Journey for acceptance

I just stood there for a moment, calculating. Another thing about changelings; we don't do so well with emotions. In order to keep all drones under control, the queen usually suppresses our emotions. Often times they're dumbed-down so much that we don't register even having them. So when I was confronted with the emotionally-explosive pony in front of me, I just casually felt it at first. I had no idea that an emotional response was expected from me as well. I stood there as Pinkie stared at me, sort of expectantly. I blinked, suddenly realising what was expected of me.

"Uh, thanks," I said somewhat blankly.

Pinkie seemed to understand that I wasn't the talkative type. She smiled again.

"Well, if you want something sweet to eat, Sugarcube Corner is straight down this road on the right, the big building with the big, delicious-looking cupcake sign! See 'ya there!" She bounced off. And I don't just mean she hopped; I mean she literally curled up into a ball and bounced down the street. She was full of energy, probably about 65% of the energy I felt from the edge of the forest. I shook my head and walked on.

I probably spent over an hour walking around town, checking out landmarks and learning as much as I could. After all, this may be my new home from now on. Many of the ponies I met seemed friendly enough, but some of them gave me weird looks. One mare actually walked up to me.

Shit! I thought. She knows what I am!

I tensed, prepared to sprint away as fast as I could. But the mare had other ideas.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked me.

"uh..." I couldn't speak. I felt some unfamiliar emotion flooding my brain. It was not a good emotion.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" she asked, her voice stern.

I stood there, completely blank. Being separated from the hive mind means very little opportunity to learn about anything outside of the hive. Usually the knowledge is just sort of stamped onto our brains. We had always shared information.

But I had missed those "classes". I knew next to nothing about pony society; and I certainly didn't know what school was.

"I-I don't..." I stuttered.

"I see," the mare said. "Come with me."