Chapter-1 School Problems
Author's Note
Just a heads up, some stuff may be a little unclear and confusing, but that’s the point. Everything will be explained… eventually.
Chapter-1 School Problems
The sound of my alarm going off aroused me from my wonderful dream state with no warning. After trying to drown out that wretched sound, I just decided to smash the tiny torture device called an alarm clock sitting on the nightstand next to my bed with my hand before crawling back under the covers of my safe haven.
After a few minutes of just lying in bed, relishing in a few extra minutes of sleep, I decided that now would be a good time to check the time.
“Why do I have to wake up so- 8:30!” I nearly shouted as I quickly realized that I snoozed for a little longer than a few minutes.
I attempted to jump out of my bed, only for my sheets to get tangled around my legs, to cause me to immediately fall flat onto my stomach right next to my bed. Not having the time to be hurt, I untangled myself, not caring in the slightest about the mess I was making in my small room. And after tearing through all of my clothes to find a uniform, snapping my toothbrush, and eating an over-ripe orange, I was in my car and driving to school.
As I drove to school while breaking more than a few traffic laws, various thoughts crossed my mind. ‘I can’t miss my exams! Do I have everything? Why didn’t mom wake me up like usual? Why do I want ice cream so badly?’
I contemplated all my life choices as I drove to school, hoping, praying that I don’t miss my mid-terms if I want to have any chance of being alive after winter break. I swerved into the student parking lot, hitting a curb along the way, searching for an open spot.
I quickly spotted one near the back of the parking lot before turning into the spot, this time a little more careful. I don’t need more problems.
After running from my car to the other side of the school, I finally burst through the cafeteria doors panting. This drew the attention of everyone in the room as well as stopping the test administrator mid-sentence.
“I’m… here… am I late?” I asked, still catching my breath with one hand on my knee, to the teacher who only stared back with a raised eyebrow and a hand on her hip before motioning to an empty seat while shooting me a disapproving gaze.
I quickly ran over to the seat and plopped down into the chair just as the teacher began again in her monotone voice.
“Today you are going to be taking the…”
*3 Hours Later
“Stop. Please put your pencils down while….
I drowned out the monotoned rambling of the teacher as I closed my test and laid my head down on my desk. About halfway through the test, I started developing a migraine which is strange since they are not by any means a normal occurrence for me.
Once I was no longer able to ignore the pain, I raised my hand and asked the teacher if I could go and see the nurse. And you know what she said? And I quote ‘You can wait five more minutes especially after that entrance.’ And people wonder why I hate school.
I sat at my desk, my head resting on my arms, while the teacher finished collecting all the testing supplies.
“You are dismissed.”
Those were the only words I needed to hear.
With haste, I walked out the door, got my bag, and headed to the only place in this school I actually enjoy, the cafeteria.
‘Wait… already here.’ I thought with a small smile adorning my face.
I walked over to my usual spot, threw my bag down, and headed to the lunch line which was already starting to fill with kids no more than a minute after testing ended.
After a few minutes of waiting in line, I finally got my burger and sat down.
By this time, a few of my usual friends had also made their way to the table.
To the left of me was Brock, next to him was Preston, and to the right of me was Conner. All three of them have been my closest, and only, friends throughout high school.
We met in elementary school when we were all around nine or ten. We instantly seemed to click, which is strange since all of us seem to have problems making friends. Not to mention girlfriends.
“Hey, Oliver.” Conner said while taking his usual lunch out of his lunch box. A ham and cheese sandwich with a bottle of water and “BEANS!” He exclaimed while holding his cup of bean high so everyone could see.
“I still don’t know why you like beans so much. You have had them for lunch every day for like they past… forever.” Brock stated as he started digging into his lunch, school pizza.
“I don’t know, I just think they're neat.” He said while stroking the container before shoveling a spoonful into his mouth and smiling right back at Brock who only raised an eyebrow.
“Ok… well on another note, how do you think you did on the test?” Brock asked before taking a bite of his burger, which is almost immediately spat right back out.
“What is it?” I asked him, now looking at my burger with suspicion.
“This tastes like garbage!” He nearly shouted, which turned a few heads, before downing nearly his entire water bottle in one go. “These things are normally bearable at the very least!”
