MLP: Broken Lights

Aura Lotus’s vision swam as he laid on the floor of the classroom. Everything around him was muffled as if his head had been shoved underwater, his senses dulled as he felt someone picking him up and propping him up against the teacher’s desk. The screams and worried cries of his classmates sounded distant, as if they were just the background noise on a TV in the other room. Blood trickled down his chin, some smeared on the right side of his face from how he had fallen, and soon he vaguely felt small taps on his face, as if someone was patting his cheek, though it wasn’t enough to bring his senses back to normal.

The teacher had called the nurse, who came running in five minutes later to see the extent of the problem, taking the dizzy male’s hand into her own. She was shocked as her warm hand felt so strange against his clammy one, looking into his eyes and seeing that he while he was looking at her… it seemed like he was looking through her, as if she wasn’t even there. Aura could see her, but he was so out of it that it didn’t register at the moment. The nurse left for a moment before coming back and putting something under the male’s nose, and upon his next, strained breath…

Aura almost choked on the overpowering scent of smelling salts, trying to pull away though the nurse kept them under his nose, bringing the boy’s senses back as he whined.

Suddenly he could see again, could hear the worried voices of his classmates, could feel the blood on his chin and face… could see the sheer panic and worry on Storm Fern’s now pale face. However, the instant that his consciousness fully came back, he wished that he was still out of it as the realization that he couldn’t breathe properly dawned on him, panting hard and fast as he clutched at his throat, causing Storm to pull out his handheld fan. The youngest had gotten in trouble for having that during school, but as his teacher was about to scold him for having it, the green-haired boy had already turned it on and pointed it at Aura, the air slowly flowing into his nose and mouth as it blew over his face, both calming him down as well as slowly returning his breathing back to normal. Thankfully, Storm was an excellent student in his Health class and his Health teacher had gone over shortness of breath and how to treat it using home remedies in case there was no time to go to the doctors or there were no doctors near by.

Once the teacher noticed the ill student’s slow recovery thanks to the handheld fan, she let him off before sending Aura and Storm to the nurse for the rest of the day to recover. The blood was soon cleaned up carefully and bag the rag was thrown in tied tightly and discarded.

The pink haired male followed the nurse, being supported by the green-haired boy as they walked towards the nurse’s office, silent for the moment until Storm spoke up.

“So… Aura… what happened?” He asked as Aura shook his head, he was just as lost as his younger friend, slipping into the room and laying on the bed with a small groan, eyes closing as the nurse cleaned his face free of remaining blood.

“I don’t know, Storm… I really don’t, and it scares me. I woke up feeling like crap too…” He murmured softly, sitting up a little as the nurse brought him a bottle of water, thanking her and sipping from it before continuing. “You know how sometimes I would wake up, and the smoke from my dad’s cigarettes would make me so nauseous that it would cause me to become physically sick?” He asked, the young nodding before realizing where Aura was getting at, but suddenly became confused, eyebrows furrowing.

"But isn’t your dad on a business trip in Japan?” He asked, the pink-haired male nodding.

"He is, and I slept amazingly well the past few days, so why did this suddenly happen?” He asked softly as he drank some more water, laying back down with a sigh.

Storm and Aura stayed there for the next few classes, though soon the older gently shooed the younger to his classes, not wanting him to miss any of his schoolwork. Despite protests, Storm finally relented and told his friend that he would visit and tell the others to visit as well, making Aura smile and nod, feeling relieved that he had such amazing friends that cared for and worried about him just as much as he did for them. Sometimes they got into trouble, like Stalwart and Jupiter for physically fighting, Apple for verbally fighting, and the others for reasons he could not think of at the moment, but they would always stay loyal to each other.

Even if there were fights among the group, they wouldn’t let them ruin their friendship.

Aura closed his eyes as he started to doze off, dreaming about the days when he had first met everyone.

He had been the new student to the school, at the time his hair was snow white with dark roots and he didn’t care about friends or actually trying to do school work.

