怪談とポニー Ep1 - Canterton High: Ponynormal

“That’s another story!” Windy stretched with pleasure, shaking her short red mane and inhaling deeply. “Couldn’t imagine me saying that, but even the industrial district air seems fresh… after that…” she moved aside, giving the path for the rest of girls; the stairwell ended by a small bulkhead with a narrow door.

“Finally!” Lacy took a few steps on the roof still warm from sunlight; she smiled faintly. “My heart is still beating faster after those… birds…”

“Don’t you say, we all were scared,” Flaunty hugged her and Misty’s shoulders. “Silly, right?”

“Errmmm…” Windy looked away to hide her light embarrassment of the simple fact she was a bit scared as well. “Hey… It seems… your dream may come true, Lacy! Have a look.” With a chuckle the pegasus girl pointed at the long metal and glass structure, occupying the middle of the roof surface. The dome-shaped top covered the construction; its transparent walls looked dark-green, lit by the setting sun. “If something valuable still survived there after all these years, of course…”

In a wink, faster than anypony expected, Lacy Reins dashed to the greenhouse, finding the thin framed glass door at once. Struggling with a rusty latch for a second, she flung it open.

“Ooooh…” Disappointment mixed with surprise in her sigh. “It’s completely overgrown inside. Impossible to get through this mess inside, what a pity!”

“Wow, what a salad!” Misty took a look over friend’s shoulder at the wall of branches and leaves barricading the opening and trembling in the wind. “Ahem… Don’t be sad, we would have needed a whole day to cut through anyway. Not this time, okay?” she caught herself on the impulse to nuzzle Lacy’s cheek, lightly patting her on the shoulder instead.

“Well…” joyfully Windy unfurled her wings and soared, she made a vertical loop in the air then hovered for a while over the roof. “Hey, buds, what a sight?!”

Misty and Lacy joined Flaunty, who approached the parapet and peered in the distance. In a second Windy landed noisily near them.

Despite the school was situated at the foot of the mountain, the ground was still slanted there; a perfect view opened to the girls’ eyes from their considerably high observation point. Lush, wild and almost dark already park, evidently increased its density for the last years and surrounded the building and the school stadium laying in front of their eyes below. A few small trees and bushes grew up even on the long unmanaged training field. Behind the park, which crowns became bronze in the sunset, lied the city district. Factories and plants: the more to the right, closer to the mountain, the larger and more complex they were; to the left, down the valley, the buildings became lower, including more storage and transport facilities distanced from the centre. Squeezed between the forest on the south and hills on the north, the rest of the valley looked like some colourful patchwork of fields with single houses and farms scattered here and there. Greener and darker near the mountain, lighter and golden further to the west, lit by the setting sun, which painted the rare clouds above the horizon pink. Mixed noises brought by the wind reached the girls’ ears. The hum of voices from the nearest factory to the east – the day shift prepared to leave, the rumble of trucks on the roads, the sound of passing bus somewhere behind. Distant whistles of the locomotives could be heard from the railway station and in a moment the girls recognized the hissing of the speeding up monorail train.

Misty tirelessly clicked the shutter of her camera, keeping the most inspiring views. This time not for the investigation sake, but simply for visual pleasure. She turned to the girls for a moment and took another picture of them lined up on the edge of the roof, watching the sunset. The wind ruffled wings of the pegasi sisters and their flowing manes and skirts, Windy leaned on the parapet, Flaunty crossed her hands on the chest looking into the distance musingly. Lacy’s fluttering braids; she glanced at Misty and waved on camera. The colours looked so contrasting in the direct sunlight, small barrettes shone in the girls’ manes, keeping the most disobedient strands in place. Misty remembered, how Flaunty Mane generously shared the plenty of them with the friends once; the unicorn filly took another picture, feeling warm inside.

“However…” noticing Misty photographing and smiling, Flaunty looked over the shoulder at the mountain. “The weather’s being serious, girls!”

Dark clouds wrapped around the top, frequent lightnings were snaking in their heavy mass; the wind brought smells of dampness and ozone and, despite the sky was still clear above them, a few first raindrops reached the warm roof together with the very distant sound of thunder.

The sun almost set, leaving a narrow glowing stripe at the west edge of the sky, painted all the tints of yellow, pink, red and magenta. Twilight quickly covered the surroundings, here and there the lightening turned on already, making the area woven with bright threads and sparkles.

