August 8th 2018 Wednesday "Penns Creek High Open House."
Penns Creek Highschool
6:57 P.M

"So, what do you think of your classes, Eli?" My mom smiled at me, her face held a genuine smile that made left me powerless to do anything but return it.

"Pretty good, overall," I answered her, "I'm not a fan of algebra 2, but meh." I shrugged, "Not much I can do about it."

We walked casually through the halls of my school, I had already met my teachers for the year, I had my route scoped out, for each day and had a pretty good idea of who my classmates would be. I had more than a few of the friends I had made over the summer sharing a class with me, and more than a few converts as well. However I had yet to see a single convert,

That was the odd thing about tonight, the only thing that spoke to the existence of the converts at all that night was their names on the class rosters and the uneasy looks on people's faces when they were brought up in a conversation. When Spring attacked his wife it set off a social nuke in the town, people didn't just avoid converts now, they treated them like the plague, apparently, this was a rare case in regards to the potion, given the ponies' 'peaceful nature, it was more likely Edwards PTSD flaring up and triggering his pony flight-or-flight instincts. That was how the judge ruled it when we were brought to court to testify, Mrs. Deloach wouldn't even come near her husband in the court, and there were rumors of her filing for divorce after the initial ruling finished. So we were all surprised when the judge deemed Spring 'not guilty,' I chalked it down to a political move to ensure the town wouldn't suddenly become a target of a social barrage online from the various pro-ponification groups online.

Spring disappeared after he was released, he didn't return home, no one had seen him in town at all.

I could tell some people were relieved by the converts' absence, there was a more relaxed look in the eyes of the parents, a higher inclination to laugh and smile amongst the students, and the teachers clearly had no complaints when it came to the absence of certain students.

It was sad, in a way, to see people return to the way they had been just because the converts weren't there, it spoke volumes about how people saw them, or at least, most people. There had been a few people who had been defending them, I had heard some families had even become acclimated to living with their Equine family members.

"Honestly," I said, "I wouldn't mind skipping math as a whole for the next two semesters."

"Not if you want enough credits to graduate this year!" She poked me in the ribs playfully, "Mr senior!"

I chuckled involuntarily as my mother giggled continuing to poke at me, I lightly swatted her hand away.

"Really? You're gonna do this here?" I grumbled lightheartedly, "I think you've given me enough reason to never talk to anybody ever again."

"Oh, stop." My mom laughed, "All I did was tell one of your teachers a bit about you!"

"You literally told them a story about how I blew up our bathroom toilet in front of every other family in the room!"

Mom had a tendency to ramble on when it came to me, she was the sort of parent who always had a story to tell about her child, I liked to think she was proud of me, and that was why she did it, not a day went by without her saying something to someone about me, even if it was Dad she was telling it to. I had no idea when she got it into her head to start doing that, but I wasn't about to stop her, no matter how red I turned when she did it.

"Oh stop your bellyaching, Eli, I'm just being a mom." She affectionately flicked my ear, "I'm allowed to do that, right?"

"Ugh, yeeessss." I groaned, "Can we please just go home now?"

Mom snickered, "I suppose..."

She put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze.

"Love you, Eli."

"Love you, Mom."

The two of us began to make our way to the front of the school, I was intent on returning home and making good on what little summer I had left, and getting online with Colin to play a little Gears of War 4. I was already fantasizing about Colin's screams of anguish when I rammed the blade of my retro lancer through his character's chest.

Unfortunately, my dreams would remain dreams as the sound of my Mother's name cut through the air like an arrow, and struck her ears as accurately as one.

"Sandra!" A heavily accented called, my mom honed in on it like a hound, and immediately I was dragged over to the midst of the cafeteria, where a large number of finger-foods and drinks were arrayed on a series of tables in front of the kitchens.
Standing by the entrance to the lunchroom was a middle-aged slim-looking woman whose Russian-accented English made itself known even in the loudest of rooms.

"Anya!" My mom exclaimed happily,

Mrs. Zakharovich, Naomi's mother, and one of my Mom's newest friends.

Well, there goes my night. I thought unhappily.

I followed my Mom to where Mrs. Zakharovich was standing, the two met with a hug before going on with their usual gossip and 'mom' talk.

"Where's Naomi, Anna, and Gaspard?"

"Gaspard and Anna went to have a 'conversation' with one of Anna's teachers, Naomi is over there." She pointed to a table a few yards away, where my friend sat staring at the screen of her computer.

