An Interesting Experience
Author's Note
Okay - so it's my first attempt at a one-shot. Yay or nay? I guess we'll find out.
Also, I've intentionally made any political characters blank - you know, to avoid any kind of comment wars, which lead to comment graveyards. I should also tell you guys that this is not attacking anyone, but this story includes STEREOTYPICAL high school groups - ones that you'd see in a classic high-school-themed Hollywood movie or something. Also, I put OOC stuff in the story intentionally just in case I decide to make a sequel. You have been warned.
Also, I wrote this story because the idea popped into my head, I needed to get it out, so it's not very good. And guess what? I don't really care. Hate it if ya want to.
Also, I halted it about two-thirds of the way through the six months in the story because (like I said) I'm considering a sequel - a serious one, where criticism will not be completely ignored.
✌Cheers!
An Interesting Experience
The ponies of Ponyville waited patiently at the Ponyville station in the cool October air, some of them talking amongst one another excitedly. Despite the straight-faced expressions of the other ponies, there was an excited atmosphere that pressed them in from all sides.
Why were they all excited? Well, it's a long story...
Princess Celestia walked into a large conference room, feeling slightly elevated. She was not on home turf here, no - she was currently in one of the most highly secure places in the human world - the White House.
She remembered the day she and her sister, Princess Luna, stumbled upon this world through a simple gateway spell. It felt like it was just yesterday, too.
Luna, as she recalled, had playfully pushed Celestia through a gateway she had opened up, since the two were alone and it was fun to unprofessional for once. Unfortunately for the two of them, Luna had pushed Celestia right into the very same conference room during a very important meeting.
Celestia's initial surprise of seeing a room full of what she recognized to be humans was nothing compared to the humans. There was mass panic until the president, who (fortunately for his country) was a reasonable man, stood up and managed to calm the room.
Thus began the budding relationship between humanity and ponykind. Both worlds learned many things about one another, and helped each other grow as one. New ideas were introduced by ambassadors between worlds. Alliances were made.
After a while, there was still another problem - the ponies had no experience of face-to-face interactions with humans, and vice versa. Princess Celestia began dealing with minor petitions protesting the relationship with the humans, claiming that they could have been imaginary if the ambassadors from Earth never came to Equestria to begin with.
Because of these issues, Celestia and the president of the United States both agreed to discuss the possibility of bringing humans to Equestria to learn about their culture, and vice versa.
And here she was - walking into the president's personal conference room, going over her notes in her head. This had to work out for the both of them - keep the discussion open to new ideas, that was her plan.
As she entered the room, the president stood up respectfully, and this motion was mirrored by the other humans in the room. Just behind her was Princess Twilight Sparkle - Ambassador of Equestrian-Human Relations. She was chosen for the position because of her eagerness to learn.
Celestia nodded her head respectfully at the president, who walked around the conference table to shake her hoof.
"Princess, it's good to have you here," he said professionally. "It's at times like these where we have the exciting opportunity ahead of us to advance our political relationship. Oh - and Princess Twilight, it's so good to see you as well - please take a seat, both of you."
Celestia. Twilight, and the president took their respective seats, and the discussion began. But we'll skip over that, because it was two and a half hours long with no contradictions to make it even remotely interesting.
By the end of the discussion, however, they had both agreed on sending high school students from a select school to Ponyville, the safest place in Equestria (minus the monsters, but there were going to be guaranteed protections put in place). They had decided on a school in Colorado, since the state had an arguable record of being well-rounded.
Thus, students from Windsor High School were sent to Equestria.
There was a shrill whistle in the distance, making many ponies jump. They all excitedly turned in the direction of the oncoming train, which slowly came to a screechy halt into the Ponyville Station. Twilight was among the crowd with her five other friends, looking eagerly into the windows. They could see the silhouette of a human adult standing up and addressing the kids, clearly giving them directions.
"Twi, it's time!" Applejack hissed. "Ya hafta speak to the critters, remember??"
Twilight jumped. "Sweet Celestia! I forgot!! Spike, grab my notes!!"
"I've got'em right here," the purple drake said casually, lifting up a stack of notecards to the sweating Princess. "You'll be fine, Twilight - just wing it! Ooh, heh - 'wing' it, heh."
Rarity rolled her eyes at the drake's bad pun and turned to Twilight, who seemed near hyperventilation. "Darling, you'll be okay. They're only teenagers, after all."
"Exactly! How will they take it??" Twilight burst, causing heads to turn their direction. "What if they see it as some sort of a joke? What if they start destroying the town? What if -"
Spike covered her mouth with a claw. "Take a deep breath, Twi. Deeeep breath."
Twilight did just that, and immediately began to calm down.
"See?" said Spike, "Much better! Now, you're a princess. I think they'll listen to you."