I looked at Brock, then looked at my burger, and hesitantly took a bite which I immediately regretted.
“Bleh! Mine tastes like total crap too!” I threw the burger right into the trash can behind me before drinking my chocolate milk carton all in one go.
“I’m getting something else. You coming too?” I asked Preston as I got my wallet out of my bag and headed back towards the cafeteria doors.
“Yea, I’m coming too. Just give me a second.”
*About 30 minutes and a big salad later…*
*Ring*
“You guys are still coming over to my place later right?” I asked Conner and Preston as we threw away what was left of our lunches and got ready for our next and second to last class of the day.
“Yep, be at your place around six or so, see ya.” Preston said before giving us a wave which was also mimicked by Conner before they turned and headed their separate way.
Brock and I picked up our bags and headed towards the opposite side of the school for our algebra class.
We walked to the class in silence, not really knowing what to talk about considering that we were both mentally exhausted from the test earlier today.
As we walked, I almost decided to take a detour to the nurse’s office. My headache now migraine, was really starting to wear on me as the pain was steadily increasing in intensity almost to the levels of unbearable.
After we arrived Brock almost immediately sat down and laid his head on his arms.
Our teacher, Mrs. Davie got up from her desk a moment later and began her plans for the class.
“Well, I know most of you just finished your test and winter break it in two days,” she began “but we still have work to do.” She said, which elected more than a few groans of annoyance from various parts of the room.
“Today we are going to be talking about logarithmic…”
Class droned on as usual, with one minor inconvenience.
“Mrs.Ostrom?” I asked with a raised hand from my position in front of the room. “I’ve got a really bad migraine; can I go to the nurse?”
“Fine, but you know you are going to have to do this when you come back, whether it’s before or after winter break.”
“I know.” I moaned.
She promptly proceeded to the back of the room and opened a small drawer in her desk before pulling out a small pink slip and writing something on it.
As she was filling out the little pink slip, another hand came up from right next to me.
“Mrs. Ostrom, I’ve got a really bad migraine also. Can I go to the nurse too?” Brock asked from the desk next to me.
“Really?” She asked with a raised eyebrow and skeptical tone.
“Please.” Was all he said before she finally conceded and pulled out another pink slip.
“Alright, here you go. But I will be making sure you two both make it to the nurse, so no doing anything you’re not supposed to do.” She said in a stern tone that every teacher seemingly managed to develop while holding out both the slips towards me and Brock, which we gladly accepted.
After the door closed behind us, I turned to Brock, “Do you really have a migraine too?”
“Yea, been bugging me since the morning, but I only decided to go to the nurse since you were going too.” He said with obvious pain in his voice. “It’s been getting really bad, I should have gone soo- “And without even finishing the sentence, he promptly passed out and fell onto the floor right in the middle of the hallway.
Seeing this only seemed to make my pain worse. It started feeling like my head was going to explode from the pressure. Soon after, I felt incredibly lightheaded, followed shortly by a wave of dizziness. After that, nothing.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I awoke to a world that felt completely alien to me. Consciousness slowly began to come back to me as I now realized I was laying on the tiled ground, which felt… different than I thought it would. Slowly, I attempted to open my eyes, which were immediately blinded by the artificial lights from the school hallway, which I now recalled. My body still felt like I just ran a marathon with how stiff and sore I was.
‘Why the heck am I sore?’ I thought to myself as I slowly continued opening my eyes, which greeted me with the bland beige of the school hallway.
Slowly, I started to move my head to get a better look at my surrounding.
And to say an action as simple as this felt strange would be the understatement of the century. The feeling was completely alien, yet somehow felt like something I’ve done countless times before.
I continued to look up and down the school wall, still unable to move much at all due to the stiffness and resulting pain it caused.
Having the thought of movement on my mind, I quickly realized I couldn’t feel my fingers nor my toes.
I attempted to move my arm to-
“AHH!”
I quickly got to my… whatever, forgetting all of the pain it sent through my body as I quickly backed away from where I heard the scream come from.
On another note, something on top of my head was… moving? Yea, dwell on that later, there is a dark green horse sitting in the middle of the hallway!
“What are you!?” I nearly shouted at the horse… thing sitting no more than a few feet away from me.