My Mom looked at her with a disapproving look on her face, "You let her bring her computer?"

Mrs. Zakharovich shrugged, "she's not wasting her time, she's been watching a video on the town's problem."

My mom raised an eyebrow "Problem?"

"You know what I'm talking about Sandra." Naomi's mom fixed mine with an earnest look, which she met with another disapproving look.

"They're not problems, Anya, they're people, whether we like it or not..."

I sighed, I didn't want to listen to this.

"I'm gonna go talk to Naomi," I said aloud, turning and heading in her direction.

The two mothers continued to talk in the background as I walked off in her direction, already interested in what Naomi was watching, I had heard the same old argument go on between countless members of the town, believe it or not, some people began to defend the converts' behavior, at the moment, the majority appeared to be family members of converts, with the exception of the Ellenburgs. Anyone else who defended them was either some random person off the street or someone who listened to Reitman and her whole "it's humanities fault" routine. I rarely looked into pro-ponification forums online, but when I had, I saw a lot of interesting stuff, chief amongst them was one thread that explored the possibility of Celestia being a deity. The majority of the threads, however, simply talked about humanity's failings as a species and praise regarding the converts.

And as per usual with the converts, things were getting worse.

Eric's sister had disappeared about two weeks ago, some people blamed her Dad, others blamed the potion, but the silver-colored pegasus simply went to bed one night, and didn't come back from her room in the morning. Leaving nothing but an open window and a note saying how 'she couldn't take living with them anymore.' People had been talking about it for the entire week, and Eric's dad had joined the HTF about a week later, nowadays when he wasn't working he was at the bar, barely coherent and angry as sin.

I had seen Eric here, he had been hanging around several other guys from the football team, but his father was nowhere in sight.

I shook myself from my thoughts, approaching the table Naomi sat at with a smile on my face,

"That's a load of Bull!" Naomi fumed, her expression one of frustration as she stared at the screen of her computer, her blue eyes carried an icy disdain that she usually only reserved for people who royally pissed her off, and there was only one person who royally pissed her off.

"That's actually a computer" I joked, causing her to look up with a jolt, clearly surprised by someone suddenly walking up to her before she recognized me.

"Oh, Eli! Hey..." She gave me a half-hearted smile

"Whatcha doin'?" I rounded the table to look at the screen, an image of Dr. Reitman.

"Reitman's spouting her bullshit again." Naomi looked at the image with disdain, "I swear to god, it's like she wants us to hate her." She rested her elbows on the table and let out a breath. "If it's not about how humans suck, then it's about how ponies are tantamount to angels in comparison to us."

"Well," I leaned against the table with an intentionally contagious smile, "its either listen to her or listen the HTF and that nut Carter, I swear, every time he hijacks one of their podcasts he's gonna rupture a lung from all that yelling."

That managed to get a small chuckle out of her, the bitter frown on her face was replaced by a smile as she turned her attention away from the computer.

In truth, Carter was at the forefront of the rapidly-growing group of individuals that had become increasingly hostile to anything that had to do with Equestria and already a disconcerting number of people within the HTF had begun to disregard Reverend Thomas' more peaceful methods of protests in favor of the outright hate speech and threats endorsed by both Carter and his daughter; Verity.

"Well, his wife did grow a-"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember," I growled uncomfortably, cutting Naomi off as I waved my hand frantically in an attempt to stop the images I had seen online from returning to my mind.

Carter's wife had been trans, and had been diagnosed with Alzheimers, she had been one of the first people to take the potion, and ended up as a stallion. I had my own thoughts about the whole idea of being transgender, but I couldn't help but feel bad for the two of them. One day the woman you've known for years walks out the door, and the next day, a smiling, four-legged creature that wasn't even the same gender as the person it had replaced came to take her place, it had to be hard to live with something like that. I had heard that the former "Mrs. Carter" hadn't even lasted a week before running off to Equestria, some rumors stated the father and daughter ran the former human out of their home themselves.

"You know, I've been wondering," Naomi shifted her gaze away from me timidly "How things would have been if they had never shown up at CERN, all of us would have been going about our lives like normal, maybe things would have been better if the ponies never met us."

Her eyes scanned the cafeteria, watching as people talked and laughed with each other, she had a nostalgic look on her face, the sad kind of nostalgia that you usually saw in movies when someone knew this was the last time something like this would happen.

