back to Michael slowly, but steadily, replaying as fast as it happened. He had been working on his lab challenge, and then Alex had spilled her solution on him. He tried to make a dash to the decontamination shower to clean himself, but he had dropped his own solution on himself in the process. After that, all he could remember was that he was screaming at the top of his lungs while the chemicals were burning his skin and flesh.

His bodily functions were almost back to normal. His muscles were a bit slow however and his vision was still blurry. Headache, headache, headache. “Okay brain,” Michael thought, “I get it. I have a fucking headache.” Headache, headache, headache. “Okay fine, be that way.”

Michael tried to bring his hand to massage his temples. He couldn’t feel his hands. The only thing rubbing his forehead were some sort of dull appendages. “Where the hell are my hands? Ah, screw it.” Michael relaxed his muscles. Coincidentally, the appendages stopped pestering his head at the same time. Several second later, his vision began to improve. “Hopefully, that chemical spill didn’t get into my eyes.”

Michael could hear someone shouting his name? Yes, that person was definitely shouting his name. It seemed so soft though? His hearing must still be asleep from the kick into unconsciousness. His vision had completely recovered while he was on his thought about his hearing. Principal Williams was shouting at him. His hearing was still dull.

He tried to use his hands again. This time, he tried to gesture to his ears and then swing his hand across throat to indicate his hearing wasn’t functioning well. Michael still hadn’t seen his hands, but Principal Williams seemed to have understood the gesture. Satisfied with that, he relaxed his muscles once more.

“Actually...” Michael thought to himself. Michael tried to get back onto his feet. His mind clicked: all feet are on the ground. “Well, my muscles seem to be working fine now.” Michael looked straight ahead, expecting his eyes to meet with the Principal’s. Instead, he found himself staring at her crotch. Luckily for Michael, his mind had already collected itself and remembered that he was a teenage and she was an adult.

Why was he looking down that low though? He wasn’t hunched over, his knee were almost perfectly straight (if your knees are perfectly straight and locked in, you could actually pass out). Perhaps his mind was receiving deceptive signals from the rest of his body. With that thought, Michael proceed to give himself a visual once over and nearly toppled over.

No arms, hands or feet. He had hooves. “Sweet Luna! What the hell is this!?” His outburst blasted through Michael’s ears as he winced at the sound. Michael looked up at Principal Williams, who had a stern look on her face. “Um, I think I got my hearing back.”

“Mmhmm.” Was her simple and wordless reply.

Desperate the change the subject, Michael looked over his body once more. “What happened to me?”

“I... don’t know.” Williams turned to Mr. Mac. He nodded “no”. “In any case, there are some federal officials coming to look into the matter. Until then, you are on suspension pending an official statement from the government.”

“Suspension? But I-”

Principal Williams interrupted. “Michael, don’t worry. Suspensions aren’t given out only because a student is in trouble. Suspension just means that there is an issue that needs to be sort out before we can allow the student to return to his studies.”

“Oh, well when you put it that way, I guess suspension isn’t a bad thing, but how am I supposed to continue with my school work? I have hooves now... no hands...”

“Don’t worry,” Principal Williams patted Michael’s head, “We’ll work something out.”

“Did she just pat my head?” Michael thought to himself. “Oh whatever.”

As much as his transformation into a pony was confusing to him, Michael was also extremely ecstatic. Michael had been with the My Little Pony fandom since it first began on 4chan. Now he was a living and breathing pony. He was disappointed that he wasn’t transformed into a pegasus or a unicorn, but- Wait. Michael hadn’t confirmed that yet! He reached for his back. As he did this, he made a thought on how comfortably he was moving his limbs. His hoof made contact with his coat: no wings. It was disappointing at first, then Michael realized how deathly afraid he was of heights. “Heh, no use in wings if I’m going to be afraid to be in the air.”

