怪談とポニー Ep1 - Canterton High: Ponynormal

“Disappeared…” slowly uttered the pegasi sisters simultaneously. They looked completely stunned as if cuddling with the ghostly mare wasn’t what they did a moment earlier.

“She… must have spent… too much energy,” Misty sank to the table, as her knees trembled. “Ohhhh…”

She and Lacy found themselves sitting there almost cross-eyed of pleasure; when Fran’s ghost suddenly vanished, the girls were to hold hands not to fall.

“It’s okay, Fran will return as she… regains the ability to materialize,” breathed out Misty, she leaned forward and they snuggled forehead to forehead with Lacy, breathing heavily and moving closer to each other for support and cuddle, natural in their blissful afterglow.

“I feel I’m going to melt,” whispered Lacy, when both Windy and Flaunty embraced the girls, warming them with their large wings.

Misty wrapped the arms around her friends, pulling them together, and the girls silently nuzzled each other for a few minutes, letting their heartbeat return to normal. Lacy noticed that first, raising her head from the fluffy cuddle of their manes, arms and wings, she focused on something behind girls’ backs.

“Hey, what’s that? The wall was intact when we came…” she pointed at the small notch behind the collapsed paint flakes and plaster.

Misty looked over the shoulder: a few small pieces of ancient stone fell out from the wall with the newer plaster. The surface inside was covered in snaking thin cracks, that section of the wall didn’t look rock-solid.

“Looks like some really ancient masonry under the modern decoration!” on her turn back Misty was caught and kissed from both sides by Windy and Flaunty; girls’ warm lips made her squint and flush. “Awwwwww!!! Squee!”

“We… Ummm… We must have moved the table quite intensively,” supposed Misty, making three girls’ faces in her view become pinkish, yet their eyes shone.

The fillies slid off, it took Lacy and Misty some effort, as they still felt soft and fuzzy inside; by joint efforts, they managed to move the large heavy table from the wall and gathered around the small indentation.

“Hmm… It gives in,” Lacy poked the hole with the tip of her knife and shook the stones. “There must be something beneath…”

“Girls, give me some space!” Windy Mane darted back and returned with the wooden stick Flaunty left on the floor. She held it as a lance now and thrust it into the gap hard when the girls stepped aside; the muffled crunch of the ancient masonry told the girls, they were on the right way. “Well, sis, let’s kick some…”

Together with Flaunty they pushed and pulled another long end of the plank, swaying it back and forth, after a few moments of forced shaking, accompanied by huffing, the stones started to give up under girls’ push. A couple of bricks fell out at their hooves, revealing an opening a bit smaller than an average pony head.

“There is a room inside,” Windy turned on her flashlight, directing it through the hole. “Small one – I can see the opposite wall.”

“Must be some old storage room or closet,” Flaunty dropped the stick and peeked inside as well. “Strange, how the workers didn’t notice it, refurbishing the place…”

“The basement looks like it wasn’t touched ten years ago,” Lacy looked around pensively, then pointed at the lamps on the ceiling. “These look quite old, I won’t wonder if the basement wasn’t repaired the last time… More likely it was unchanged for the last thirty or forty years, and the masonry could be in better shape back then.”

“Likely,” said Misty, she tried the edge of the hole and looked at her fingers covered in rust-coloured mud; the stone dust turned into some stone paste. “And then water started seeping in or the general humidity in the basement increased and the wall began to crumble.” She wiped her hand on the hip. “We’re lucky accidentally finding it instead of tapping the walls here for a few days. Or maybe it wasn’t entirely accidental…”

Starting from the edges of the opening, the girls slowly demounted the wall by hands, trying their best not to drop any stones inside not to damage anything in the room. The stonework appeared weak enough, the seams were dampened and broke apart easily, so the work went briskly. In a couple of minutes, when the girls cleared the hole, which could let their shoulders through, Lacy took Flaunty’s flashlight and shone inside, standing on the tips of her hooves and peeking through the opening.

“There is something on the floor. Some chest, sort of… and nothing else!”

The fillies began disassembling the wall even faster, dampness breathed onto their faces; in the next five minutes they made an opening suitable to step through almost without bending. Three rays of light scanned the new small room to find the low ceiling, grey walls covered in small drips of condensed water and dusty floor.