"Maybe then the converts wouldn't exist, and people could talk as comfortably, be as comfortable in their own homes, with their own families as they were before all this bullshit happened."

"I wouldn't know," I sat down on the opposite side of the table as Naomi looked back to me, "maybe it would have been, or maybe the world would have collapsed and we could have all fucking died."

Naomi gave me a look that said "WTF?"

I shook my head, "What I'm trying to say here is that we can't sit around wondering about 'what if's,' like it or not, Equestria is here to stay for the foreseeable future and so are the converts."

She closed her laptop with a frustrated growl, the sound of it making me flinch as well as briefly drawing the attention of several nearby people.

"I don't get how you're so casual about all of this, Eli." Naomi regarded me with skepticism "You saw a convert attack his own wife in front of his kids, man, his fucking wife!. But here you are, talking and laughing like nothing happened. You and your dad saw what the potion is doing to the converts, what it's doing to their families."

My eyes widened at Naomi's outburst, her words drew even more attention than her laptop, with several parents looking at us with nervous disapproval apparent in their eyes.

"Sssh!" I whispered, "Edward's family is already a martyr for the fucking anti-convert groups all over the country, the HTF keep calling my Dad about talking on one of their podcasts, and the converts keep looking at me like I'm the prize buck during open-season!"

I subtlely gestured to the people around us as my frustration began to get the better of me.

"Look around us! Everyone here is already on edge, we are on edge, and the last thing I need is another target on my back because of what everyone thinks I should do or how I should think because of what I've seen! You wanna know how I feel about this? I'm scared out of my mind! I think that something about the potion isn't right and that we are not being told everything we should be about it! But right now there is precisely jack-shit that I can do about it right now, so all I can do is fucking sit here and crack jokes and hope I don't sink deeper into this pile of horse-shit of a situation than I already am!"

Naomi shrunk back at my outburst, looking around to see the people within earshot that had been staring at us quickly avert their eyes nervously and put distance between us.

"Ok! I get it, I get it. Sorry..."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, "It's fine, just... forget about it."

We sat in silence for the next few minutes as the people around us came and went, leaving the cafeteria mostly abandoned as the sun finished it's descent to the treeline leaving the sky all but completely pitch black. Naomi had returned to her computer and I had fished my phone out of my pocket. However, the silence became too much for my friend to bear, and I could tell there was something she wanted to get off her chest.

"I wish they had never come here."

I looked up at her to see Naomi on the verge of tears, her eyes red behind her glasses and the bags under her eyes now much more apparent, only now did I notice how she really looked, her light brown hair was disheveled, looking ragged and just barely styled, her hand gripped the side of the table with a white-knuckled intensity I had never seen before.

"These fucking ponies are ruining our lives, Eric, I swear to God, I can't go three days by getting harassed by one of these fucking converts, and there's this one pony that won't leave Anna alone, it's like he has this fucked up crush on her and he keeps trying to get her to convert so they can 'be together.'"

I was speechless, I hadn't talked Naomi about the converts since the incident with Edward, I had been uncomfortable talking about them before that night, but afterward? I couldn't say a word about them without Edward's eyes plaguing my thoughts once again. Those huge, watery pupils seemed trapped between the man that he had been and something else entirely, something full of hatred and yet very, very happy. I was so focused on what I had gone through and keeping up the facade I had created I hadn't even paid attention to what was happening to the people around me.

"Naomi." I reached out a hand to console her, placing it on her shoulder "I'm sorry."

She looked at the hand with a somber, tired look.

"Don't be, it's not your fault, it's theirs."

"Who's?"

She looked at me "The ponies."

If this had been anything less than the serious, emotional discussion that it was right now, I would have laughed in her face, but I knew what she meant. It was the same thing that a lot of people in the HTF were saying right now. She wanted them gone, she wanted every last Equestrian out of her life, for the rest of her life.

The hell of it was, neither of us had actually met an actual Equestrian yet, but even now I could tell how much she hated them already, she hated them for making the potion, she hated them for making the converts, and God knows she hated the converts.

"Naomi," I looked at her warily "No offense, but you're slowly starting to sound like Carter."

"Don't give me that, Eli." She glared at me, "You know just as well as I do that they're the ones to blame here."

"We haven't even seen an actual Equestrian yet Naomi, all we have to go on are the converts."

