Fade did not want to go to school.
Fade did not need to go to school.
But apparently her mother thought otherwise.
Fade, was a mix, a hybrid. A daughter born from two different species. And she was standing in front of the double-doors to hybrid school. Yep. Hybrid school, also known as Hybrid high.. A school for mixes of species, usually with a normal mortal pony, and a different kind of race.
On the outside, she looked just like a bat pony cross mare, black mane with streak of velvet, and a grayish coat. And her cutie mark showed some symbols. But she was completely different then how she looked normally.
Fade took a deep breath in and then exhaled. Then she walked up to her future.
She pulled open the heavy wooden doors with her unicorn, and then walked inside.
It was a bustle of ponies everywhere. There were some half human, some half dragon, some half bat pony, and even a little bit changeling, and there were a whole bunch of others that Fade could not identify.
In the center of the room was a giant fireplace that was alight with red and white fire. The floors were polished marble, and the walls were a decorative marble. There were candles at the ends of the rooms and a sky-hole to length the sun shine through.
Just get it over with. Fade thought to herself. She looked around the room, and then she spotted a registration desk, over in the corner. She got in line, behind a mix of a normal pony and maybe a bear or something, but he looked pretty tough.
“Next.” a voice called out, and the bear/pony got up to the desk.
“Name?”
“Sana Claws.”
“Mix types?”
“Bear and pony.”
Fade heard scribbling and then a tear of parchment. And then the Sana Claws walked holding a piece of paper.
“Next.”
Fade stepped up to the desk. Behind the counter was a pony, light green and plump, she looked like she hadn't been sleeping too well. And her yellow mane was messily combed.
“Name?” asked the sleepy mare,
“Fade.”
“Fade what? Usually you have another name.”
“Nothing. Just fade.”
“Okay. Mix types?”
This was the question that Fade had been dreading all day, but she remembered what her mom had told her.
“Um, Bat pony, and—normal...pony. Half of that was true, her mother was a bat pony, but her dad...
“Hm...” said the pony, “You look a little different, but I will classify you with the bat pony mixes.” she then got a quill, and wrote something down on her notebook and ripped the paper off and handed it to Fade, she held it in her magic and then walked away.
“Next.”
Fade went over to a part in the room where she could be alone. She always felt better when she was alone, no one asking her about her life or who her father was. And she herself was afraid who her father was...he was King Sombra.
Yes, her father was the infamous King Sombra. Her mother liked him a lot, before he went corrupt and over to the evil side.
And it was hard, Fade had to hide most of her Sombra-ish parts. Like her horn normally had a red tint to it, so she put makeup over that, her fangs she had to hide, so she didn't talk or smile that much, but if anypony did see them, she would half to tell them that they were from her bat pony mother. She had the bat pony ears, which made her passable for a bat pony mix. She also normally had green eyes, with purple mist floating out of them like her father's did but she wore special kind of contact lenses for that, so her eyes just looked a mild green. And there was one more thing that she always hid...she could read minds.
It was like there was a little switch in her head that she could use to read minds, but when she turned it on, everyone's thoughts always rushed at her and she ended up having headaches. She didn't know where the mind reading came from. But she also had the power to blend into shadows, and that came from her Sombra side.
And there last thing, was three white dots on her forehead, like right between her her eyes. And she covered it with makeup also. But one thing that she had to do every night, was to take off the contact lenses, where nopony would see her. And if she left them on too long, her eyes would burn. Yep, Fade was pretty powerful if you think about it. But sh usually tried to act as a normal pony.
Fade brought the parchment to her eyes and it read:
Fade:
Roommates: Platinum Titus, Patch hope,
Rocky Plow, Stella Twinkies, and Blaze Spirit.
NOTE: Remember to pick up your
Membership Card on Thursday. And
School starts Monday, 8:35 P.M.
Roommates.
The last thing that Fade had wanted were Roommates. And more ponies meant that they would question her and stuff.
So Fade decided to go up to her room and hope to get there first and spend some time by herself.
Fade walked up to the door labeled: 8F, there was the logo of the school: a compass looking thing with a crescent moon on the inner rim.
Fade pushed the door open slowly, and she was not the first one there. There were already to ponies there. She first examined the room, it was normal sized, two windows, five beds, eggshell white walls, and a wooden floor. She tried to not be noticed and sneak over to a bed that she was guessing that was hers over in the corner.
“She has arrived!” said one of the ponies,
Fade made a huge sigh in her thoughts, and then a hoof turned her around and two ponies stared into her face.