One by one the girls entered and stared at the single object in the room: old metal chest, dirty and rusty in places, it was a bit shorter than enough to fit an average pony inside. In the light of three flashlights, Misty and the girls could clearly see the faded stains here and there on the chest, mostly near the line separating the base and the lid.

Chills rushed up Misty’s spine. Judging by the other girls’ faces, they also realized what could be inside.

“We must have found her,” whispered Misty, examining the chest around and spotting a couple of keyholes, but no keys in observable vicinity.

“Well, even if we had them, I doubt I want to have a look inside,” added she and the girls quickly nodded in agreement.

“But I’m sure of one thing,” declared Misty in unequivocal tone. “We must take this chest out.”

“Out of the school building,” elaborated she under the stunned glances of her friends, “and even bury it! I’m more than sure that it is what Fran would have wanted us to do.”

“Well, theoretically…” muttered Lacy, crossing her hands; her firm round breasts lifted even more. “Theoretically, we could break the… curse that way… whatever is binding Fran’s ghost to that school, right? Set her free, so to speak. But this chest…” she threw a doubtful glance on the long metal object.

“Easier to say than to do,” Windy and Flaunty exchanged glances. “But we came that far…”

“I’d say, why the hell not…” smirked Windy in conclusion. “Let’s take it out and then we’ll see.”

“If we plan to show up outside, we all need to put ourselves in order,” noticed Flaunty meaningfully, slowly buttoning her shirt. “Especially you two,” she glanced slyly at Misty and Lacy, stifling a smile at the look of two flushing but giggling girls.

“Here, something tells me you need it more!” Windy brought her jacket and put it on Lacy, even wet it was better than the miserable tatters, remaining of her sweater.

Remembering something, Misty whisked out to the large hall, returning with her camera.

“Let’s save some evidence, just in case…” she took a couple of pictures, of the disassembled wall and the rusty chest itself.

Taking the latter outside of its limbo appeared to be a harder task than the girls thought. The metal thing wasn’t very heavy to lift, but it was quite large and considerably unhandy to carry, having no handles or anything suitable for grabbing it firmly.

First, the friends were to kick more bricks out of the destroyed wall to widen the opening and making it reach the floor level: as they couldn’t carry the chest through the gap, they decided to drag it on the floor slowly. Thus Flaunty and Windy pulled it through, while Lacy and Misty pushed the chest from behind with all their might to make it slide on the rough dusty floor.

Then, getting the plank underneath to make a gap wide enough to pick up the chest, the girls lifted it carefully not to pinch or snap their fingers. It was harder to do because hands had nothing to catch on the flat rusty surface, but at least there was more room to operate in the large hall. The rust powdered down, filling the air with its smell.

“I hope it won’t fall apart in our hands,” Flaunty shook her head. “Granted, it was in a closed compartment, but I read that artefacts taken out to the open atmosphere can deteriorate in a matter of hours, so we must sort thing out fast.”

“Anyway, if you feel tired or your hands giving up, tell at once. I don’t want that rusty thing to fall and injure any of you!” warned she with a meaningfully glance at each of the girls.

It took the eternity to carry the chest to the stairs; the fillies thought they scratched and beat off their sides, threading with it among the old furniture. They were to stop twice to take a breath and flex their hands, the difference in height didn’t make their job easier.

On the small clear spot at the exit Flaunty measured the steeply rising stairs, signalling the girls to stop again and lower one end of the chest.

“Nope, that won’t work!” she and Windy held the chest diagonally, helping Lacy and Misty to balance the weight. “It’s time to remember about physics, as miss Singularity likes to say. You two take the front and we’ll take the rear end, thus you can climb up easier with less weight on your hands and we’ll back you up from behind if something goes wrong.”

“It seems, her company is really beneficial for you,” Misty measured the sisters with an appraising look.

“Let’s say, some of her advice has singular practical value, if you start thinking of them in everyday life,” smirked Windy.

However, the narrow stairs became a real nightmare for the girls, Misty and Lacy felt their arms were almost tearing off, despite the smart trick; the chest tried to slide out of their grip at each occasion and the lack of space didn’t let them pick it up in a more handy way. They were forced to move their backs forward, pulling the load and accurately choosing, where to place their hooves. Looking at the tense faces of her friends, Misty thought that if the stairs were at least twice longer, they probably would have dropped their burden and rolled down with it.

