怪談とポニー Ep1 - Canterton High: Ponynormal

“Maybe we can find the key in the other offices,” Misty leaned her face against the huge glass next to another locked Storage door, her flashlight travelled across the large room filled with tables and chairs, a counter on the opposite side. “Must be the school cafeteria,” concluded she. “And it is empty as well, nothing except furniture as far as I can see, not even a single glass left.”

“Psst! Girls, have a look!” Lacy waved to them energetically, beaconing at another nameplate – Teacher room.

“This one I have,” the smile curled Misty’s lips, while she sorted through the keys on her palm. “Here!” She picked one with the green label and shoved it into the lock. Misty glanced over her friends inquiringly.

“Well, that’s technically not breaking-in,” smirked Flaunty. “So…”

“Go, girl!” with a wide grin Windy threw up her fist.

“Okay!” feeling Lacy’s fingers suddenly squeezing her forearm, Misty pulled the door, forcefully turning the key, then pushed, wondering that it took some effort as if fighting some pressure from inside.

A strong gust of wind escaped the room, sending the dust and papers fly from under their hooves, storming through the long hallway and making the lockers alongside the walls jingle and creak. Misty involuntarily squeaked, feeling the sudden draught against her face and fluttering mane.

“Woah, woah! Easy!”

Misty turned to the girls just in time to notice both pegasi sisters holding their skirts down, their cheeks colour saturated; Lacy swallowed and adjusted her glasses, holding on her bag as some lifebuoy. However, that sudden disturbance failed to make her less observant.

“Errmmm… Nice colour, Flo, finely contrasting with your stockings by the way,” eyes sparkled behind the glasses. “I hope this shape is comfortable.”

“Yeah, ahem… Thanks!” Flaunty Mane downcasted, with her nose flaming; Windy snorted, muffling herself with both hands. “I wouldn’t buy them otherwise…”

“Better look here, girls!” Coping with the flush, Misty turned back to the room, what she saw made her forget about embarrassment at once. “This one isn’t empty.”

The locked room contents seemed untouched by whoever might be clearing the rooms they saw previously. The desks held writing materials, notebooks and journals, large cabinets were full of books, maps and posters on the walls remained intact. If it was something valuable for their investigation, it definitely might reside there.

“Let’s split up and look,” Misty confidently headed to one of the desks after taking the overall picture. “Anything that may refer to the cases of the school closure, any keys obviously, anything strange in general. Simply be careful, okay.”

“Aye, ma-am!” Windy widely grinned; papers on the nearest desk were already rustling under her fingers.

Lacy looked interested by the bookcase at one of the workplaces, Flaunty headed to the farther corner of the room. Something gained girl’s attention – it was a bit lighter there as the windows seemed cleaner. Her flashlight slowly travelled across a large desk, an easel nearby and a cabinet behind.

After five minutes of thorough digging Misty was to confess that unfortunately she could spot nothing, related to the missing students or any other strange, let alone paranormal, activity in the school. Nothing about the school closure for reconstruction either. “Her” desk offered only boring notebooks, a class journal, none of the names in which brought any associations. Same can be told about the drawers and the cabinet. The most valuable find was a calculator in one of the drawers. The model became outdated ten years ago.

“Well,” sighed Misty, pondering aloud, “no luck here. But we have more rooms to look in. Found anything?” she turned to Windy, who stormed through more than one desk already.

“Only a couple of keys, supposedly from the classrooms above,” Windy shrugged with the wings and handed her loot to Misty. “Nothing else fancy. Textbooks, notebooks, pencils and other boring stuff. There is a computer on one of the tables, but…” she glanced at her friend meaningfully.

“I fought the temptation to borrow a couple of books,” confessed Lacy Reins, the girl looked slightly embarrassed. “It looks like a biology teacher place… but… don’t know if I want to take anything from the supposedly haunted school… Besides, it’s simply impolite to the whole… you know…” dropped she, biting her lip.

Together they quickly brushed a few more desks, but with the same minimalistic result, finding one more key to the classroom. Then girls’ eyes addressed their fourth mate – Flaunty was still fiddling around her desk of choice. Closer look explained her interest. That must be the Arts Teacher place: brushes and crayons left in the drawers, large sheets of paper remained on the easel for drafting, thematic books and albums in the bookcase – Flaunty found her soulmate’s place.