One looked like a perfectly normal pony, she had a spiky, pink and white mane and tail, that went well with her creamy color of her body. The other one filly was younger them most, she looked like a bat pony mix, she was baby-blue all over, and her mane was plain purple. But she didn't have her cutie mark yet.
“Hi!” said the pony who looked normal, “You must be another roommate!”
“I'm Stella Twinkles.” said the smaller bat pony hybrid,
“And I'm Patch Hope.” said the pony who looked perfectly normal.
“What is you're name?” they said together,
“Um, Fade.” Fade said,
“Fade?” asked Stella, “Fade What?”
“Just Fade.” Fade said, she tried to slowly slip past the two eager ponies and get to her bed.
“Cool.” said Patch, “I am half Changeling!”
Then, Patch's eyes suddenly turned the slightest bit pale green, and then a few holes appeared in her hooves, her coat tuned gray, and he mane and tail went short and pinkish. “I normally look like this, but I like to be like a normal pony most of the time.” she them popped back into her pony costume and smiled.
“So...” said Fade, “You feed on—love?”
“No no no no,” said Patch, “My dad did that, I don't I will take a sandwich any day.”
“And I'm part Bat pony!” said Stella, fluttering her wings, “What are you?”
“Uh...Half bat pony.” said Fade, she managed to slip past the two and get to her bed, but they followed her,
“Cool!” said Stella, “Now I have another Bat pony mix to hang out with.”
Oh Celestia, please no. Fade thought.
“Where are your suitcases?” asked Patch,
“I, left them in the—um—lobby.” Fade answered.
“Don't worry, I can get them.” said Patch,
Fade gasped, “Oh, no, you don't have to, I will—later.” she was relived in her brain, her suitcase that she had left in the suitcase rack had extra contact lenses, and makeup for her, and she wouldn't want anypony to get suspicious.
“No prob.” said Patch.”Hey, you probably want to get settled in, we will leave you to doing what you do.”
“We will?” asked Stella, looking a fuzz disappointed.
“Yes.” said Patch, “Why don't you finish unpacking?”
“Great idea.” said Stella, and she went over to her bed, which was one bed away from Fade's.
Fade sat down on the black covers of her bad and rested, she usually didn't read minds that often, but she was curious to know what her future roommates were thinking about her. So she concentrated and flicked on the switch inside her brain.
Yay! Stella was thinking, A bat pony mix that I can hang out with all the time! She is so awesome! Ooh, here is my favorite dress...
Patch was over on the other side of the room, she was neatly placing some magazines on her lamp-stand that was beside her bed. We are now up to three. She thought, But what about That Fade? She seemed kind of strange, was anything wrong, and she looked weird, with those green eyes and pointy unicorn.
Fade decided to go to the cafeteria or something, she had nothing really to do there.
“Um,” she said, “I will be at the cafe if you need me.” she headed toward the exit, but right before she went out, another pony came in and toppled into her.
“Hey watch it!” the pony said, getting up
“Sorry,” said Fade, “I was just leaving...” she took a few seconds to look at the pony, she was obviously one of her roommates, and she looked half dragon. She had a jagged orange and golden mane, and she was a reddish-pinkish color. She had two horns behind her ears, and bat-ish wings, a dragon tail, and her back hooves had claws.
Fade hurried out the door, and the sounds of thoughts came behind her.
Who was that? One thought, To bump into me, Blaze spirit of all ponies.
Fade went down the hallway at a rather quick walk, and stopped to look at a map, and she followed it's directions, to the school cafe, it was a separate building from the dorm room, like a bunch of other buildings, but it's appearance was warm and inviting.
She opened the glass door, and then a whole load of thinking hit her like a train at full speed. She hit her head with her hoof, and then concentrated, and then she turned off the switch inside her head, and everything was quiet, except for eyerypony's talking.
She walked in, and then sat at the bar, right next to a pony who also seemed like a normal pony, she figured that he must be a half changeling too.
“Hello there.” said a scrawny yellow pony behind the counter, “I will be your waitress for today, what would you like?”
“Um, some peppermint tea. Thank you.” Fade said,
“And you?” asked the waitress to the stallion right beside Fade,
“Some oil please.” said the pony, his voice was metallic and odd,
“Oil?” Fade thought out loud,
“Yes.” said the stallion, then he turned to face Fade,
Then Fade gasped, he was half robot.
“You're a Robot.” she whispered,
“I am half robot.” said the stallion, “Just half.” he was White all over, and had a silvery-gray mane, and he was an earth pony. His back leg looked all mechanical, with gears and stuff, and there was a glowing circuit that went from his leg all the way to his face, where his left eye was half covered in this red glass stuff.