"So what?! I've seen enough news coming out of Equestria to know that they still support conversion one-hundred percent! Its been months since the FDA released an explanation and how much have we heard in the news about a cure!?"

"And so you place the blame on the many for the deeds of the few, is that it?" I was beginning to get frustrated, to be honest, I didn't even know why I was defending the Equestrians, I definitely wasn't a fan of them and the converts, but I had heard more than enough about how the natural Equestrians differed from the converts, how they seemed so full of life, and they didn't smile nearly as much as the converts, sure they were cheery, but even they had been creeped out by their smiley counterparts.

Naomi looked at me with venom, "That's not the same thing, this is different."

"Really?" I matched her gaze with my own, "Nine-Eleven, a major terrorist attack on U.S soil, hundreds dead from the actions of the few men, the result? We still have people calling anyone from the middle-east a 'terrorist'.

"Nine-Eleven was about religious ideals and hatred, this is something else." Naomi leaned forward, her anger at me was growing with each passing moment.

"Who cares what it is, Naomi!" I balled my hands up into fists, "You haven't even met one of them and yet, you act like they've murdered the converts!"

"They might as well have!" Naomi stood up, her hands pressed firmly on the table as she got in my face. "Look at the facts you fucking idiot!" She growled, "They aren't trying to cure the converts!"

"Then what are they doing, Naomi!" I stood up with a snarl, "Since you're so fucking smart, tell me how a race you haven't even seen in person is so evil, how they've come to kill us all!"

Naomi glared at me with venom in her eyes, her mouth was pulled into a tight, grimacing frown that told me I had made her really, really mad.

"What would be the point?" She turned her back to me and began to walk away, "You seem to have everything figured out for yourself."

"Nao-"

She flipped me the bird over her shoulder, signaling that our conversation was over, I ran my hands through my hair and took a deep, frustrated breath. This was definitely going to end up biting me in my ass, but there wasn't much I could do about it now, I wasn't sorry about what I said, I still believed Naomi was wrong for hating the ponies as a whole. She was stubborn at the best of times and a complete brick wall of a person in regards to willpower when it came to her at her worst , when she was convinced of something, there was no dissuading her.

"You got a magic touch with the ladies, E." A voice chuckled from behind me.

I turned to see Martin striding up with Diana in tow, despite our argument, the two of them came to me with small smiles on their faces.

"Sup Martin?" I bumped fists with him, "Hey Diana."

"Hey, Eli." She replied quietly, Diana was the silent type and tended to hang around one of her friends when she was out in public, from what she told us at our meetings, she had a problem with anxiety, and the converts had done little to help that. It looked like Martin had been the first person she had found, and she stuck to him like glue.

"What was that about?" Martin nodded Naomi, who was stomping over to where my mom and hers were still talking.

"What do you think?" I raised an eyebrow, "She wants the Equestrians off Earth, I don't blame all of 'em for the potion, she does, we're both stressed, stuff like that tends to be toxic in a conversation."

"Can't really say I feel the same." Martin shrugged, "Even with my sis and my aunt," I can't hate something I've never met."

"Exactly!" I threw my hands up," I'm glad I'm not the only one here who understands."

"She's just scared." Diana replied, "This is hitting her family kinda hard."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Her Dad's family had something to do with the potion."

The both of us stare blankly at her.

"Excuse me, what?" Martin deadpans, "We're talking about the same person, right? Mr.Zakharovich, the very same guy that made cookies for our little group thing this summer?"

"I don't know!" Diana shrunk back, "All I know is that I heard her talking to her Dad about something like that when they walked in!"

"Holy shit!" Martin exclaimed, "What the hell!"

I looked at Martin, "Kind of overreacting there, don't you think?"

Martin shook his head looking at something behind me, "Not about this, about that!"

I turned to see a large amount of the people in the cafeteria staring at something in the leftmost entrance to the cafeteria, even my Mom and Mrs. Zakharovich were staring wide-eyed at it, I followed their gazes to see a group of three converts standing in the doorway. A light purple Earthpony, and two pegasi, one light red and the other a dark shade of burgundy. At first, I tensed up, ready to force a smile on my face and retreat out of the room as fast as possible, but my sudden anxiety was almost immediately washed away by confusion as I saw the very same kind of forced-smile on the faces of two of the ponies, while one had a nervous frown plastered on his face, they were accompanied by an older man in a light gray suit. His balding head shined in the fluorescent lighting like the top of a freshly-minted coin, and the constant beads of sweat on his head identified him as the Mayor of Penn's Creek, he was round, portly man by the name of Mr. Rivers.