"I hope so," Twilight replied, and the train doors opened. Everyone stared, enthralled, as the kids began to emerge with their luggage, blinking in the sudden presence of sunlight. As they all filed out, Twilight realized that it was a fairly large crowd - perhaps forty of fifty kids.
Twilight walked around the crowd of ponies to reach the platform. As she approached her destination, one of the human chaperones looked around at her and smiled.
"Princess Twilight?" she asked, and Twilight nodded. "Good, we'll get the crowd here under control, and then you can speak to them..."
"O-okay," Twilight replied, taking another deep breath. "I'm ready."
The lady smiled and turned to address the students, slowly bringing their chatter down to near complete silence. She then gestured to Twilight, who hovered into the air so she could see all the faces in the crowd.
It amazed her that there were so many different faces - which was strange, because she had seen the exact same thing when she went to the other human dimension, where the kids there mirrored the ponies here. Something about this was... strange.
Like her first year in the alternate dimension, there seemed to be cliques of different humans - there was a group that was clearly the jocks, muscular and cocky-looking. There was a group of girls dressed - well, indecently to put it a nice way - that were muttering to one another, chewing gum, looking at strange rectangular devices Twilight learned were called cell phones, and casting disgusted looks around at the kids around them. Well, except the jocks - they were giving the jocks risque looks, making Twilight retch at a microscopic level.
There were a group of kids clutching instruments - clearly band kids, although there were some kids clutching cases that houses string instruments, too. Another group stood close by sporting thespian-related t-shirts. At last, her eyes latched onto an overly eager-looking kid, who was gazing at Twilight rapt with attention. Everyone around him was standing at least ten feet away from him. She made a mental note to inquire about him later.
"Well - welcome to Equestria!!" she said happily, smiling down at them all. One of the jocks let out a whoop, and there were a couple chuckles in the crowd. "I hope you all enjoy your time here, and that we can learn a lot about each other!"
The same jock who had cheered let out a soft "boo!" and a lot of laughter followed. Twilight grinned and landed.
The chaperone lady gave her a funny look. "Is that all?" she asked.
"For now," Twilight said, looking back at the crowd. "They just look a bit antsy - I think we should get them settled in their homes first."
The chaperone lady nodded, then stuck out a hand. "I'm Melody," she said with a smile. "I'm really excited to be here."
"Nice to meet you, Melody!" Twilight said with genuine enthusiasm, shaking her hand. "And I'm really excited to have you here!"
A man appeared at Melody's side, and whispered something into her ear, looking back at something anxiously. Melody nodded and said, "Okay, but let's get organized first. Have you met Princess Twilight yet?"
The man turned to Twilight with a curious expression. He had sandy blonde hair and a beautiful thin jawline. He stuck a hand out towards her and said, "Nice to meet you."
"And your name is...?" Twilight inquired.
"Oh! Dale. My name's Dale," the man said, grinning. "My apologies - I'm just kinda busy at the moment."
"No worries," Twilight said with a smile. "I can understand being busy."
Dale smiled at her and hustled back around into the crowd. Twilight turned to Melody. "What is he, anyway?"
Melody looked at Twilight. "What do you mean?"
"What's his job?" Twilight asked, seeing her error.
"Oh, that," Melody laughed. "He's the counselor - mostly he's here because there's a kid here who's struggling."
"I won't ask any more questions, then," Twilight said with a smile. "Now, let's get these kids situated."
Melody smiled, then turned to the crowd of students behind her. "Alright, guy, let's move out! Look at your room card - it has a symbol on it - look for the sign in the crowd that has a matching symbol. The pony holding it is the pony you will be rooming with."
The crowd of students began talking amongst themselves and dispersed.
Twilight smiled as she watched the student's antics as they searched through the crowd of ponies for the sign with their symbol on it. This was going to be a fun couple of months.
DAY TWO
The humans had settled into their respective homes, and Twilight already had the privilege of getting to know a few so far.
The first kid was a jock she had met named Will. He was busy playing with a Frisbee along with his friends during the town potluck the day prior. All she did was walk up next to him, stopping about five feet from him, and watched the Frisbee's progress through the air. Will noticed this, and the two made some small talk. There was one confusing point in their conversation where Will warned her of a kid named Jared, and how absolutely annoying he was. Twilight decided to make a mental note of this.
The next kid was a smaller boy by the name of Todd - he was playing a human version of Ogres and Oubliettes with his friends. He explained it to her, and she sort of ended the conversation there, for this wasn't her sort of thing. Todd's group was a pleasant and quiet one, though, and she would definitely invite them all to tea at some point.
The last one was a girl named Carly - she was clearly one of the 'cool' girls, and was definitely the hardest to talk to. Carly would reply to all of her questions politely (in a valley-girl-esque voice), but did it with an air of having no interest. She also kept taking selfies of herself, which was quite annoying.
DAY 31
Every single pony in Ponyville absolutely loved the humans. Well, all of them except one, who didn't seem to recognize this painfully obvious fact.