“Got something, sis?” Windy called her pensive sibling, but Flaunty looked distant, examining something on the desk. “Hey!”

The girls came closer, gathering around Flaunty to look, what captured her attention completely. On the black polished surface a simple pencil draft – simple but masterful, very clear, almost single line contour, only the mane and tail were shaded with various tints of black – made the girls freeze and stare at it for a minute. A young mare sitting on the chair on some pedestal in a classic pose – sideways, she was completely naked, barely covering her high breasts with one arm and looking somewhere off the observer.

“Yeah,” Flaunty woke up turning to her stunned and embarrassed at the same time friends. “First, it’s really well done… and, second, I thought the same at the first glance… but there are no wings… Still,” she cleared her throat, “it looked to me a lot like miss Singu…”

“Maybe it was simply unfinished,” Windy looked an epitome of slyness, while Misty took another picture, making them all blink.

“And what’s this?” The investigator instinct took over the abashment and Misty pointed at the dusty sheet of paper.

Bringing their flashlights closer the girls could see the lower corner of the draft being smudged a bit; some transparent stain covered the paper and spoiled the thin lines. What it was, nopony could tell. Water, paint thinner? Maybe… tears?..

Following her inner voice telling her it was the first real find, Misty blew the dust off the draft, accurately folding she put it in her pocket under the fixed glances of her friends: surprised Flaunty’s, mocking Windy’s and almost terrified – Lacy’s.

“Just confess, you simply liked it, bud!” Windy nudged her lightly, Misty waved her off.

“Remember I said anything unusual? So, this is unusual enough to be left on the teacher desk casually for years. I… simply feel that.”

“Or maybe you want to ask our physics teacher if she ever tried modelling…” Windy kept snickering on their way out.

That last suggestion sounded so outrageous, it made all the girls feel the chills first, imagining the possible outcome, then snort, waking another echo in the hallway. They passed a couple more locked rooms and reached the staircase, when Windy noticed that the long corridor turned after the stairs, leading to a few more doors. Naturally, she pulled everypony after her.

The first door they tried appeared to be unlocked and opened into the huge better lit room. More light came in through the high windows on the right wall and partially transparent roof resting on the plexus of metalwork; the girls didn’t even need their flashlights to see, they entered the school swimming pool. It breathed dampness and chill onto their faces, while the friends looked around, over the benches by the perimeter, starting stands on one edge of the basin and the towering three-level high-board on another deeper edge. Empty now, the large basin with stains of dirt and moss on the partially broken tiling wasn’t completely dry, pools of water glistened in the deeper end, the quiet regular dripping sound broke the ringing silence.

“Ahem…” Windy’s huff deafened them, echoing in the large empty space; she didn’t waste time and took a walk along the pool checking the rest of the doors, while the girls silently stared at the local desolation. Her quick hoofsteps boomed on the floor on her way back.

“Dressing rooms and showers,” reported she, lowering her voice as any phrase came out amplified and echoed there. “I guess they open into the hall as well. And the opposite doors must be the gym…”

“Shhh…” Lacy waved at them, putting a finger to her lips. “I think… I heard somepony crying,” whispered she, widening her eyes even more. Flaunty pulled her sister by the skirt, interrupting her snort.

In the silence that followed the girls clearly heard faint distant sounds easily muffled by anything said or moved in the pool otherwise. It sounded most like somepony was indeed quietly sighing, taking an intermittent breath, or whimpering from their quiet but none the less deep grief. The involuntary chills crawled up four backs at once, the girls expected the place to be empty and, frankly speaking, got used to nopony interrupting their investigation. Besides, the mere thought that somepony, most likely a filly or mare – the sounds came of high enough tone – wandered into that deserted place to quietly cry over their troubles, was unnerving. Shivers ran over Misty when something touched her, but the next moment she realized that was Flaunty. Large wings pulled them closer, wrapping the friends into a warm feathery hug.

“Buds, errmmm…” Windy Mane was the first to find the prosaic nature of the sounds, she glanced up meaningfully. “The hole in the roof…”

The girls left the entrance door open and the wind, coming through the opening and shattered web of the metalwork, tried its best to be spooky, whistling and sighing on the edges of armature. Now when they saw the source of the sounds, the latter seemed less resembling a living thing, definitely sounding like the draughts of wind should.

