This Ain't a Game

[Kevin Price]

(September 1st after classes. Open to everyone.)

Gaffer's hooves collapsed on the grass of the quad as he tossed his head from side to side. Years out of high school and the male was STILL getting tossed around by bullies. The unicorn straightened his tie with his magic, sighing and dusting off some of the dirt which had arisen from said tossing. He breathed out a sigh of annoyance, looked around and pulled a comic book from his saddlebag. Sitting on his rear the unicorn folded open the comic's pages and began to read hoping he'd get no interruptions.

Classes had been hell. Although he was quite good at academics and magic, the physical classes had whipped the male through a living hell. He'd been bested by the strong and even bested by the weak. He didn't have a shot unless he used his magic in defeating anyone in the arena. He scoffed and shook his mane before returning his thoughts to the task at hand.

Although he DID wish he could get Shining Armor, Poindexter, 8-Bit or even Twilight to play out a fantasy quest since his real life was taking such a darkened turn.

Apparently he'd rolled a very bad roll.

[Twilight Sparkle]

In Twilight's opinion, the classes had been... Interesting. The classes involving reading and all were seemingly Twilight's best. After all, she was easily described as a bookworm and a bit of a dork. As for the physical courses, those were more challenging. Twilight hadn't expected anything along those lines when she'd first stepped into the school, that was for sure. Oh well. She just had to put up with it and hope she didn't end up fighting anyone from home. Especially if it meant potentially fighting one of her friends...

She lifted a book from out of her saddlebag with her magic and continued to trot forward. The uniform felt a bit uncomfortable, as it wasn't quite what she was used to, but she did think the water circle's colors looked nice. She also did like the feel of the jacket, but the shirt and skirt? While ponies did wear clothes back home, Twilight wasn't so sure about the uniform. Another thing she'd just have to shrug off, she guessed. It probably didn't matter much, anyway. No one was around to judge her... Or were they?

When she looked up, Twilight caught sight of Gaffer reading nearby. Her eyes grew wide for a moment. Another unicorn? One who was decidedly older than her, too. Likely around Shining Armor and Cadence's age, from the looks of it. So... Could he have been one of Shining Armor's friends?

"Hello!" she greeted cheerfully. Twilight set her book down in the grass and sat down, offering a cheerful little smile to go along with her greeting.

"I didn't think I'd be seeing another pony here," she admitted.

[Deleted]

It wasn't like the classwork was hard. Not at all. No, the problem with classwork was it was work. More than Reuben cared for. The alien experiment had hoped for some relaxing time away from Gantu and his constant attempts to capture his cousins. But, no. Here he was, taking classes to teach him stuff he could memorize, or had already memorized, and that wasn't even mentioning that awful arena.

The short creature shuffled along, plucking at his tie. He didn't really care for the uniform he had to wear. It was no much easier to go without clothes of any kind. He sighed, and sat down on the grass, pulling a sandwich out of his backpack, not too far from a pair of unicorns. Well, he might as well be nice. After all, neither of them had been mean to him.

"Hey, ya want a sandwich?" he asked, taking a bite out of his own. As usual, he had several to spare, and the fixings for more.

[Kevin Price]

Looking up from the comic the male smiled brightly. "Oh hello Twilight!" He said with a grin. He shrugged. Twilight might not remember him; she'd been little enough to not have her cutie mark when they'd met. "Oh right, you might not remember me. It's Gaffer, your brother's best buddy in high school?" Come to think of it Shining Armor and Cadance had been so busy the unicorn hadn't seen him in more than a year. It did make him upset. 8-Bit had moved to Cloudsdale and Poindexter to Ponyville while he'd stayed in Canterlot. He missed his nerdy buds.

His ears raised as he saw the yellow plump thingy coming towards him. "Oh...hello..." It looked like a troll from one of his games. "I'm alright...uh...who are you?"