Next, Michael reached for his forehead. Being the humble person (now a pony) he was, he wasn’t expecting to touch anything other than his forehead. How wrong he was: Michael felt the bone of his gleaming horn on his head. Inside, Michael felt his heart explode and he cried in a fantastic cheer! “I’m a bleedin’ unicorn!”

The rest of Michael’s day consisted of student crowding around him like he was a celebrity. Those who recognized what he was either even more excited than the others or regarded him as the scourge of the Earth. The school day was nearing its end however, and since Michael could not really attend his last class due to his inability to perform written schoolwork, the school staff simply allowed Michael to return home. The officials would meet him there tomorrow and Michael would explain what had happened to his parents himself.

When Michael had jumped onto the pony fandom, he was very open about it, not caring about the opinions of others. His family had mixed feelings about Michael’s embracement of the pony fandom. His mother and father thought it was extremely strange, but respected his interests. His older brother, who is now attending UCI (University of California, Irvine), was neutral on the matter, but supported Michael in his various pony-related activities. Lastly, Michael’s oldest brother, who was looking to a 5th year at SJSU (San Jose State University), had the most negative feelings toward Michael, garnering the attitude of what most bronies call a hater.

He would have a doozy explaining this to his family. Fortunately, Michael’s older brother had just left home from his Spring Break and was currently back in Irvine, seeing that his family lived in the Bay Area and not Southern California.

Arriving at his home’s doorstep, he attempted to grab the housekey from his lanyard. His hoof was much bigger than the key itself, and when he tried to grasp the key with two hooves, he fell over. Michael simply gave up that attempt and knocked on the door. With the clacking of the locks being unlocked, the door opened. Standing behind the door was his mother. She seemed oblivious however, as looked around the outside of the family property.

“Mom, down here.” Michael said loudly. She looked down and yelped.

“M-Michael?” She clasped her mouth, then turned away muttering. “I’ve must have been around Michael pony things too much. I must be hallucinating.”

“Mom, you’re not hallucinating!” Michael prodded his mother’s arthritis afflicted knee, much to his chargrin.

Michael’s mother yelped, this time, in pain. “Okay, I haven’t gone crazy, but Michael, how did this happen?” She knelt down so that she could be on the same level as her son. Her hand hovered next to Michael’s cheek.

Michael brough her hand down with his hoof. “Mom, can it wait until dinner, please?”

Michael’s mother looked into her son’s large eyes. “Oh course, dear.”

“One more thing mom.”

“Hmm?”

“Some people from the government are going to being coming over tomorrow.”

Michael’s mother face held a look of disappointment. She sigh. “Well, I suppose it was unavoidable, all things considered.”

“Yea.. unavoidable.” Michael couldn’t help but feel that no good would come from federal involvement, well or ill intended.

The family dinner, as Michael had expected, had garnered mixed reactions. His parents were shocked at the development. They wondered what they would do with all his human belongings: clothes, backpacks, personal computer, and a multitude of art materials. Something that got Michael thinking was what he would eat: as a human, Michael disliked eating vegetables. Now as a pony, vegetable were all he would be able to stomach, seeing that his pony body was herbivorous in nature.

In the end, it was mostly trivial things Michael’s parents pondered on. His older brother was not present to give an opinion, as he was current at Irvine. His oldest brother though, worried Michael. His oldest brother metaphorically ripped out his hair when he was what had happened to Michael. He took his dinner to his room and shut the door. With his improved hearing, Michael could make out the sounds of the furious clacking of typing. Michael presumed it to be his oldest brother angrily ranting to his internet friends.

A trio of federal agents had arrived a few minutes sort of noon at Michael’s house. They had many instruments including, but not limited to measuring tapes and cameras. For a long two hours, Michael had pictures of him taken like he was a crime scene, blood and saliva sample taken, miniscule patches of his coat and mane extracted, and tests measuring his hearing and visual ability administered.

One of the agents whistled, “Man, the guys back at the office are going to freaking slap us for thinking that we’re trying to screw with them.”