The long hallway past the library doors seemed a walk in the park after the stairs. They could finally pick up the chest from both sides and carry it normally, stopping to draw breath only once.

“Finally, homestretch!” exhaled Misty, opening the left wing doors with her shoulder, as she did her best not to drop her side of the metal box. She felt sweaty and even her hands seemed to get wet, making it harder to carry the weight. The heavy breathing of her friends could hardly tell if they agreed with her definition.

The ground floor met them with coal darkness, as the lamps went out again and Misty was to turn on the flashlight picking it in her mouth to let them see the way, not slipping on something. The storm must have subsided, the flashes of lightning didn’t illuminate the surroundings and no single thunder strike ripped the silence, subtly broken by quiet sounds of rain only.

“Homestretch?” returned to that topic Flaunty Mane, when the girls were taking a rest in the school vestibule, sitting around the chest leaning their backs on it in absence of better support. “A bit early to call it such, to my mind.” She pushed the exit doors, which opened without any resistance, letting the fresh, damp and smelling of ozone air inside, and flopped next to her friends. For a while, the girls simply watched the darkness outside, lined with streams of rain.

“Let’s sum up what we have,” elaborated Flaunty after a while. “Four high school fillies, a bit wet, ragged and dirty, take out a metal chest with supposedly ancient remnants out of the abandoned school building in the middle of the night under the pouring rain. Thanks Celestia, the thunderstorm is over,” added she meaningfully. “I didn’t miss anything, did I?”

Misty silently shook her head, getting what her friend wanted to imply, accompanied by an understanding sigh of Lacy and Windy’s noisy fidgeting. Girls tried to imagine vividly, how it looked for a foreign eye.

“I get it that we must bury the chest, right?” continued Flaunty brushing off a few hair strands sticking to her face. “And something tells me that doing it within that school grounds isn’t an option.”

“Yeah,” breathed out Misty. “As a matter of fact, the further from Canterton High, the better… so, I’m not entirely sure if the park around fits either.”

“Cool!” smirked Windy, assessing the situation. “We’re lucky that the school wasn’t actually guarded and nopony called the police… with all the noise and stuff.”

“We have yet a fair chance to run into them after we get outside,” Lacy Reins shrugged with excellent calmness, she let out a tiny smile.

Misty imagined how stupid must be their attempt to sort out the problem right there and at that moment and couldn’t hold herself from shaking of silent laughter.

“I’m sorry, girls,” muttered she. “That was… indeed…” she dropped her head guiltily.

“That won’t change much,” Lacy moved closer, nudging Misty with her shoulder, “if we take it out any other day, even better prepared for that.”

“Oh, come on, bud! Don’t start again,” Windy squeezed Misty’s shoulder. “Nopony stopped you. We all wanted to help! So… did it a bit… hastily.”

“Yeah,” chuckled Flaunty. “Well, what’s done is done. It’s not like we were going to drag it back,” she nodded towards the chest, returning to the practical aspects. “So, we can’t open the gates, no way we could do anything with that chain or lock. And I doubt we two can carry the chest over the fence… What about your magic, Misty?”

“To tell the truth, I never tried to lift something that large,” Misty downcasted. “But I’ll do my best. If you two give me a hand, probably together we can get it over. And then…”

“Then,” Misty wasn’t overly happy with that decision, but they had no real alternative, “we’ll hide it somewhere in the park and return later, better prepared… Anyway, that’ll be better than leaving her in that school any longer!” she finished crumpledly.

“Okay, what we are waiting for then…” Flaunty got up, throwing back her still damp mane. “Heave ho!”

Thankfully the rain wasn’t cold, but standing in front of the high gate and thinking about using her magic to carry a large chest over it made Misty tremble a little. The pegasi sisters took both ends of it, waiting for her signal; Lacy kept aside, as she was unable to help in that situation. The pouring rain quickly made four girls soaking wet again.

The bright flash was so sudden, it blinded the friends for a moment, but didn’t have time to scare them. Covering from the light, the girls thought that it was another lightning strike, low and close, but surprisingly they heard no sound. When they regained the ability to see, the girls realized that the flash was caused by the teleportation spell.

Above the gate, widely spreading the large wings, somepony descended to the hesitantly frozen girls. When the figure landed in front of them, fanning them with the wind and folding the wings with soft feathery noise, the four friends “in crime” felt the urge to become smaller and hide behind the metal chest.