His name was Jared Wilderman, and he was annoying. He could always be found trailing somepony and talking at them nonstop. It didn't matter who the pony was - he would attempt to strike up a conversation with them anyway. The only time he wasn't around was when he went to see the counselor, which was every other day. Those moments were blessed times of peace for everyone.
He had spent the previous day mostly following Octavia, since he was enthralled with her musical prowess.
"So you play the cello, huh? I can't play the cello," Jared said, looking slap-happy. "Did you know that the name cello is just a nickname? I know, it's true! I think the real name is something in another language - something like -"
"Violoncello," Octavia said warily. Twilight remembered the poor mare giving her a look that said, help me!
As they walked away, Jared kept up his constant stream of chatter, making Octavia clench her eyes shut.
Won't that boy ever take a hint?? Twilight thought to herself, as she watched them go. He doesn't have a single brain cell in that thick head of his - it's clear everyone wants him to stop talking, but he keeps going!!
"Um, Twilight?" asked a soft, timid voice from behind, and Twilight turned to see Fluttershy standing behind her, looking - well, shy.
"What?" Twilight replied, perhaps a little harsher than she meant to. Fluttershy flinched ever so slightly, but looked at her friend again.
"What's wrong?" she asked, looking slightly concerned.
"Oh - just - you know," Twilight stuttered irritably. "Jared."
Fluttershy frowned a little. "Oh - yeah, him. I understand, Twilight. All my animals have locked themselves up in the house because of him." The timid pegasus left without another word.
Twilight, feeling very frustrated indeed, now realized that she wasn't being irrational, for even Fluttershy despised the kid.
Okay, maybe despised was a little harsh for a pony like Fluttershy, but it was quite clear that it was everyone else's attitude towards him.
DAY 60
Hearth's Warming was just around the corner, and, unfortunately, the vast majority of the kids were returning home to their parents. A sign-up form was sent around to identify everyone who wasn't going back to the human world for the holidays.
To the dismay of many, Jared's name was on the list.
There were now two ponies who didn't think much of his presence - Ditzy Doo, AKA Derpy, and Lyra, who somehow managed to get used to Jared's nonstop chatter. Maybe the fact that Jared was staying with her contributed to this strange phenomenon.
Lyra was playing the host to several other kids, too. She tried to get all of the 'roommates' to bond by doing board games and other activities, and it was working surprisingly well - well, except for Jared. Even though he participated in every activity, no one wanted to have anything to do with the overeager kid, and she couldn't blame them. She would miss them all, especially those who had made academic promises and weren't able to return.
Now it was the last night before the great departure, and Lyra was learning a capitalism-esque game called Monopoly, and was having a lot of fun. Jared had been winning the game when one of the other humans, Grant, went into an enraged tirade about how annoying he was and how he couldn't do anything normal. At this point Jared bid them all goodnight with a smile on his face and left for bed without another word.
"Grant - that was harsh," Lyra said halfheartedly. Even though most of the things Grant said to Jared were true, she couldn't help but feel a little bad for Jared. She was responsible for him, after all.
"He had it coming," Grant said casually, leaning back in his seat.
"Yeah... maybe he did, but Octavia already had a go at him today as well," Lyra replied, frowning slightly.
Indeed, Octavia had finally snapped, screaming her lungs out at Jared about what she truly thought of him. Jared still talked a lot after that, but avoided her and seemed slightly subdued. This concerned her ever so slightly, but she did not really give it a second thought before this discussion.
"So?" Grant said defensively. "I guess that's not my problem, then, is it? He's the one going around and sticking his voice on anyone he passes by. Like I said, he had it coming. He'll be fine, though - he'll be happy again tomorrow, anyway. I can't actually remember him saying much before we arrived here..."
Lyra huffed and decided to drop the subject. Hearth's Warming was in a week, and Grant was one of the few kids remaining behind. He was to be relocated to Bon Bon's the following day, so it would be just Jared and another kid named Carlos remaining with Lyra. She didn't want to end Grant's stay on a bad note by arguing with him.
Besides, Joey would just be happy-go-lucky again the next day, as he always was. He'd just return to his old nuisance ways.
... Sucker. He'll never learn.
DAY 61
Twilight waved as the train let out a massive huff of steam, and began its slow progress away from the station. She watched with a slight sadness, knowing half of the kids on it would not return due to academic reasons, which she could understand. Those who were returning, however, gave her something to look forward to after Hearth's Warming.
On the downside... Jared was staying for the holidays. Maybe they could chain him up in the town square or something...
Author's Note Parte Dos:
Well - here you go. A one-shot with no plot. You're welcome! 
But seriously, give some grace. This was a half-effort story on purpose; what can I say? I was bored. Don't say you haven't done the same thing, those of you who write (well!)
Adios, amigos.
~Makerofthebuttswagger