“Photographic evidence! It can’t be disputed!”

“For science...”

Michael broke in, “Que? No me comprendo.”

Conversation stopped as the agents turned their heads to stare at Michael. “And now he speaks Spanish. What is this, Dora the Explorer?”

“Dora the- no!” Michael fell onto his butt and put his front hooves over his mouth. “It’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!”

Despite the need to appear professional in public, Michael’s statement broke the federals into tears as they began laughing like hyenas. “Oh man, I remember that from the 80’s!”

“That was straight up terrible. Eh, you were a guy before all this, right Michael? Or was it Michelle?”

Michael groaned, “It’s Michael...”

The federals went back into an uproar, laughing louder than before at Michael. He didn’t mind it though. For one, Michael didn’t pay much attention to idle insults. As the brony community put into three short words: “Haters gonna hate.” If there weren’t haters, Michael knew that they would eventually get curious and look into My Little Pony. “Congratulations,” he thought to himself, “I’ve introduced ponies into the government.”

“Alright Michael,” Michael could see the agent trying to hold back giggles, “there’s one more thing we need to go over before we leave.”

“Like how I’m going to get back to my studies? I don’t have any freakin’ fingers!” Michael stuck his hoof in the agent’s face for emphasis.

The agent gently put Michael’s hoof back onto the ground. “Hey kid, don’t worry about it. We have a plan. I think it’s best if you discuss it with your parents instead of us. We’ll tell them what we’re planning later in the day.”

“Another talk over during dinner...” Michael stroked what would have been his chin. “Alright then.”

“Boarding school!?” Michael voice was that of typical teenager rejection of some decision. “Mom, dad, you know how I reacted when you sent me to Challenger. I did get some of my better friends there but... I digress! And what about my friends here?”

“I’m sorry Michael, but that’s what those people told us was going to happen. The government wants to see you in a educational environment that’s more controlled, as they put it.” Michael’s father still hadn’t touched his food; he was much more concentrated in the discussion with Michael. His mother hadn’t touched her food either. Michael’s oldest brother, as expected, had stormed off earlier, taking his dinner into his room.

Michael sighed, “So, boarding school... When do I leave?”

Chapter 1

Subject: Case Files

From: Woolridge, James

To: Brooklyn, Thomas; Blackwood, Jack; Hathcock, Samuel

Date: 12 April, 2013

Here are the letters from the Pony case I’ve compiled so far. There are more of these letters, too many letters to count. It’s best I give you what I have now so that you guys can can start chasing down leads. I think the letters I’ve attached span a week.

Dear Mom and Dad,

It’s my first day here at St. Valentine’s. I can’t say I like having to go here. It’s a boarding school, so I won’t be home until the school year ends. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss the friends I’ve left behind back at my old school too. Considering the circumstances, I guess it couldn’t be helped.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about my first day here. A lot of people here were surprised to have a new student coming in. I mean, it’s not unusual to get new student, but I entered as a senior. They had apparently been briefed on my arrival for some reason. I’m actually curious about it. Perhaps I’ll ask someone about it when I get the chance.

I was a bit worried about the reaction of people when they would see me. I’m not too sure what I was worried about. It’s just that feeling you get when you do something for the first time. In my case, it was revealing to an entire society that I was a unicorn, a living, breathing, talking unicorn. I’m actually surprised at the school’s reaction. I knew there was going to be a buzz about me, but they weren’t too vocal about it. On the way to the registrar where I was supposed to pick up my room assignment, the people around me looked like they were praying. Actually, scratch that. They were praying. I mean, this is a Christian school, but they were only crossing themselves as I walked by.

Truthfully, I’m afraid. Christians have proven that they can be quite fanatic. I know this makes me sound like a bigot and bad pony at that too. History points a huge finger at that though: the Crusades, the holocaust, discrimination throughout American history. I’m afraid.