“Sorry.” said Fade, lowering her head.
“No, it Is completely alright.” said the robot/stallion, “Ponies mistake me for a robot all the time. Hello, my name is Platinum Titus, nice to meet you.”
“Um, Hi.” said Fade, but the a bell went off in her head, Platinum Titus was one of her roommates that her paper had said.
“I'm Fade.” said Fade,
“oh, then we must be roommates am I correct?” Platinum asked,
“I guess.” said Fade.
“One peppermint tea for you.” said the waitress, setting down a small teacup in front of Fade,
“And one oil for you.” said the waitress, and she slid Platinum a jar filled with black stuff.
Fade thought that it would be gross, but apparently Platinum didn't.
Once fade was done with her tea, she went over back to the dorm building, and got her suitcase out of the lobby. She decided to go and unpack. And get to know the place, besides, she was going to be staying there for a long time. She just hoped that she could keep her secret for that long. She tried to believe that she could.
Couldn't She?
Fade clopped down the hallway that was now empty, her suitcase floated in front of her. She knew that she would have to deal with roommates, and that they might try to maybe pry into her personal life, hopefully they wouldn’t. She would never do that to any other pony. So she decided to find a super secret place to stash her stuff. Including her Makeup, her contact lenses, her guide on how to be a normal pony. And crystals. Yes, crystals. Her father loved them, and he liked to munch on them every once and a while. And it must have been heredity or something, because she found them quite snack-able. Her extra hard fangs could chomp through them.
Fade knew she was close when the echoes of chatter came from the walls. She paused and sighed as she looked at that number on the door again. And then she walked in.
Her roommates were unpacking, some already unpacked and talking to one another.
Fade decided to try and use her shadow magic, she wasn't an expert at it, but she could do it some. She sneaked over to a corner where some shadows lied, and then she focused and then walked along the wall where there were shadows. If it was true, her school said that if she tried hard enough, she couldn't be seen when she was walking through shadows or darkness. She walked silently along the wall to her sleeping area.
Blaze Spirit was laying on her bed reading a magazine, her things were plopped messily on her lamp stand and in her closet.
Patch Hope was also done, but she was caught up in a book, titled Daring Do, And the Griffon's Goblet. Her section was very neat and tidy. Something Fade would not have expected from a half changeling.
Stella Twinkles was jumping up and down on her bed, chatting to herself, other ponies and to her poster on the wall that was a portrait of a Royal guard.
And Platinum Titus was organizing his things, such as his clock, extra oil, spare parts and gears. A whatchamacallit thingy, and an eye piece of some sort.
Fade came to her bed and then stepped out of the shadows and set down her suitcase.
“Fade!” said Stella, she turned to Fade, still bouncing happily on her bed. “Wow where did you come from? It was like you just appeared!”
“Uh...” Fade said, she unzipped her suitcase,
“Looks like all of the roommates are here.” said Patch hope,
“Incorrect,” said Platinum, looking up from sorting his things, “A Stallion named Rocky Plow has still not arrived.”
“That's right.” said Patch, “When he gets here, we can do inducements!”
Oh great. Fade thought, I thought we already did that.
And as if on cue, the door swung open, and in stepped a bulky pony. He was a soft brown in color, and his very short mane was a bluish greenish tone. His body was built muscly, and it looked like had pointy teeth. Fade looked at him more closely, she at first could not tell what kind of hybrid he was, but then she saw his features and she thought she had an idea. He was half pony, and half cragadile. There were rocky patches of stone on his fur, like a cragadile's would be, his pointy teeth looked like a cragadiles would be, and his yellow, slitted eyes looked like a cragadile's would be. But overall, he looked pony.
“Hello!” said Stella, she bounced off of her bed, but for some reason, kept bouncing, over to the new guest.
“Am I in the right room?” asked the stallion, his voice was tough and deep. He examined the room, looking at his new roommates, and Fade tried with all her might, that the shadows would swallow her up, but he didn't seem to notice her.
“Yes you are in the right room.” said Patch hope, she got a bookmark and placed it between the pages of her novel and then stood up, “we saved the last bed for you!” she motioned with her hooves to the biggest bed of them all, it's covers matched the stallion's body color.
The stallion (Fade guessed he was Rocky Plow) walked over to his bed and sat down his suitcase.
“Okay everyone!” said Patch hope, getting everyone's attention, “Now that we are all here, we can introduce ourselves!”