“I could ask you that same thing!” It somehow shouted back.
“I’m Oliver! You’re a talking horse thing!”
“I’m Brock! And you’re a horse thing too!” The horse… Brock yelled back.
This caused what I was about to yell back to immediately die in my throat as realization dawned on me.
The first thing that I saw was the thing at bottom of my vision which I realized was my muzzle.
Slowly, I looked down and was greeted with more marble-colored fur before it ended at two equally white stumps resting on the ground.
I looked back over at the creature across from me who also happened to be my friend with wide eyes completely speechless.
The sound of a door opening from not that far from where were quickly caught both of our attention as the things, which I soon deduced were ears, turned and faced towards the new sound.
Looking at the door, we were greeted by a red-haired girl sticking her head out and immediately freezing when she laid eyes upon our two equally wide-eyed forms.
She proceeded to turn around and say something into the room along the lines of ‘things in the hallway’ before looking at us in a scarily calm manner and retreating back inside of the classroom.
No more than a few seconds later, a lady I recognized as my language arts teacher walked into the hallway and froze mid-step when she saw us.
Her reaction was eerily similar to the girls as she calmly proceeded back into the classroom and shut the door.
Brock and I looked at each other with realization in our eyes that now would probably be a good time to get moving.
With the thought of walking on my mind, it instantly became at least a hundred times more difficult as my legs immediately started shaking. My brain now knowing what not to do with all the foreign senses coming in now that I was no longer distracted by something else started to breakdown.
Looking up, I see that Brock is also having the same difficulties as me.
Refocusing on my own problems, I slowly took a step forward.
After my leg sat firmly on the ground a few inches where it previously was, I gained a little bit of self-confidence back.
‘This isn’t as hard as I thought. Feels like I’ve done this before.’ I thought to myself as I took a few more steps.
It wasn’t long at all before I was slowly walking in a circle.
Looking over to Brock shows that he isn’t having the same kind of luck I am. He’s yet to move more than a few inches from where he first woke up from.
Our attention was grabbed once again as we hear what sounds like multiple people walking up the stairs.
My eyes go wide as I see that the people who have just arrived are not just school staff. Instead, they’re in uniforms with animal control displayed on them.
Instinctively, I slowly start to back up.
“Well, not too often you get a call saying there is a horse in a school.” One of the men starts “I was rather surprised as we don’t get many calls about hor-“ He stopped mid-sentence when he finally looked down the hall and right at the both of us staring back.
“Those… what are those? They kind of look like horses, or ponies.” The second man to his right stated, with a questioning tone.
Brock attempted to get up, only to fall flat on his stomach once again.
He raised his head and looked at me with pleading eyes.
“Well… we will get them out of here for you. Just a little… strange is all.” The man on the left stated before kneeling slowly shuffling over.
“It’s ok girl… I’m not going to hurt you.” He said in a calming tone, as he inched his way forward.
I wanted to speak up, but the more I thought about it, the worse this could get if either one of us talked. 'I mean, what if they just send us to the government so they can cut our brains open huh? But someone heard the scream and found us in the hall!? What if… never mind'.
I brought myself out of my internal debate and around the real world.
Brock sat frozen on the ground, not daring to move. Either he had the same not talking idea as me, or he was just scared out of his mind.
My attention was brought to the other man who was being oddly quiet, which I quickly learned the reason for.
With an open case on the ground next to him, he was slowly walking up behind his partner holding what looked like a tranquilizer gun.
I quietly gasped as I realized I didn’t want to get drugged.
Without a word, the man with the gun pointed it and shot Brock right in the shoulder.
This elected a slight “eep” from him as looked at the dart in his arm.
Without a second wait, I bolted down the hallway in the opposite direction.
‘How… am I running?’ I thought just before I tripped over my own feet and went tumbling into a wall.
Quickly getting back up, I stole a glance back at where I came from and saw Brock’s new form lying motionless on the ground with the two men running down the hall towards me.
With adrenaline filling my body, I bolted down the right hallway as there is an emergency exit down at the bottom of the stairwell.
The door to the stairs came up much quicker than I thought it would which caused me to overshoot.
I tried to stop which resulted in me flat on my face once again.
As I got back to my… hooves, I saw that the guards were still coming right for me.