“Girls!” Flaunty the first realized what that meant. “I’m not insisting… but we still have to leave, through the three floors without electricity, and get to the monorail in time.”

“Oops…” the girls watched off the narrowing golden stripe, remembering that the monorail was closed nightly from midnight to four due to various sorts of maintenance. Another closer thunder strike made them unfreeze, squealing and giggling the friends raced to the roof exit, hiding a second before the rain fell.

“Nearly got caught!” laughed Windy and ruffled her mane quickly becoming fluffy in the dampening air.

They turned on the flashlights and headed downstairs, there was quite dark on the third floor, except the moments it was flashed by the lightning outside – the sun rolled over horizon, leaving the area to the night and storm reign. Hunger and fatigue reminded of themselves suddenly fast and the girls would be glad to reach home as soon as possible. They actually decided to stay at Lacy’s place for that night, but it called for the ride anyway; moreover, it was now a little problem to get anywhere, staying dry.

“It wouldn’t be the best thing to ride out the rain under this roof!” Flaunty Mane managed to read everypony’s mind. “But…” She crossed the landing and raised her hoof over the next flight of stairs.

“Just a second, please,” with the camera in one hand Misty already held on the door to the hallway.

“Oh, no, not another photo!” Windy rolled her eyes jokingly. Lacy stopped, alternating between sisters.

However, out of pure curiosity, the girls followed Misty, entering the hallway of the third storey again. The unicorn filly already fiddled with the settings, levitating her flashlight: she turned on the camera flash and made an overall photo of the dark corridor with doors throwing lighter rectangles on the dusty floor.

“What the…” Misty prepared to make another picture but frowned and looked at the display closer. She shook the camera lightly, then turned it off and on again, as the wave of faint digital distortion went across the display. “Strange… I’m sure I’ve charged it completely,” she puzzledly stared at three-quarters-full energy meter, then took another photo.

“Looks fine to me…” she compared, alternating between two images on the camera display. “Hmmm…” Misty’s friends, all three, looked her over the shoulder, trying to guess what puzzled her.

The next second the hallway lit up with another lightning flash reaching in through the windows at the ends and the open doors. Lacy produced a muffled gasp, grabbing Misty’s shoulder and pointing forward.

Freezing on the spot, the girls noticed a tall figure in the opposite end of the hallway, in the light coming through the large window and the door of the art class they visited on their way up. The whole image took only a fraction of second before the hall darkened again. But it seemed an eternity for the fillies, who were able to grasp all the details as if they could thoroughly examine the pony.

Pale-tan unicorn mare, whose horn glowed in the flash of light, just like the metal buttons on her white blouse and the belt buckle over her dark slightly-above-the-knee skirt. She appeared there, her long slender legs were veiled in deep shadows; the girls couldn’t tell for sure if she noticed them, was looking at them… or her attention was entirely drawn to a clipboard, she held in the right hand. The left one was pressed to her high breasts under the pristine white cloth, probably touching the small pendant on her neck. Long black with greyish strands mane was gathered on top of her head into a long sumptuous ponytail which fanned out behind her shoulders and back, thrown up by the sudden gust.

Then, with the dying lightning, the corridor plunged into darkness. Mixing with the earsplitting thunderstrike – the storm came over the school at full force, the factory horn, signalling the shift end, reached their hearing from outside. It sounded like the harbinger of doom, making the girls wince and cover with goosebumps all over.

“And you said about the school being unwatched…” squeezed out Windy Mane, her eyes still wide open.

“Quickly! Before we get noticed… Run!” Flaunty Mane whispered loudly, grabbing arms of both girls, she pulled them back to the stairs; Windy followed close. None of the friends dared to look back, inwardly wishing that treacherous lightning didn’t highlight them through the window behind just like it did with that… teacher?

But as soon as the floor door closed behind them, despite Windy did her best to close it gently, the girls heard the booming sound of hoofsteps heading their way, racing faster and faster through the hallway, up to almost impossible for a pony speed.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Windy rushed them, despite the girls jumped over two or three stairs at once already.

They stormed through the door on the lower floor and shut it.

“Here we go…” Windy shoved a leg of an accidental chair into the door handles.

“Oh dear!” whispered Lacy, leaning against the wall and holding over her heart. “It’s… still racing! Who was that? What do you think? Misty, Flaunty?” she took a breath fitfully.