The rest of the day was relatively mundane. It was the first day of classes, so all we did was go over classroom procedure. The school system at St. Valentine’s seems very similar to the system back home. Academics should be easy enough for me, but we’ll see soon enough how things will turn out.

I’ll write again tomorrow, there’s still so much to write about and not enough space on this paper.

Until next time,

-Michael

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Hi Mom,

Hi Dad,

I know that you told me to send you emails, as that would be so much easier for us all. The problem is that St. Valentine’s does not have outside contact. Well, they do, it’s just through snail mail. We have computers here at St. Valentine’s, but it seems like there’s only a local area connection set up. Email is out of the picture.

You know what though? I think I prefer to write these letters instead. It feels so much more personal and meaningful to actually write out my thoughts instead of slapping it onto something so... mechanical. I hope you’re alright with that.

First homework assignments were pretty easy. There’s just... a lot of it. It was already mentally taxing enough as a human to deal with large amounts of work. Now that I’m a unicorn, I have no hands, so I need to rely on my unicorn magic to do my homework, which is even more mentally taxing. Doing my homework for too long gives me headaches...

Speaking of my magic, it’s been improving a lot since I first started using it back in June. Using magic still takes a lot of concentration, but it’s getting easier and easier to use everyday! I still can’t do any spells that any of the unicorns do in the show; all I can use is telekinesis. I know this is something that you guys can’t relate to, but my magic is something really important to me as a unicorn.

People are still acting very hushed around me. I can hear the whispers about me and I notice people glancing at me frequently. I’ve even noticed some of the guys with more traditional backgrounds have been crossing themselves. I know you said I’d make friends eventually, but this is ridiculous. Everyone seems to want to have nothing to do with me and it worries me.

It’s getting late; I need sleep for morning classes. Good night Mom and Dad!

-Michael

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Dear Mom and Dad,

Today was pretty normal, whatever normal is around here. Some people are getting a little bold. Instead of just glances like a couple of days ago, some of the bigger kids have been glaring at me. They’re weren’t just staring at me, they were glaring at me hard, as if they were telling me to get out before they snap me in half or something. Could you please write to the school when you get this letter? I’d try to get some help myself, but I’m worried as to what might happen to me on the way to the schoolmaster’s office.

Schoolmaster... so old school...

Old school... I’m in an old school... I geddid

Sorry for that bad pun, I’ve been needing something to distract myself. The bigger kids, in my experience, are usually the more brawn than brain. It’s the weak and quiet guys you need to look out for. I saw a nerdy looking kid, for lack of a better term, staring at me yesterday when I was lounging in the courtyard. He didn’t look like he was going to hurt me, physically anyways. It looked like he was observing me, studying me. I can’t tell for sure; I was only faintly glancing in his direction so that he couldn’t tell that I knew he was watching me. I think he knew anyways.

I don’t know how to react to him. I’m going to be cautious, just to be safe.

I can’t help but get a feeling he’s doesn’t want to hurt me, be my friend even. Maybe that’s just my friendly nature looking for allies. I’m going to need it.

I guess I need to go to bed soon. There’s going to be some kind of morning sermon before class or something of the like. Not that I’ll be attending; my new religion may be difficult for me to explain, and I was an atheist for I got transformed into a unicorn pony. I guess it wouldn’t matter in the end, they probably wouldn’t welcome me in the ceremony hall anyways.

Many religions can be intolerant of other religions, I understand that much. Nowadays we have so many laws against discrimination for any reason and most people nowadays are accepting in the first place anyways. It befuddles me how these guys are so unaccepting and bold. Maybe its the religion; I’ll have to study the school’s religion more.

Write back soon okay?

-Michael

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Dear Mom and Dad,

As expected, they didn’t let me in. I thought if I just participated in their activities, I’d be more accepted. It doesn’t seem that way though. There were several school faculty standing in front of the door to the ceremony hall, and they all had very disapproving looks on their faces. I got the message and left. I guess they didn’t want demons defiling their sacred hall. Did I really call myself a demon? Hooray, I am now the Master Chief.