“Anyway, this place gives me the creeps,” muttered Lacy, relaxing visibly, but still disturbed. “Let’s go upstairs…”

‘If not go home, which I would do more willingly!’ confessed she inwardly, adding aloud. “I hope it will be lighter and warmer up there.”

This time Misty was completely agreed with her friend and even Windy said nothing salty, as the girls left the pool, followed by Flaunty and unwittingly glancing over their shoulders. And personally, Misty was thankful for a warm hand on her shoulder.

Without realizing it, the girls almost raced up the dark echoing stairs, turning on their flashlights again. Misty shooed away the persistent feeling that the stairwell boomed with more hoofsteps than it should from the four fillies running.

Luckily for them, the next floor was actually lit better: the foliage outside became thinner letting more evening light through the large windows, a few classroom doors were wide open and a smaller lobby in the middle of the hall additionally gave more brightness. Misty noticed how her friends, including Windy normally enjoying her dark jokes, took a breath and cheered up.

Followed by the echo of their hoofsteps, regardless of how quiet they attempted to move, four girls examined classroom after classroom as those prevailed on that floor. So far the doors were unlocked and searching around became easier and faster. However, these rooms contained more furniture and other things, than the ground floor ones. Misty took photos of each room, before they entered, not to miss something. Some classes looked abandoned in a hurry: even notebooks and pencils left on some desks, some desks were budged or placed in an irregular manner, the cabinets stood open, letting their contents catch dust or spilling it on the floor and creaking their doors when somepony passed them by. These rooms left a surreal feeling, as the reconstruction had to be a planned act, not something calling for an evacuation, as Misty always thought. Room by room the girls found nothing worth their attention and even fell silent feeling light disappointment; compared to the ground floor, this one looked almost normal, with certain signs of abandonment.

“Hey, look!” Lacy stooped at one desk, attracted by another sheet of paper on it. “It’s the same hand, I think.” She took off and wiped her suddenly misted glasses.

Another drawing, this time a fully finished portrait of a unicorn mare, large beautiful eyes, dark mane gathered in a tight high manedo, the collar of the dress, same precise pencil lines, lied before their sight.

“Yes, most likely of the same author,” confirmed Flaunty, leaning closer to the desk. “I wonder one thing: the school was closed ten years before, some windows are open and we definitely noticed draughts in the building… Was it lying comfortably on that desk the whole decade? Kinda… weird, if you ask me.”

“Not weirder than it’s being drawn on the paper, which isn’t in use nowadays… not even a decade ago. Blimey, I’m not an expert, but I saw sheets like that only in the pictures in history books! Quite thick and yellowish…” Windy rubbed the paper between her fingers before Misty took it and pocketed. “That’s why it probably survived the years.”

“What?!” inquired the red-head filly, when the girls stared at her fixedly. “Sometimes I do study as well,” she blew a raspberry, making the friends snicker.

“Ouch!” The girls already turned away, when Lacy squeaked loudly, startling them. “Oh, no…” groaned she, studying the long cut through the jeans at the outer side of her hip – she must have caught a nail or splinter protruding from the desk.

“Oh, dear!” Flaunty Mane quickly kneeled, accurately spreading the edges of the cut and examining Lacy’s leg; thankfully the skin was unwounded, only the cloth suffered. “Better be careful next time,” she looked up at Lacy’s flushing face.

“Errmmm… And what’s that,” Flaunty started getting up when something attracted her attention on the blackboard; something they didn’t pay attention before because of the sunlight reflection on the matte surface.

“Bullies are always the same!” Windy Mane frowned, standing akimbo in front of the crude chalk drawing depicting a unicorn mare hugging a filly, with small hearts over their heads. “Fillycuddler” was written below.

“I wonder, whom…” started Misty. “Well… It doesn’t matter…” following the sudden urge, she quickly wiped the drawing under the surprised glance of her friends.

“Hey, you didn’t document it!” it wasn’t obvious if Windy spoke seriously this time.

“Maybe its better that way…” frowned Misty, inwardly puzzled by own sensual act.