“But we already did that.” Blaze huffed,
“So...” said Patch ignoring the comment, “We will tell each other who we are and what we are and maybe where we come from. So...” she cleared her throat, “Hello everypony, my name is Patch Hope, I am half Changeling and I lived in the crystal empire for most of my life.” she then switched to her normal half changeling self, and it wasn't like she wasn't pretty, she just looked disturbing. But then she popped back into her costume.
“Hi guys!” said Stella, bouncing on her bed as usual, “I'm Stella Twinkles, and I am half bat pony! And I live in Canterlot!.”
“Um, hi everyone.” said the stallion, “My name is Rocky Plow, I am half cragadile, and I used to live in Dodge Junction.”
They all looked at Blaze, she sighed and then said “Hi, my name is Blaze, I lived in the Bad Lands, and I am half dragon.” she sighed and then plopped down on her pillow,
“Greetings all.” said Platinum, in his weird voice, “My formal name is Platinum Titus, I previously occupied Los Pegasus, and I am a hybrid between a robot and pony.”
Then they all turned their attention to Fade, who had sat in the corner, hoping not to be noticed, but she failed.
“Um...I'm Fade...” she began, “I, uh, used to live in the—Hollow Shades, and um, I am half....uh...bat pony.” on the inside, Fade smacked herself in the face. Why was she stuttering to much? They would thing that it would be awkward wouldn't they? She flipped the internal switch and then a rush of thoughts came at her.
Is she scared?
What is the matter with her?
I haven't had lunch, I hope that there is a pie shop or something...
She is probably just nervous—
I still can't believe that I have another bat pony mix to hang out with!
Fade was so embarrassed, but thankfully, they all turned their attention away from her soon,
Yay! Patch thought, “Yay!” she said, “Now we all know each other and we are officially roommates!”
As if we weren’t already. Blaze thought,
Fade didn't like all of the noise, and ponies, and talking. She wanted to go some place quiet. So she slipped out of her bed, and clopped over to the door.
“Hey, fade!” said Stella, “Where are you going?”
“I...just, need to be alone.” Fade answered, and then she quickly went out of the doors once more, hearing the wondering thoughts behind her.
She needed somewhere quiet to spend most of the evening, like....the library! Fade knew the library was always quiet, especially if it had those super-cranky librarians. But where was the library? She had only been at this school for one day.
Asking for help was to social, so she decided to find the nearest map.
Fortunately, there was a map in the hall, showing their location, and the library was right beside the dorm room, no problem.
Fade entered the library. And as she had hoped: peace. Quietness. There were a few ponies silently reading, or picking books and scrolls off of the shelves.
Now what should she read? She didn't read much. She kind of like history, but overall she wasn't obsessed with books so she didn't have a clue on what to read.
Then an idea hit her, it was a good one, but it would involve asking a pony something. Come on. She said to herself, don't be the awkward, shy pony everyone thinks you are.
So she mustered up enough courage, to walk over to the desk with the librarian behind it and ask in a shy voice, “Do you—um, have any books on...ancient ponies that could, uh, read minds?”
“oh, you mean the bat pony telepathy?” asked the Librarian in a friendly voice, “Yes there are a few books isle eight second row.”
Fade nodded and then trotted away.
Ugh. She thought to herself, I’ve did it again, shy and stammering. What a pony I am.
But at least she knew where the book was now. She never knew about where her mind reading even came from, maybe this “bat pony telepathy” book had something on it.
She walked past a few shelves of scrolls and books until she came to number eight. There were no ponies there. good. The eighth row was full of history books, books on myths, or legends. She walked until she came to the second shelf row. And almost instantly her eyes got fixed on a moderate sized book. It was titled: The Ancient Bat Pony Telepathy Legends.
She had found it.
A green aura formed around the book and pulled it out from between the books.
It was an old book. Yellow pages, old leather cover, and the spine was almost falling off. Fade found a comfy seat in the corner of the room and sank into it. She opened the cover.
The Ancient Bat Pony Telepathy Legends. By Y. K. Apple,
And then Fade started to read.
Fade found out that there was an old legend, of some very rare bat ponies being able to read minds. The book said that they usually appeared with the symbol of three white dots on the forehead, between the eyes. And fade now knew that her telepathy had came from her mother's side. But her mom never was able to read minds. Or any of her parents so that part was a mystery.
The book also said that telepathy for a bat pony was like a skipped generation, maybe if a pony was telepathic, then it's grandfilly or grandcolt would be telepathic as well and not it's child.
Although, there hadn't been a bat pony to read minds in hundreds of years, and ponies slowly stopped believing in it, and eventually, it became a myth. And since there hasn't been a bat pony that can read minds in centuries, scientists think that all the telepathic ponies died out and there are none left today.