Looking at the door, I pushed the bar in with my nose which got a ‘click’ as well as the door swinging open.
I ran down the stairs… somehow… and burst through the emergency exit out into the parking lot.
I just ran. Plain and simple.
Across the parking lot.
Through bushes.
Through yards.
Trying to stay hidden.
And after running non-stop for what felt like hours on end, I finally reached my house.
I immediately ran up to the porch and collapsed in front of the door deciding that I was safe now as our house was surrounded by trees on all sides and not visible from the road.
Laying there, my alien sense started coming back to me as the adrenaline finally started to wear off.
Everything was sore. I was completely exhausted from the two-mile run all the way home from school.
As I lay there, thoughts raced through my mind at lightning speed anywhere from ‘I’m hungry’ to ‘what about Brock?’ But one kept coming up repeatedly.
“What am I?”
All I could do was sit there, panting, while my brain continued to catch up to the crazy events that have plagued my day so far.
First, I’m late for school. Next, I don’t feel so good Mr. Stark, then, I’m a freaking pony. Yea, not the best of days for me.
But what about Brock? I just left him there! Who knows what they could do to him! He was a technicolor horse for crying out loud! I mean, what if they just decide to ship him off to the government or god forbid… let someone adopt him! He can talk, but wouldn’t that just make things worse? Argh, too many what-ifs.
With a frustrated sigh, I finally decided to get to my… hooves…. , Yea, never gonna get used to saying that, deciding to have a bowl of my favorite comfort food, ice cream.
As I finally got to my hooves, the first of many problems hit me. “I don’t have my key…” I said to myself, now realizing that I have absolutely none of my possessions with me anymore. “I wonder…” I mumbled to myself as I walk towards the small garden just to the right of the entrance.
After walking about halfway through the garden of barely living flowers, I found what I was looking for. A normal looking grey stone, except that it had the initials of me and my mother had written right on the center of it.
Praying that it is still there, I flipped the stone and was greeted with a half-buried, slightly rusted, key.
“Yes!” I almost shout, relief filling my body as I now know that I can at the very least get inside my own home and get that holy confection into my body.
Reaching out, a white stump enters the center of my field of vision and makes my second problem very evident.
“Oh, crap…” Is all I can say, my mind unable to think of any kind of solution to this problem… well, one solution. ‘I’m gonna have to eat dirt too…” I thought, hoping for some other crazy idea to spring to the forefront of my mind, only, nothing else ever came.
With a defeated sigh, I put my hoof back on the ground and lowered my head towards the ground. And not more than a second later, the taste of earth-filled my mouth along with a slightly metallic taste. Making sure that the key was in my mouth, I closed my jaw, dirt filling it until I bit something hard and metallic tasting. And after confirming that I had what I thought was the key in my mouth, I raised my head and walked back towards the front door trying my best to ignore the large amount of dirt currently residing in my mouth.
As I stepped back onto the cement walkway, yet another problem slammed into my face. “How do I put the key in?” I tried to say, which ended up coming out as no more than a mumble as my mouth was already occupied.
Staring at the door yielded no results, so I decided to act. First, I decided to try and stick the key into the lock with my mouth. That ended up with me slamming my face into the door repeatedly with little success.
Next, I tried picking up the key with both my forearms. This ultimately made me realize even more how short I am as I couldn’t reach anywhere near the door while sitting down and holding the key with one ha- hoof just wasn’t possible.
But not too long after coming to that realization did it dawn on me. The doggie door. I wanted to immediately reject this idea, mainly so I could attempt to keep this facade of ‘everything is alright’ going. But, not having any other ideas plus me really wanting ice cream was enough to change my mind.
With this now in mind, I walked back over the special rock, spit the key and all the dirt I could back into the flower bed. After cleansing my mouth to the best of my ability, I maneuvered my way out of the dying flowers and started towards the back of the house.
After turning the first corner, I remembered another crucial detail, we have a fence. It was a standard grey chain-link fence you’d find just about anywhere. The gate, however, was another story as we hadn’t been able to open that thing for I don’t even know how long. Every hinge on the lock and the gate itself was completely rusted over. We learned that maybe we shouldn’t have put the gate right under a rain gutter a little too late.