I went back to the courtyard this afternoon. I wondered if that nerdy looking kid would be coming back. As you might have guessed (because I would not be mentioning this in the first place), he did come back. He was sitting where I was yesterday, but I didn’t make out any particular reason for it other than trying to intimidate me. I simply pretended he wasn’t there and laid down on a patch of grass.

In retrospect, I felt like an asshole for ignoring him when he was trying to get my attention. I’ll explain why very soon. He finally caught my attention when he asked me if I knew anything about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I swear, my ears shot up like they were boners or something.

Okay, so that’s not exactly the best analogy. You should wash your ears Mom.

Anyways, when he brought up My Little Pony, I got really excited. I guess my gut was right because things went uphill from there. His name is Joey Anderson. Joey is a is brony too and he apparently has been for about a year now.

The school does allow students to go home for the summer, but according to Joey, most of the kids’ time is spent here and spent willingly. Joey’s a bit glad he decided to head home last year.

Tomorrow we’re meeting back here at the courtyard. I wanted to ask him about the school itself, but we got carried away talking about the show and whatnot.

I got work cut out for me tomorrow! I’ll write again soon.

-Michael

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Dear Dad,

Before I start talking about anything, please don’t let Mom read this letter. You’ll probably let her read it anyways, but I think you’ll understand why I don’t want her to read this after you do.

Before that accident that somehow turned me into a pony, I’ve always called myself an atheist. After the accident, there’s this thought that I couldn’t really get out of my head.

I think there may be a god out there, or rather two living goddesses. You see, in the My Little Pony show, ponykind is ruled by two ponies, more specifically, two alicorns. Alicorns are ponies with both wings and a horn. If you don’t know what that looks like, go google the word “alicorn”. That should give you an image of what they look like.

These two Alicorns are Celestia, Princess of the Sun, and Luna, Princess of the Moon. What makes them different from other deities... Well, they’re real. I know they’re real! My existence alone should prove that they’re real... somewhere...

Religion is a stingy topic. I know that. I just... wanted to put it out there. I don’t know how comfortable you are reading about this, so just in case I’ll go ahead and change the topic.

Joey told me a little more about St. Valentines High when we met back at the courtyard. St. Valentines is a Christian school. You and I know that much. More specifically, St. Valentines happens to be Roman Catholic. I don’t know much about the Roman Catholics and Joey told me it would be easier if I just did personal research on it rather than having him try to teach me about it.

I agree. I’ll be putting that on my daily workload along with homework and studies. Maybe I’ll get an explanation as to why everyone hates or is afraid of me.

I’ve an entire religion to research so I’ll be heading off now. Take care!

-Michael

Chapter 2

Subject: Case Files

From: Woolridge, James

To: Brooklyn, Thomas; Blackwood, Jack; Hathcock, Samuel

Date: 14 April, 2013

I have more letters compiled for the pony case. There appears to be a small discrepancy in the interval of the letters sent. It’s after the second letter. Our missing pony seems to just not have written that letter that was supposed to be written that day and then returned to his normal schedule. I’ve already read through these set of letters and there seems to be no reason for this.

Figure it out.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Sorry for not writing again sooner. Things picked up pace after the first week of classes. Actually, that would be an understatement. We jumped right into the flesh of things after the weekend. I’m not sure if it’s the classes I’m taking or if it’s just how the curriculum is built . I’m still doing okay so far, but the work will probably get a lot tougher as the year goes by.

Joey’s been taking some heat lately, although that’s probably because he’s one of the more vulnerable kids. I’m surprised no one has gone after me yet. Maybe it’s because they don’t know the extent of my magical powers. The others have seen me use telekinesis in class. I guess they thought I can do other magic too. I can’t. Leave it to religious fanatics to blow things up (metaphorically, but I wouldn’t put it past them to literally blow things up). Why am I complaining though? It works to my advantage. Poor Joey, I need to stick up for him next time.