[Fen]

"Gosh what is WITH this school I mean seriously." Fen was trotting along on his back legs, gesturing mindlessly to emphasize his words. What a freakin messed up school I mean, some place where you had to fight your fellow students to the death? "Am I the only one who sees anything MODERATELY wrong with this place? How screwed up it is? I mean seriously." True to his circle, Fen had been forced to dress in his circle colors. Little Pokemon was dressed in a white collared shirt, a dark green vest and a matching tie. He refused to wear pants because let's face it, he was a Pokemon. Not a human. Even though he liked to think he was.

Shaking his head, Fen came to a stop as he realized he had happened upon other students. He regarded them all with a bored expression. Great, he was stuck with even weirder students. A couple of pretty little horses and a plump blobby thing. Wait he thought he recognized the fat one. He looked like a character out of one of those TV shows Rose liked to watch .. which one he couldn't remember though.

"So what up Pretty Little Ponies?" He said in a simpering voice, trotting closer to them with a smug toothy grin on his face and paws raised in a seeming shrug, "Did you little pastel wonders just pop out of Ponyville or Sweet Valley or some stupid place like that?" True to his nature Fen found them fantastically laughable. Cute, brightly colored ponies with absurdly large eyes wandering about in this palace of death. It was classic. Did they poop rainbows? he wondered.


(Umm just for the sake of saying so guys Fen is maybe two feet tall. xD He's probably a lot smaller than the ponies so yeah feel free to be like yo what is up with this tiny little yellow thing being such a smart aleck lol)

[Deleted]

Gwen hadn't minded the classes. In fact, school was where she felt more at home than ever. Though she did miss her grandpa, she was relieved to be at a school where her cousin wouldn't mess things up. Her green eyes were no longer wide with surprise to see that there were animals in this school. She had gotten used to it after the second class. Holding her books close to her chest, the girl walked into the quad, looking for someone to talk to. She might not as been as good with people as ben but she could try. She noticed a purple unicorn that had been in one of her classes. The orange haired girl thought she should at least strike up a conversation with her. "Um, hi, I'm Gwen, we sit near each other in our first period." she said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you." Did unicorns shake hands? No, that didn't make sense. 

[Patch]

Patch was sure his tie was too tight. With his paws, it had been incredibly hard to tie the accessory in the first place; and while he had eventually managed, the dal had been suffering through the day with it being tighter to his throat than was strictly comfortable.

Still, that was honestly the least of his problems. The biggest, of course, being that he was going to be expected to fight for his life sooner or later... the small canine had no idea how he was going to manage that. The classes were preparing them, to some degree, he supposed; but as much as he wanted to be optimistic about the whole thing, Patch was having trouble imagining himself lasting long in the arena.

It was just like episode fifty-four, when the bad guys had captured Thunderbolt and thrown him into a dogfighting arena; only Thunderbolt had jumped onto his opponent's back and from there over the fence and gone after the bad guys, and Patch already knew the arena walls were too high for him to try a stunt like that unless he was pitted against someone really huge. Though even if the circumstances had been right, it was silly to even think that a little pup like him could mimic the actions of the One-of-a-kind Wonderdog.

It took a moment for Patch to realise he'd wandered into the central quad and that there were other students milling around. He vaguely recognised the yellow creature, whose tie colour proclaimed him to be a fellow air circle member, but none of the others struck him as familiar. Still, he didn't have anywhere he was immediately supposed to be... taking care not to step on the end of his own tie as it dragged along the ground between his legs, Patch padded over to join them.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Gaffer?" Twilight repeated. She searched her mind, trying to recall who he was, but it dawned on her before long. One of her brother's old friends! Oh, this was a lucky day indeed. Not only had the young unicorn run into a fellow pony, but she'd also run into Shining Armor's friend! Granted, they'd never really gotten to know each other super well. Now that they were together, though, Twilight had a good feeling that she and Gaffer would at least get along well enough for the time being. A grin formed on her face and she nodded a bit.

"I remember now! You and Shining Armor used to spend time together when you were in school," she said. She'd have gone further if she could, but that was about where Twilight's memories of the other unicorn ended. Besides... It appeared the two of them had company. The first creature to join them was a pudgy yellowish-brown creature who had asked them if they wanted a sandwich. Twilight hadn't had much to eat that day, as she'd been in a hurry and hadn't gotten breakfast, so she supposed a quick bite to eat wouldn't hurt anything if she didn't get crumbs on her book. So, at length, the lavender mare nodded.