With an impenetrable look on her usually serious face, miss Singularity watched her four wet and messy students. However, the closer look revealed the sparks of amusement dancing in her dark blue eyes and the girls perked up in hope that they might not get morally fried right at that moment.

“Are you okay, girls?” bringing her fingers together and raising one eyebrow, she inquired of their condition casually. “I began worrying a little… By the way, miss Mane, your jacket’s integrity would only benefit, if you pay attention to the left end of the drawstring equally…”

That was the least possible reaction the girls expected to get; despite the risk of being reprimanded, first Misty and then the rest of the girls snorted, then started laughing. Suddenly the feeling of relief blanketed them, confirmed by a tiny smile curling miss Singularity’s lips.

“Aye, ma’am! We’re fine now, ma’am!”

Right at that moment the fillies suddenly realized that the pouring rain wasn’t flowing down their manes and shoulders or getting behind their collars, while still falling around; they were shielded by some prudently cast magic. Apparently, getting wet wasn’t in their teacher plans.

“Hmm… Nevertheless, we have a little problem,” miss Singularity made a tiny emphasis on “we”. “You did well, trying to free miss Von Selle from her unfortunate prison but to complete that we need to bury the remnants. And I highly doubt that any place would fit…”

The girls stood like thunderstruck, myriads of questions, one more unexpected than the other, swarmed in their heads like disturbed bees; the friends were unsure if they could ask any of them directly. Misty, Lacy, Flaunty and Windy, exchanged the abashed glances, silently asking each other if any of them understood, what was happening.

‘How did she find out? Scratch that, she always finds out! What does she have to do with that story? Does she really know about Fran? And she did nothing before? What is she going to do now? Why?! Aaaaah, I can’t comprehend!!!’

Meanwhile, miss Singularity threw an estimating glance at the overcast sky, which mercilessly poured water on the surroundings.

“What about taking our conversation to a drier place?” she spread her arms in a welcoming gesture and, not waiting for their answer, her horn lit with magic again, making another bright flash cover them all and the chest.

When the sparkles stopped shining in their eyes, the girls found themselves standing together with miss Singularity on a small hill, in the shade of widely spread branches of some lush tree. The metal chest slowly lowered on the soft grass at their hooves. Apparently, that place was quite far from the Canterton school – the girls could see the low clouds far away down the mountain slope. The sky above their heads was clear, woven with thousands of stars on its dark blue silk. The light wind barely moved the young leaves on the large tree, bringing the scent of early flowers, of many different flowers, so it felt like a garden laid nearby.

However, the first glance downhill told the girls where they travelled: the valley below was incrusted with tombstones of various forms and sizes throwing long shadows in the light of the rising moon. Some night bird tried to bawl in the tree crown, making the girls flinch in surprise, but their alicorn teacher hushed at it shortly and… the troublemaker shut up ashamedly. Suddenly, the girls found themselves shielded from the night wind with the vast wings.

“Canterlot Old Cemetery. I think this place fits our goal better,” noticed miss Singularity. “I’ll take it from here if you four don’t mind.” The girls quickly shook their heads, showing their complete trust in her competence. “I’ll notify her Highness as well… in case she wants to honour her former mentor.”

“Teacher…” Misty addressed miss Singularity timidly, “what’s going to happen to Fran… miss Von Selle?” corrected she.

“Well, souls remain in the world of living, if something binds them,” the alicorn mare looked at the friends seriously. “Either some forceful bonds… or their own aspirations, unfinished business for example or affection,” she threw a quick glance at Misty, making the latter drop her eyes. “You presented her with the best gift you could, girls! Gave Fran the freedom of will. It’s now up to her to decide. Rest assured, you did what you could. I won’t lie, saying that I’m proud of our students!”

“Miss Singu…” started Windy, but the mare interrupted her with a small understanding smile.

“Your appearance, girls, leaves much to be desired for the filly students of our school, of course…” seeing that the girls’ ears flattened, miss Singularity added cheerfully. “But I’m not entitled to regulate, what the students do outside of the school boundaries and at the extracurricular time,” she winked at jaw-dropped friends.

“I’m of the opinion that you four need to address what you undoubtedly planned – the sleepover,” she added suddenly jocosely, causing complete confusion in girls’ heads. “Where to exactly I’m going to send you. Misty, Lacy, Windy, Flaunty, I wish you four a good night!”