He was considered the ‘mysterious student’ who had a reputation of being aloof, even though most of the rumors of him ignoring other students was made up; he was merely shy as hell and wary about others after having some bad experiences in his old school. It had been pathetic… but then he met Stalwart Sails and Jupiter Fire. Their first meeting was… so close to being violent, to say the least. The black-haired Stalwart had been looking for this new student to show who was dominant in the school, red-headed Jupiter following because he liked watching his friend pound someone into the dirt. What the two had not expected was to have the new student seemingly not scared, gaining their respect when he managed to not flinch at Stalwart's threats and stare the giant Jupiter down as well. He soon realized that he had made two friends and, even though he was wary of them at first… he realized that their company made him feel less like a pathetic loner.

The next person he had met was the light green-and-pink haired Satin Borealis, who was older than the three but, instead of being just as angry as them, he was actually the most calm, gentle, almost motherly. He had surprised the three ‘angry’ boys by sitting with them at lunch and, upon seeing that their lunches had been either stolen or spilled by other people, got them new lunches and helped clean them up, earning their respect as he had been the only one to help them. Stalwart was the most touched and respected the oldest the most, as Satin wasn’t scared of him at all and even lightly smacked him when the black-haired male made a rude comment.

It was the very same day that Aura had gotten a little koala by the name of Sky Melody, precious teal-haired Skymel. It happened after saving him from bullies who were attacking the teal-haired male due to his broken English, and even though he was initially scared of the pink-haired male, the Japanese boy started to seek out his protection whenever he felt threatened or scared. The two quickly bonded as Aura noticed how pure and almost child-like the Japanese boy was, something that was rare in a school where the teachers seemed to let the students to their own things.

Brown-haired Apple Custard, black-and-gray haired Torch Light, and dark brown-haired Wild Road had already been friends when they met Aura and his group, and the first thing that Jupiter did was… make his moves on Apple, who had almost instantly slammed his face with a folder in retaliation. Aura and Stalwart had been prepared for a fight, but once Jupiter started laughing and called Apple a ‘cool guy’, they all started to talk… and that was how the whole group was formed. Everyone agreed that Skymel had to be protected, as it turned out that the Japanese boy and Torch were science partners and that Torch was helping teach Skymel English.

Aura woke up around and hour and a half later, sitting up with a groan as a headache pounded against his skull, making him close his eyes and rub his head as he looked to the nurse. “Do you have… anything for headaches?” He asked, his voice strained from the pain, and she quickly gave him some Ibuprofen, which he took quickly with his water and laid back down, eyes closing as he tried to sleep it off. Once he realized that it wouldn’t let him properly nap, he sat up, sighing before smiling brightly as Torch and Apple peeked in to visit.

"Storm told us what happened,” The brown haired Apple said, his sharp eyes gentle as he sat on the edge of the bed and ran soothing fingers through Aura’s pink hair, a gesture that usually helped the other relax, and it certainly worked. In fact, Aura could have sworn that his headache was finally starting to fade, chuckling when Apple placed a tray of lunch down. It seemed like lunch this day was beef seaweed soup, japchae, fried mini mung bean pancakes, rice with red beans, and cubes of muskmelon. The smell was amazing, and as soon as his stomach growled, Aura was on it like he had been starving, having passed up breakfast due to not feeling well.

"Hey Torch,, where’s Skymel? He was just behind you…” Apple suddenly asked, making Torch look around, eyebrows furrowing.

As he ate, he heard a strange sound, causing him to look up, swallowing the food in his mouth. It sounded like a whimper… an extremely familiar whimper. He slowly looked out the door… and saw Skymel quivering with a split lip, a slightly swollen cheek, and obvious pain on his cute face as someone the group didn’t know was advancing on him, his hand slightly bloody as he raised it to strike the Japanese boy again…

The blanket the lunch tray was resting on flew off, spilling the food to the ground.