"If you happen to have any daffodil sandwiches, that would be great. If not, I'm sure I could manage with something else. I'm Twilight, by the way. Nice to-"

She was interrupted when a sort of grating voice spoke up. Glancing down, Twilight caught sight of Fen and... Well, she didn't know what to make of him. His question of whether or not she and Gaffer were from Ponyville was surprisingly on the dot, and so she nodded. However, she did have to raise an eyebrow at how straightforward he seemed to be. What a strange creature!

"Actually, yes. I am from Ponyville. Who are you, though? For that matter, what are you? Even in the Everfree Forest, I've never seen anything like you before," she commented. That was when her gaze drifted to Gwen and Patch. She nodded in greeting to Gwen, but Patch was only just approaching so she couldn't exactly say a lot to him yet.

[Deleted]

Reuben just shrugged lightly when Gaffer turned down his offer. But when Twilight asked if he had any daffodil sandwiches, he frowned a little, and rummaged around in his backpack. As luck would have it, he had passed a clump of daffodils earlier, and thought the bright yellow blossoms might add some good flavor to a sandwich. "The name's Reuben."

"Yeah, just one second...and, there we go. One daffodil sandwich. You want any condiments? Or perhaps a garnish?" he asked, placing the daffodils between two slices of bread. He glanced up at the furry yellow creature that had joined them. The guy kind of reminded him of his cousin, Heckler. And, if he was going to ignore him, he'd ignore the creature right back.

"Hey guys. Either f you want a sandwich?" he asked the human girl and spotted puppy who were making their way over, waving a pudgy hand at them. He had close to six hundred thirty genetically created cousins, and so far, nothing he had seen here had fazed him. Talking ponies and furry creatures were practically normal compared to the myriad races of the Galactic Federation, after all.

[Kevin Price]

Ears on the male folded back as another yellow thing popped onto the scene. What a tiny thing with such a big mouth. Usually nasty critters were bigger than him. He tilted his head to the side. Twilight didn't really remember him, that was understandable. Just one of Shining Armor's dorky friends. He nodded with a smile. At least Shining Armor's sister was here, she'd be company enough while he figured things out. Though now protecting her would be a number one priority.

He spotted the puppy, a creature he recognized finally, and turned back to the group, saying nothing. He used his magic to fold his comic book back into his pack. Looks like he wasn't going to get much reading done anyhow.

[Patch]

"Um, sure, that would be great."

Admittedly, Patch hadn't been expecting the first greeting he recieved to be an offer of food; but now that the yellow creature mentioned it, the pup became aware of just how hungry he really was, and his stomach gave a little growl at the thought of eating. It had been a while since he'd last eaten, hadn't it? He supposed he'd just been too preocupied to really think on it before now.

"You're in the air circle as well, aren't you?" he asked, deciding to strike up conversation with Reuben since he had been the one to acknowledge him; most of the others present seemed to be focused on the oddly-coloured horses. Not that he could really blame them. It couldn't have been often that any of them saw a purple horse, especially with a horn like that. Obvious question might have been obvious - the colours of their ties gave it away - but it was a starting point, at least.

[Fen]

Nov 25, 2013 8:29:58 GMT Twilight Sparkle said
She was interrupted when a sort of grating voice spoke up. Glancing down, Twilight caught sight of Fen and... Well, she didn't know what to make of him. His question of whether or not she and Gaffer were from Ponyville was surprisingly on the dot, and so she nodded. However, she did have to raise an eyebrow at how straightforward he seemed to be. What a strange creature!

"Actually, yes. I am from Ponyville. Who are you, though? For that matter, what are you? Even in the Everfree Forest, I've never seen anything like you before," she commented. That was when her gaze drifted to Gwen and Patch. She nodded in greeting to Gwen, but Patch was only just approaching so she couldn't exactly say a lot to him yet.