Dinner wasn’t that great tonight. You’d kill to be here when I say: “we had steaks tonight.” I used to like steak, our entire family did. Now, the sight of meat makes my stomach churn. Even if I somehow managed to actually swallow a piece, I don’t think my body would be able to digest it. Joey seemed to enjoy the food well enough. The only thing I was able to eat was the mashed potatoes.

I know that when you respond to this letter, you’ll probably say something along the lines of “just eat the food; at least you won’t go hungry.” Well, like I said before, I don’t think my body can even handle meat. I’m feeling the insides of my mouth right now (I’m using telekinesis to write!), and I can’t feel any canine teeth. My body is definitely not geared toward meat eating. On the bright side, if dinner isn’t tolerable for the night, I could always sneak off to the courtyard and graze.

Heh, it must be strange reading about your son grazing on a piece of lawn.

If that’s the case, I just gotta make sure I don’t eat all the green in the courtyard. It’s probably vandalism (vandalism via grazing, there’s a thought). Joey told me that the schoolmaster paddled someone for tearing off a tree branch. I gotta be careful. It’s likely if I get into any trouble, there won’t be any mercy.

Mail sure is slow; I haven’t gotten a single letter from you guys yet.

-Michael

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Dear Mom and Dad,

The same people from yesterday were giving Joey problems again. This time, like I promised in my last letter, I stepped up to defend Joey with what little abilities I had. Up close, these guys were huge. It’s like someone was able to cram nerds and football jocks into one person and then cloned him a few times. Their grins told me all I needed to know.

My body must have been pumping adrenaline because I remember wrenching Joey with my magic like he was nothing and booking it down the hall. I’m glad I was able to actually grab onto Joey, these nerd-jocks are monsters; they could very well compete in the Olympics! Obviously that was an exaggeration, but in any case they were chasing me down and not breaking a sweat. At least that’s what it felt like.

As common sense would dictate, I can run fairly quickly, probably with one Horsepower. Get it?

They didn’t quite catch up with me, but then again, they were still keeping pace with me. How I got out of that mess still bewilders me. Luna must have been looking down at me and had decided to give me a miracle.

I used my first spell! I have no idea how I performed it, but I still cast it nonetheless! Again, as common sense would dictate, hallways eventually end. I suck at turning. I ended up crashing into the wall. Luckily, I was holding Joey with his back to the floor, so there was minimal damage there. Anyways, I crashed into the wall, and the last thing I remember thinking about was just wishing to be hidden. At the last second, those burly guys just stopped right in front of us and stared like they were looking at E.T. About 30 seconds later, they angrily huffed and shuffled to their classes.

Later that day, when Joey and I met at the courtyard, Joey told me that I had cast an invisibility spell. We both were surprised (and excited) about my new spell casting abilities. We spent most of our free time trying to replicate the spell, albeit, to no effect.

I wonder how my magic compares with other unicorns. I’ve never been to Equestria before (obviously), so I don’t know what their standards are. Maybe Princess Celestia will take me there one day. Joey would be so jealous. The chance to go live in your fantasy world isn’t there for everyone!

Trying that invisibility spell has really tired me out. I’m going to bed now. Goodnight Ma and Pa!

-Michael

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Dear Mom and Dad,

Do you remember that library downtown? The one I used to go to for Calculus tutoring? That was a freakin’ big library. I wish you were here though, because St. Valentines has one awesome library. Heck, it’s bigger than the HP Pavilion! How they were able to build the school, let alone just this freaking library on the mountainside is really awe-inspiring. Hopefully, there’s more non-fiction and “based on real events” books here than fictional material.