The computer class, and there was such, as the girls could ascertain, even had a couple of computers left: quite prehistoric by their look, it wasn’t evident if they could turn on, even if electricity had been present. The thick layer of dust clearly told that nopony poked their snoots in for the last decade. The broken diskettes crunched under their hooves when the fillies left the room.

The next door, Misty got a key from, led to the biology class, as they might judge by the posters and schemes on the walls, books in the cabinets and… a life-size pegasus skeleton with the spread wing bones on a stand. The colour of the latter and the shine it produced in the light of the setting sun, told them that it was…

“Plastic!” Lacy breathed out with relief, coming closer and knocking on the ribs; the “bones” produced a sonant hollow sound. Windy let out a small laughter.

“Come on, girls!” Misty was with one hoof on the stairs already, she showed them with her eyes. “We have one more to check. I wonder if we find something… I’m a bit disappointed, frankly speaking.”

“Yeah, we looked for something paranormal, but so far came across the story of an artistic soul being abused,” said Flaunty with a sad smile.

“Anyway, the place gives a weird feeling, to say the least,” Misty shook her head, leading them upstairs, and this time all the girls were to agree with her. But the first door they came across on the next (and the last) floor completely changed their mind, making Flaunty’s eyes light with interest and Misty’s heart flutter of expectation.

“Art class” stated the nameplate. Misty quickly searched through her keys and…

“Yay!” she actually had one supposed to fit. It took her a few moments to cope with the lock; Misty’s hands trembled from excitement, surprising her by the strong inner conviction that there was something important at last.

The new room made the fillies sigh in awe. High ceiling, large windows on both side walls; taking the whole wing width, it was larger than any of the classes they saw before. Everything for the students to be able to work, not disturbing each other, and more important clearly see what was presented by the teacher or suggested as the current class example.

The girls slowly examined the large room, reverently moving from one workplace to another, even Windy sported a seemingly groundless happy smile, not bothering about her tough girl’s reputation. The rays of golden light danced on the easels, warming them and filling the air with thin scents of wood, paper and oil paints – some must be stored in the cabinets at the far end of the class. None of them even asked themselves, how those could still smell after all the presumably passed years.

The easels were providently placed to form an amphitheatre, surrounding the low pedestal in the middle of the class with a simple chair on it. The place wasn’t chaotically chosen, it must be perfectly lit almost every time of the day.

“Yeah, here is the place it was drawn from… unless anypony moved or turned the platform,” Flaunty Mane leaned over one of the easels at the right-middle window, throwing an estimating glance at the chair. “Not the best place for the artist, as the light was falling from behind their back, but… it didn’t make the result worse,” she let out a tiny smile, then took a look from the window behind. “I can see the gym and the pool from here. Makes me wonder, how large is that wing… There must be something on the ground floor either,” added she pensively.

“The whole room,” Misty’s camera clicked without a delay, as the girl turned on the spot examining the large class, “its size and the placement of things make me think that the art teacher…”

“…took their work very seriously.” Finished for her Lacy, nodding understandingly. “Even maybe on the professional level of art, not average school tutoring.”

“Interesting, how many talented students did they manage to prepare?” Flaunty watched the overgrown schoolyard musingly, when Windy, who was seemingly more interested by the class interior itself, than the thoughts it provoked, interrupted their sentiments.

“Hey, and what’s over there?” she was the first to spot something again, signalling them to come closer.

Some dark object rested on the model’s chair. It looked soft and fabric-like, casually put on the backrest it didn’t even catch their attention before.

Finally, Misty found the courage to approach and take a closer look.

“It’s a bra…” she turned to her gathered friends, feeling the flush involuntarily rising up her cheeks. “A black silky lacy bra, mates!” Misty looked at strangely smiling Flaunty, frozen on spot Lacy, on Windy… and decided that specifying its supposed fourth size would be excessive.

“What, sorry?” Lacy blinked a few times from behind her glasses.

“A bra, as I said!” repeated Misty, inwardly feeling the absurdity of situation she took a picture nevertheless. Then an idea came to her mind; accurately placing the camera on the chair, the unicorn filly joined her friends, pulling them closer. “Just a moment! I remembered that we had no photo of us at the site… so… for the history,” Misty broke into a smile, reaching the shutter button with her magic.

“That teacher must have taken her work seriously enough… to model for her class,” slowly said Lacy, pursing her lips pensively.