Fen raised an eyebrow. First, at the realization she didn't know what a Pokemon was. Second, that the purple horse obviously didn't traffic in sarcasm or encounter smart aleck remarks very often. Ho boy....gonna have to explain this all over again. It was like talking to Enlee...only worse. He liked Enlee. She was innocent, and sweet, and an alien to boot. Someone he felt warranted a legitimate explanation. Not FrouFrou the WonderPony here. But, she had asked him a question.

He shrugged, holding up his paws and rolling his eyes as if it were obvious. "Ummmm I'm a Pokemon? You know? Pocket Monster? Like Pikachu? Eevee?" Somehow he knew Twilight wouldn't know what any of those things were. She was obviously not from the same world as he was. But he was going to ask anyway just to be a butt.

Foxlike ears perked at the sound of further footsteps and Fen turned to behold a human and one other animal from his circle. The puppy reminded him very vaguely of a Growlithe, except....less robust. More wimpy. And with spots. He regarded the pup with very little change of expression, looking extremely bored. "Hey Spots." Might as well greet a fellow Circle member. Might come in handy later.

[ScreechFeather]

ScreechFeather trotted rather like a fowl when she was on the ground.  The archeopteryx beat her wings rapidly, making an uncomfortable face.  She did not need to - nor was in any way inclined to - wear cloths before.  It wasn't that some animals where she come form didn't wear cloths, but cloths were typically associated with living in a more city-like place, whereas she lived in the most wild regions of the land.  Purple dino-bird paused for a moment to jerk her head to her shoulder and nibble irritably at the green vest around her body.  ScreechFeather, mildly relieved of the itch, began to approach a rather large number of students.  The purple dino-bird made a wide half-circle at first, apparently sizing them up.  They were all so small, she thought.  Not that she should talk (even being a larger than average archeopteryx put her at a whopping two feet tall), but most of the other Ravagsars...or come to think of it, most others she knew, were significantly larger than any of them.  Seeing as how she could hold her own against animals three times bigger than herself gave the feathered dino a pretty good confidence boost.

Wings fluttered as she hopped several feet up and glided closer.  There weren't any branches for her to land on, so she decided she might as well choose a victim.  ScreechFeather spotted another wearing the same shade of green as she and turned her tail to direct her decent toward him.  One beat of her wings slowed her speed and the archeopteryx hooked her curved claws into Gaffer's bookbag, perching herself there.  Given he was a part of the same Circle as she was, she wasn't keen on poking him with her claws directly.  She might as well try to get along with the fellows she'll be sharing a dorm with.

"Earth Circle, right?" Asked ScreechFeather, tilting her narrow head up at Gaffer.

She'd address the others as needed, but right now, she didn't feel the need to greet any of them.

[Kevin Price]

Gaffer's ears lifted as he heard the wings flapping violently above him before he looked up. His ears lowered. "Oh that's just rude," Gaffer said with a look up, "Howdy. You're not like any dragon I've seen." Hooves pressed down a bit, wobbling as he stood under the bird's weight. He shrugged his shoulders and breathed in. New comics would REALLY have to wait. Being social was taking precedent which was weird for the little nerd who spent most of his days in his basement with his friends playing D&D as dungeon master.

"I'm Gaffer," he said, "From Canterlot? Are you from the dragon colonies?"

[Deleted]

"What tipped you off? The tie?" Reuben asked sardonically as he put together a roast beef sandwich for the puppy. He glanced up in boredom as what appeared to be a dinosaur made an appearance, landing on Gaffer's back. Yeah, the creature might have some wicked-looking talons, but he had been created with enough strength to rip metal, if he really wanted to. As far as he was concerned, if he was left alone, he didn't have any reason to get nasty.

"Alright, here you go. A roast beef sandwich, no cheese, and topped with barbecue sauce,"he said, holding the sandwich out towards the puppy. "Now, let me guess. You have a black spot over your eye, somewhat resembling an eye-patch. And given the normal human penchant for choosing names for their pets based on colors or personalities, I'd wager a sandwich your name is something like 'Patch' or 'Pirate'. Or, if they have no imagination, Spots. So, how close am I?"

As he waited for an answer, he glanced up at the bird. "What about you, feathers? Sandwich?"