The entire cafeteria had fallen silent, with neither party knowing how to react.

"What the hell is going on?" Martin whispered, "What's the mayor doing here?"

"Why is he with those converts?" Diana took a wary step backward.

"I don't think those are converts," I replied.

Mayor Rivers cleared his throat, "Pardon us everyone, don't pay us any mind, I'm just showing our town's newest residents around the school."

"What."

The cafeteria came alive with whispers as the Mayor ushered the three ponies across the cafeteria, with every pair of eyes in the room on them, as they passed I saw a picture on the flanks of two of the ponies and realized what they were, a manifestation of a pony's natural talent, something they called a 'cutie mark.' (I still can't help but roll my eyes when I hear that, ponies and their puns.)

A piece of information came back to me at that moment, converts don't get cutie marks for some reason, meaning these three weren't converts. They were Equestrian immigrants.

Already I could see scorn and fear wash across the faces of several people in the crowd, God-knows how Naomi was reacting to this.

"Well, this is going open a can of worms," I whispered as the group passed us.

"A can?" Martin replied, "It's gonna open a fucking shipping container of 'em."

The mayor kept that same nervous smile plastered on his face, but I could tell he was at a loss for words, why an Equestrian family would want to move to Penns Creek of all places was beyond me, but there they were, looking like a bunch of fish out of water.

The stallion leading the family cleared his throat, doing his best to put on a legitimate smile, it was strained, not in the way the convies were, trying to smile so hard it looked like it hurt sometimes, this pegasus seemed somewhat scared, like he was about to be mobbed by everyone in the cafeteria if he said or did anything wrong.

"H-hello everypo-" The stallion hesitated, "Hello everyone, my name is Wind Runner," he gestured to the Earth-pony mare and the stallion next to her, "this is my wife; Morning Mist, and my son Thunder Arc."

The Cafeteria remained oddly silent, everyone staring at the ponies in a manner that seemed almost accusatory.

"I suppose you're all wondering how this...unexpected turn of events came to be," the mayor said, his eyes scanning the crowd for a light in the dark, someone who could do something to break the silence.

"Our town has been chosen to become one of the many places across the country to receive citizens of Equestria that have chosen to immigrate to the United States."

More whispers, I could see my mom amoungst the many faces in the crowd, her expression one of surprise but lacking the hostility and hesitation that so many others carried. I could see a few more faces in the crowd like hers, some seemed a little too happy to see the Equestrians.

"Now, I expect everyone to treat our new neighbors with respect, our local newfoal population has been more than welcoming to them."

"Newfoals? Is that what they're calling them now?" Diana strode up beside us as we took got a good look at the family.

"Good a name as any." Replied Martin, "Better than what Eric's been calling 'em."

The mayor continued speaking of how the Equestrians would need help acclimating to human technology and norms, Edward's name came up once or twice and I saw Wind Runner visibly flinch, he had heard of what happened, I didn't necessarily know how he would react to something like that, or how any of them would react to it.

"Thank you everyone, for your time, I'm sure everyone is eager to get back home and enjoy the last few days of summer, so I'll be showing our new friends to their new house, everyone have a blessed evening." The mayor nodded and led the family off, leaving everyone to take in this revelation.

My mom came to get me soon after, I said my goodbyes to Martin and Diana and the two of us left in a hurried fashion. As we walked I caught a glimse of who else but Eric, Naomi was with him.

The two sent a passing glance my way, Naomi seemed to ignore me as soon as we made eye-contact, but I could feel Eric's eyes on my back as I turned the corner.

We entered the parking lot and I found myself staring at Officer Ellinburg and several other people gathered together, they looked pissed, and I didn't need to think much to guess why. They seemed to be talking and that was about it, but a lot of bad could come from words, especially when one of the people speaking carried a gun on them.

As we got in the car, my mom eventually spoke up, "They're gonna be a problem."

I looked at my mom in shock, "The ponies?"

She shook her head, "Not them..."

We remained silent the whole ride home, The few months of school proved my mom right, and from there on my life got about ten times harder.

Author's Note

Well, that took a while, life stuff got in the way, but I will continue to write until I have no hands to write with!

Now we're getting to the better parts of Act Zero, things are gonna heat up from here.

September 6th: felt like adding onto this chapter, the ending seemed too abrupt.