Since we’re on the topic of books, could you send over the books on my bookshelf? I haven’t read all the books I’ve gotten over the years. Plus, I also want to show Joey what kinds of books I read. He’s been bugging me about learning more about me. I kept telling him that I read mostly military books, but he wants to actually read the books for himself. Maybe giving a list of the names of said books could get him off my back.

Joey and I have been hanging out more. More specifically, we’ve been hanging out while everyone else was in the ceremony hall having their sermons or something similar. They’ve never actually given me the chance to confirm it for myself. We talked about the state of affairs of America today. The conversation was kind of depressing. I mean, American people boast about living in a free society where everyone is treated equally in said society. Joey brought up a good point this morning: is that really how it is here? People are still discriminated against. African Americans still have some lingering image that they’re all thugs. Asians are called bad drivers and people wrongly believe that all asians are either Chinese or Japanese. What the hell happened to the Koreans and Vietnamese? Hell, what happened to the Mongolians!? I think I also remember reading a blog post from one of my favorite fanfiction authors about getting run out of a town just because her significant other was Native American. Let’s not forget about the media! And may Luna have mercy upon my soul because Fox News is the worst of them all. Those redneck wannabes are the biggest and most disgusting idiots I have ever seen and heard! They don’t give a damn about good reputation and the truth. All they care about is money and ratings.

Whew, that was me in rage mode. Sorry. This kind of thing just gets me riled up. I hate it how people can be so... I don’t even know the word.

One last thing before I wrap this up and go to bed: have you ever seen a meteor fall at night before? Right before I started writing, I was talking out my window, pretending I was talking to Princess Celestia and Luna. I saw a fireball gliding between the forests and mountain sides. It was beautiful and I wish you could’ve seen it.

-Michael

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Dear Mom and Dad,

First off, Dad, are you still trying to send me emails? I thought I told you that we don’t have outside electronic access. Or is the mail just that slow? Oh, well, you’ll figure it out eventually.

Joey got a black eye today and the nurses wouldn’t look at it, probably because they think I caused it and that its some kind of curse. Yea, everyone knows we’re buddy-buddy now. Anyways, I ended up having to tend to it. I broke into one of the teacher’s office and snuck some ice from it (I was trying to treat someone in a possibly hostile environment!). I also had some painkillers in my first aid kit, so I dropped him some Tylenol (don’t worry, I’m not going to let my best friend become a druggy).

Joey says it’s nothing and that he gets beat up all the time because people think he’s a nerd. I get the feeling there’s something more behind all of this.

Strange actually, I thought I saw one of the school postal worker carrying a bag of charcoal. I don’t remember there being a fireplace in there. Why would you even have a fireplace in an postal office? When I asked about it they just shrugged it off and after some pestering said that it was for a school barbecue. Last I checked, schools normally don’t have those until the end of the year of something. Against my better judgement, I think I’m going do some snooping some time in the future. Perhaps I can try to put my invisibility spell into use.

Speaking of spells, I’ve been practicing my telekinesis in a more intricate form. I... locked myself out of my room. And don’t you dare tell my brothers. Anyways, I didn’t want to ask for help because I feel it wasn’t a good idea. Please don’t send back a letter telling me why that is stupid. I honestly think that asking for help would have been a bad decision. Everyone (except for Joey) feels so hostile to me.

Anyways, I ended up trying to using my magic as a sort of key. Actually, it was more like a lockpick. So yea, I picked my own lock to get into my room. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything criminal with it. If My Little Pony has taught me anything...

I wonder if I’m any better at public speaking; I have some speech I have to recite. I never really was good at planned speeches; I do much better when I just know my stuff and wing it. Perhaps I don’t give myself enough credit, but either way it still makes me very nervous. The fact that almost the entire school hates me with actual religious fervor doesn’t help either. I just hope that they can remain objective when they grade me.

I saw a what looked like a fireball perched on a tree in the distance. I tried to get a better view of it, but it flew off as soon as I pulled my binoculars out. Maybe next time.

-Michael