All I needed was a quick glance to know that there was no way I was opening that gate now of all times. Instead, I decided that crawling under the fence was a better idea. This was much easier to carry out as I quickly found a section of the fence folding inward making a gap big enough for me.
Hastily, I trot up to the gap and size it up, double-checking that I can make it through. And after confirming my previous theory, I decided to give it a go. Surprisingly, it worked flawlessly, well… almost. I had completely forgotten about the new appendages I now had adorning my back. I was quickly reminded of their presence when I felt a sharp pain in a place, I have never felt pain before. This caused me to stumble through the rest of the gap. And after taking a few deep breaths while the pain slowly diminished, I looked back and saw a large, marble white feather stuck to the fence.
After staring at the feather for a few seconds, I resumed my goal of getting into my house.
As I trotted up to the door, I was once again reminded of my diminutive size. Our dog used to be a fairly large German shepherd, so the door had to be fairly large to be able to allow him to go in and out freely. This came very much in handy as I seemed to be about the same size, if not a tad bigger, which allowed me to walk right through, only having to duck my head to avoid a bruise.
After passing through the flap on the doggie door, I was greeted with the familiar scene of my living room. Pretty standard. A three-person sofa in front of a tv with the kitchen and dining room just behind it.
Making my way immediately towards the freezer not even stopping for a bowl and spoon, I quickly pulled the bottom of the fridge out. A cold breeze glanced over me, but my attention was solely on the saving grace of my day. My personal tub of chocolate blue-bell ice cream.
Thankfully, we didn’t have much in the freezer which allowed me to easily put my head in and pick up the tub of ice cream with my mouth. After retreating from the freezer, I turned around and gave a little kick with one of my hind legs closing the freezer while also leaving a small dent.
I plopped down in my usual seat, the corner furthest from the living room and kitchen, and proceeded to pry the lid off with my teeth before slamming my mouth directly into the container.
I don’t know how long I sat there eating ice cream. Days, months, years?! Probably about half an hour but that’s what it felt like as I slowly consumed the food that has always calmed me down when I was stressed. Heck, I even make it sometimes and it’s pretty darn good. But ice cream always has been and always will be my favorite.
I was drawn out of my food-induced psychotic break once my tongue no longer picked up ice cream and instead gave a nice big taste of paper. While slightly down that I ran out of ice cream, I decided that nearly a whole gallon was enough for one day.
Still half unconscious from that heavenly experience, I walked over to the sofa and jumped up on the right side before sitting down as a person would and instinctively reaching to the left for the controller. I unconsciously picked up the controller and turned the tv on with a small click.
It took me a second to realize what I had just done, but when it dawned on me, my brain nearly had a meltdown. ‘How did I just… what… hooves…’ was all I could think as I tried to piece together how I just picked up a television remote and pushed a button on said remote without any fingers.
After nearly having another metal break, I tried to repeat what I just did. This resulted in me just pushing random buttons and knocking the controller around in various directions. But no matter what I did, I could not repeat what I had just done.
With a defeated sigh, I slouched back down onto the sofa, deciding that future me would figure out how I did that.
After finally bringing my attention back to the tv, I realized that I was on my mom’s weather channel. She was standing in front of a map of the general area where we lived with various names and numbers all over. She had her usual professional look to her. Standard black and white dress with the high heels she seemed to wear every single day.
My mother loved her job. She always seemed to have a fascination with the weather since she was a kid, or so she told me. I was rather good with the weather stuff too, although I didn’t find it nearly as interesting as she did. She always did her job with passion and energy, though, today that energy seemed to be completely drained from her. Her movements were sluggish, she was barely talking above a quiet voice, and her eyelids drooped like she would fall asleep any second.
This caught my attention almost immediately and caused me to worry. Something must have been wrong. I watch her everyday and she was never like this.
My worries were quickly confirmed as no more than a dozen seconds later, she passed out right onto the middle of the floor. This caused many gasps that could be heard from the people behind the scenes. The camera quickly changed back to the other news reported who was looking worriedly to their left to where my mother was.
A flash of light momentarily blinded the camera almost completely for a few seconds. The camera feed came back a few seconds later accompanied by multiple gasps from what sounded like the whole crew.