“Won’t you take it with you as well?” giggled Windy, when Misty picked the camera, not touching the fancy underwear piece, yet catching a faint sweet aroma of perfume coming from it to her surprise.

The snide reply which undoubtedly was ready to leave Misty’s mouth was interrupted by a sudden noise, the frightened girls thought that it sounded from within the large art class, freezing for a few seconds in terror. Only moments after they realized that the sound as if something heavy was moved forcefully against the floor, came from the hallway. All the furniture in the room, as far as they could recall, was in its places.

Released from the initial shock, the girls carefully peeked outside of the class; ready to hide or burst down the stairs any moment, their nerves strained like tight ropes. However, the empty corridor met them with silence, the muffled sound of the train whistle reached their ears from outside; somewhere in the city life went on at the usual pace.

“But it wasn’t in my head,” muttered Flaunty Mane, when the girls finally found the nerves to exit the class. They were trying to hear anything strange, to no result though. “We all heard that, right?”

“Maybe, something fell over?” Misty closed the eyes for a second, remembering the sound.

“Come on!” quietly huffed Windy, bravely peeking into the nearest room. “It sounded like somepony moved a desk, not something dropped…”

Keeping close, the girls quickly but carefully checked the remaining classes, only to confirm that there was nopony except them on that floor. There was the same disorder everywhere: things remained in the rooms but were definitely off their usual places. Nopony places the desks and cabinets, chairs and boards in the classes that, totally uncomfortable for studying, way.

“It looks to me, as if the stuff was once moved that way, it could help somepony to hide?” Flaunty pensively watched the furniture labyrinth in another class. “We can never see the whole room from the entrance, have you noticed, girls?”

Now when her friend drew their attention to that, Misty tended to agree with Flaunty – elements of the interior were indeed placed to provide safe nooks, while normally desks were to be lined, facing the blackboard and teacher’s place.

“Huh! This time it’s even not my suggestion, buds!” Windy stated meaningfully. “Do you think we may need that as well, sis?”

“Don’t know. I seriously hope we won’t!”

No wonder the girls reached the last locked door a bit nervous. Misty found the necessary key in her pocket but was held back by Windy. The pegasus girl rushed to the previous room and returned with a chair.

“Better than nothing,” shrugged she casually, taking the strategic position in front of the door and rising her improvised weapon above the head. “It’s the last unexamined room on the floor, so, who knows… Ready? Then open it!” whispered Windy shortly.

Misty did her best to turn the key silently, then quickly stepped aside; Lacy held her breath behind.

The door crunched under the dashing hoof strike, flung open and… Windy froze on the spot with the chair over her head. At first, the girls thought that some deafening tidal wave was coming their way, their hearts dropped a beat and breaths stuttered. Misty felt the crowd of goosebumps running up her back and neck, making her mane stand on the nape.

The sound of flapping wings and frightened babbling dumbfounded the fillies, it flickered in their eyes from the small shadows flouncing in the sunlit rectangle of the door. Windy was ready to smack anypony behind the door with her chair but instead blinked a few times surprisedly.

“Shit!” she breathed out with the sound of a deflated balloon, throwing the chair into the room, as the adrenaline slowly left her blood. “Stupid pigeons!” Windy watched the rushing birds leaving the class through the open windows.

Other girls shared her feelings, Misty giggled nervously, when her shock left with the last frightened bird soaring from the sill.

“I’m okay, thanks!” Lacy looked into Flaunty’s eyes, feeling her calming hands on the shoulders.

The quick glance around the corners told the investigators, there was nothing interesting left. Dust, raised in the air by the feathery trespassers, danced in the slanting rays; the girls threw long shadows on the class’ floor, so did the surprisingly survived curtains, flailing in the wind.

“Well… That’s…” Windy shook her head. “Let’s check the roof if you want and that’s it; I think I had enough school for today, any of them.”

“Yeah…” Misty followed the girls to the exit, not forgetting to take yet another picture. Lingering for a second, she stared at the shadow stretching into the hall: the filly held onto the door frame, her horn bowed in thoughts and wings spread widely in the doorway. Misty shook her head, shooing away the strange vision and throwing one last glance over the shoulder at the curtains fanned up by the breeze.

“To the roof!”