I didn't know it happened. The schoolhouse was quiet, and the fillies and colts were quiet. I looked around and saw them. They saw me. We saw each other and we knew we were each other.
I didn't know what the sounds were. Loud. Loud. Loud.
My ears rang harder and harder. Louder.
My teacher looked at us, and we looked at her. She was the teacher, and was always the brave adult. She scared the snake away from the playground one time, and she would always read the monster books. My teacher looked at us, and we knew she was us.
The sounds weren't important she said, just bells for a new game to play. We had to listen hard because the loud made her quiet. It was like hide and seek, but we weren't told who the seekers were. There were teams and we were all together because we were all the hiders. Some fillies and colts went under their desks, while others squeezed into their saddlebag cubbies.
I looked around and I could see them. They were me, and if I can see me, then the seekers can see me. I followed my brave teacher and hid in her cabinet. It smelled like wax crayons but I didn't care. My brave teacher smiled at me and said I was smart. She said it quietly because she was playing too, but I think she was silly.
Brave but silly. She tried to fit under her table, but she was too big. Adults were always to big for anything.
Louder still. The bells were ringing my ears so I tucked myself away behind all the crayons and paper and covered my head. Loud? Loud? I didn't know. I wanted to win the game. I always won my brave teacher's games, like tag or checkers. I liked checkers, because I could make a king and imagine I was the king. When I won I got a tiara, and my brave teacher said I could be the Princess of Checkers.
I told her I wanted to be a king, and she told me kings were no good. They were always colts and colts are dirty and messy, which was why she told me Equestria only had princesses. It made me laugh.
But this game didn't make me laugh. I didn't know it was happening, but I was getting scared. I didn't know why but it was so loud. It didn't sound like a bell. I thought they were fireworks, like the ones at the Grand Galloping Gala I always wanted to go to.
The fireworks stopped. The stopping was louder than the fireworks, because all I could hear was the ringing in my ears. The ringing really hurt, and I wanted my brave teacher to tell me how to fix it. It felt like my ears were broken, because I tried to find my brave teacher but I couldn't hear anything but the ringing.
The silence was loud but the picture was louder. When the door opened and I saw outside, it looked crazy. I looked at the darkness, and it looked back at me, and though I didn't know it, my world ended.
*****
Around me the world ended as I looked at it. Now there were so many ponies outside. Not school ponies, but adults. Adults like my brave teacher, but they were not brave.
I tried to shout to them and let them know where I was, to tell some pony that I won. I couldn't tell my class or my brave teacher, because they lost the game and were really tired. I knew they were tired because some were fast asleep no matter what I shouted, and I knew they lost because they had the weird paint all over them, the red paint, to show that they were losers.
Even my brave teacher, who tried to lock the door to keep out the seekers, was a loser.
So I shouted to the adults to tell them that I was the best at hiding. I even knocked on the window, but I couldn't get their attention. They just kept talking and pointing. Around them more adults came, passing the talking ponies quickly. They were coming into the schoolhouse to play with the seekers this time, because they had their loud bells and fireworks to find the old seekers. They were busy, so I tried to call out to the talking ponies.
I couldn't reach them through the window. I hit the glass with my hoof like the action movies, but I couldn't touching the talking ponies, and I couldn't shout at them either. Why did I win if I was all alone? I wanted to wake up my class now, and tell them it was okay, because the other adult ponies were playing their game now.
I was so happy when the other ponies finished their game, because they came in to tell us it was over. The game was over and my brave teacher can go back to being brave again, and my class could have fun and laugh whenever we played games. But the ponies came in and just looked.
They looked at my brave teacher, painted red like a loser, and they looked at my class too. I trotted to them and they looked at me, but they did not see nor did I feel. They looked past me and at my class again, seeing their faces. I followed and looked at their faces too. I saw them and they saw me, and we knew that we were each other.
*****
Brave and silly. My teacher was a brave and silly teacher. She smiled at me and made me feel okay. I was not okay and I will never be okay.
I am nothing.
We are nothing.
I was in a class and we were each other was the loud loud loud came closer closer closer and everything happened before we knew it
We were each other so we were a team in the game when we hid
but we hid and became nothing as a team
They are nothing Ponies talking and pointing behind the window that I see through I know what they say as they look at each other
They see each other and are each other while we are here being each other Separated by the window these each others are not each other.
We can know them but they will not know us as long as they point and talk while other ponies play and play
loud team and quiet team then loud team and loud team
the game did not make me laugh or smile because now i am nothing
there will be more games and more nothings because we are each other We become nothing together but the ponies still talk and point
Windows are clear yet this one is too bright and they cannot see us together losing in red Everywhere
and if they saw through the window then we can see each other and know each other
If they see us and know us and saw the game they talked about then they can talk and point at the window and not talk and point at each other
I am nothing. I didn't know it happened until I became part of it. Now nothing carries on and happens, and no pony knows it until they become a part of it. And so we become each other.