This, however, did not last as the scene switched once again to another place, this time a reported in a whole different setting. He said that things were being handled and everyone was alright. This did little to quell my fears though. But, the report didn’t seem to be willing to give up any more information on the topic as he quickly switched to another news story.
I jumped off the couch to look for my phone so I could call her before I remembered I don’t have my phone anymore.
With no way of contacting my mother, I made my way across the living room to my bedroom door before dejectedly walking inside, closing the door, and flopping onto my bed.
Then, I started crying. All the pain, confusion, and anxiety that had built up over the past day all coming out and onto my pillow. I cried for what felt like hours just wishing none of this was real and that things would go back to the way that they were. Nevertheless, I had that constant feeling that this was all too real.
After crying for about half an hour, my mental and physical exhaustion decided to catch up with me as I drifted off to sleep, checks stained with tears.
The school day droned on as usual. Ms. Cherilee stood in front of the whole class attempting to teach basic arithmetic but having little success at retaining all the fillies and colts' attention. This was understandable though as not so long after, the bell dismissing school for the day rang.
“Alright class, have a wonderful day! And remember to finish your homework!” She said to the students funneling out of the exit while waving to them all with her usual perky smile.
“Oh hey Twilight, hey Orange. Have you seen Midnight?” I said as I trotted up to two other fillies conversing amongst each other. These two happened to be my friends since the first days of school we had together. Twilight was a dark blue bat pony with an equally dark purple mane. And Orange was a bright orange earth-pony filly with a lighter orange mane.
“No, we haven’t seen her come out yet.” Twilight responded with a slight shrug and tilt of the head.
“Oh, there she is!” Orange exclaimed while pointing a hoof towards the school entrance where the last of the fillies and colts were leaving the building. It didn’t take me long to spot the dark green unicorn filly exiting the building.
“Hey, Midnight!” I shouted, which got her attention and caused her to redirect the path towards us.
It wasn’t long before the three of us were walking along the dirt roadside by side discussing our plans for the weekend.
“So, you’re all still up for the sleepover at my house on Saturday right?” I asked, looking left and right at all three of my friends.
“Yep! It’s gonna be the best sleepover ever!” Midnight bellowed with a skip in her step.
“Just two more days, then it’s Saturday!” Orange gleefully said as she took up the pace next to Midnight.
Eventually, we were all skipping down the road, a giggling dust storm by all the dirt we were kicking up. However, that fun shortly came to an end as we reached the front yard of my house.
“Bye!” I said while waving to all my friends before I flew up onto the second-floor balcony. I landed with a thud, my bags making it slightly harder to get up than normal. And after pushing the door open and tossing my bag into the corner, I walked over to the stairs in the corner of my room before descending down to the first floor.
Upon, reaching the ground floor, I was greeted by my father, a dark grey stallion with a black mane. Nearly the complete opposite of me, although he said I looked just like the mother.
The thought of mother brought down my mood slightly, but not before dad greeted me. “Hey honey, how was school?”
“Oh the usual I guess, I just can’t wait for the weekend!” I said with excitement leaking into my voice.
“Oh well, guess what we’re going do for the weekend right now.” He said with a grin.
“What are we…” I stopped as the smell of vanilla extract reached my nose, causing me to instantly realize what we were doing. “Ice cream!” I shouted, causing dad to wince slightly before quickly putting the smile back on.
“Yep! We're gonna make all your favorite kinds of ice cream for you and your friends this weekend!” He said while motioning for her to come over. “If we want to make enough, we better get started now!”
I happily responded by pouring the first ingredient into the mixing bowl… all of it.
I was slowly roused from my sleep as a sound I couldn’t recognize reached my ears.
Lazily, I sat up and looked out the window to see that the sun was almost completely gone. Another glance at my nightstand confirmed my suspicion. It was about six meaning I had slept ether around twenty-eight, or more likely, four hours.
My next thought was abruptly cut short as the sound of banging on the front door caught my attention and caused me to gasp so loud the person on the other side of the door probably heard it.
Only one thought ran through my head at that moment. ‘Uh oh…’
Author's Note
Well, here is another one. Been feeling rather uninspired lately but was able to make this. Hope it's not too terrible. Pointing out any mistakes I may have missed would be much appreciated.