So Fade knew where her telepathy cam from, from the bat pony side of her. And she knew her shadow manipulating powers came from her father's side. But at least she could kind of control her mind reading, the book said that some bat ponies had their telepathy on all the time and they couldn't turn it off, and some of them went crazy.
“Attention ponies!” a voice rang out through the library, “We will be closing shortly, we would like you to check your books out now, or just return outside, thank you!”
Fade looked out the window behind her, it was almost night time, how long had she been reading that book? So she quickly returned the guide back to where it was, and then made her way to the door.
“Excuse me.” said a voice behind Fade,
Fade slowly tuned around, knowing the voice was talking to her, “Yes?” she asked,
It was the librarian who had told her where the book was. “Why did you want to look at that telepathy book anyway?”
“Um, I was just reading up on bat ponies...” Fade said,
“Oh, okay...” said the library, though she didn't look thoroughly convinced.
Fade hurried out the door, but not to fast, feeling the staring eyes behind her.
It was night, 8:42 to be precise, and the rules were to hit the hay at 9:00. so she had to hurry. But the dorm building wasn't that far away.
The night wind brushed against fade as she walked through the empty sidewalk. The dorm building loomed ahead of her. Most of the lights were on, but some were out. As ponies went to sleep early.
She walked through the wooden doors once more. The checkout lady was snoozing on the job, and the fireplace was still going. It was empty and quiet. But Fade could hear voices from the bedrooms as she went up the staircase.
Her room was on the second floor. Easy to get to. But it was one of the last doors.
And even from outside, she could hear ponies talking in the room. She went in, trying to be brave.
Blaze was under the covers, with a flashlight and she was probably reading a magazine. Stella was talking excitedly with Patch, Platinum was cleaning his eye piece, and Rocky was munching some on some corn chips.
“Fade, where have you been?” asked Stella, she hopped off her bed and ran up to Fade.
Fade kept walking to her bed, “um...the library.”
“doing what?” asked Stella,
This is exactly why Fade didn't want roommates, they were always trying to pry.
“Catching up on my...uh...history.” said Fade. She reached her bad and pulled out the suitcase out from under the bed.
“But it's not school time yet.” said Stella,
“I was just—getting ahead, so I don't have to do as much, in school.” Fade excused,
“I should try that.” said Stella hopping back to her bed.
Fade unzipped her suitcase carefully, her clothes were already folded and on hangers. So she just made them float over to the closet.
She got out a picture of her mom, an alarm clock, and other things, but left her crystals, book, contact lenses, and makeup back in the secret pockets of the suitcase, and when no one was looking, she quickly stuffed the suitcase under her bed.
“Okay ponies.” said a male pony on the loudspeaker, “it is nine o'clock, time to go to sleep. Sweet dreams and I hope you have another fun day tomorrow!”
Fun. Blaze was thinking, yeah, this has been a lot of fun. I can't wait till semester is over!
Fade crawled into her bed, and then went beneath the black covers. She hoped that tomorrow would be better. She had made lousy first impressions on that day.
“Goodnight all!” said Patch, she turned off the lamp and the room was dark.
Fade waited, and waited, until everypony was asleep, or at least she was pretty sure. Her eyes were starting to sting, so she carefully got out of bed and went to the door. And even if no one was sleeping, they couldn't see her, she had her shadow cloaking magic on.
She opened the door just enough to her to go out, and then she closed it softly behind her. The hall was dark, but the light from Luna's moon came through the window and was just enough to let her see where she was going.
Fade tiptoed along the wall and down the staircase until she went outside. There was not a sound, only the soft breeze and her own hoofsteps.
She needed to go someplace where nopony would see her, or at least look for her. So she went around the dorm building until she came to a patch with bushes and trees. It was nice and dark in there, and nopony would see her or look for her there. She went in, and then looked both ways before finally taking off her contact lenses that were burning her eyes.
She felt a cool relief. She knew that if a pony were to see her, they would see velvet mist floating out of her eyes, like her father's did. But it felt good. She had to do this every night or else she would have eye damage.
She also had brought along some crystals. There were small red ones and a few green ones. She bit into them with her sharp fangs and they were delicious, with the taste of crystal.
She sighed and looked up at the waxing moon, dark clouds half covered it. And stars twinkled down shining their light upon the earth.
“oh mother.” she whispered aloud, “i don't know why you wanted me to come here, but I will try my best.”
And with that, she put on her contact lenses, and walked back in the direction where she came from.