“I don’t know…” Misty almost slid down the wall next to her. “For a short moment, I thought… But, not, that can’t be… ” she glanced at the girls. “Have you seen any wings?”

“Nope. And the colours were different…” the pegasi sisters slowly shook their heads.

“So didn’t I,” nodded Misty. “Most likely somepony from the school personnel or… I don’t know… municipal employee?”

“She was dressed like a teacher, as far as I noticed!” said Windy Mane.

“Anyway, she didn’t look like some security pony.” The unicorn filly closed her eyes, reaching her hand to hug still shaking Lacy, but instead of the shoulder, her palm met something very warm, round and bouncy, making Misty squeak, widening her eyes, and… let go Lacy’s right breast. “S-s-sorry!...” squeezed out Misty, flushing like a ripe tomato.

“It’s okay,” Lacy took Misty’s fingers and squeezed lightly. “I feel better already…”

“Shhhh! Quiet…” Flaunty pressed her ear against the door, trying to catch the faintest sound from the other side; she didn’t saw the reason of Misty’s embarrassment, unlike her sister, who tried her best to close the mouth at that moment. “Security or not, we need to get out of here. Right? I can’t hear a thing,” added she in a moment, ready to take a risk.

The slightly opened door revealed them the completely empty landing and stairs, lit by their flashlights. No sounds disturbed the silence except muffled thunder and rain from outside.

“Let’s go. But be quiet for Celestia’s sake!” Flaunty slid through the doorway, beckoning her friends.

“What. The. Hay?” quietly and meaningfully pronounced Windy.

Their flashlights lit the stairway to the ground floor… barricaded, or better say filled with a tangled mess of furniture: desks and chairs were piled up that way, nopony could separate one by one from the heap to clear the path. The latter the girls made sure of, when Windy tried to pull one of the chairs from the edge of that pile – the whole construction creaked but didn’t move a iota.

“We went through here an hour ago…” the quiet rage flushed Windy’s face, she pulled the jacket drawstring stunningly. “What the actual shit, girls?”

“Let’s check the other ways!” Flaunty preferred the pragmatic approach, pulling them all to the hallway and shoving the chair back into the handles of the closed door, just in case.

“It doesn’t budge! Seriously though…” She tried the end window, turning to the girls with a puzzled face. “What’s wrong with that place?” Yet she stopped her sister from breaking the glass. “We need to check the opposite stairs,” simply said Flaunty. “No need to break something, especially now, when we might get noticed… but probably still are not!” she flailed her wings subconsciously.

The girls turned to the long hallway, periodically lit by the lightning flashes; unwittingly they snuggled closer to each other, slowly progressing. The four flashlights scanned every inch of the walls, floor and ceiling.

Every lightning strike made the girls shudder. Not from the thunder sound, but from the suspense. The sun rolled over the horizon completely during their escape from somepony, looking like a teacher most likely, and only then the girls noticed how dark it actually became. What could be lit by every next flash made their imagination run wild and turned friends’ tension top high. That sudden encounter, followed by the strange barricade on the stairs, was leaving an uneasy taste, especially at the place they got into.

“Don’t you feel… it’s getting colder in here?” Lacy visibly cringed despite her sweater and jeans.

“Sweet Celestia! I thought that was me feeling things…” Flaunty threw a quick glance on her sister. “How are you, Windy?”

“I felt as if a draught passed under my skirt,” Windy’s grumpy reply might sound funny under the different circumstances.

“It must be the rainstorm, cooling the air after the sunset,” Misty listened to the noise of rain outside, not sure if she was trying to convince the girls or herself.

“Isn’t it dropping a bit too fast for the rain-affected?” tensely muttered Windy, directing the flashlight on her legs covered by goose-bumps.

But before she could add anything, the surrounding corridor blurred in Misty’s sight. Feeling as if she was hit on the head softly but quite effectively, the girl tried to blink back to some clearness.

The hallway around her changed in a wink: it was not dark, periodically lit by the flashes, but rather poorly lit by the dull evening light, getting in through the far window mostly, as the majority of the doors were closed. She could see everything perfectly clear, despite Misty wasn’t sure she was entirely in control of her own movements, let alone the circumstances.

The girl felt her own legs and arms filled with lead, somehow she was sure that if she tried to use her magic, even the simplest spell, that wouldn’t work. Misty couldn’t turn left or right and kept looking forward, thus she rather felt the presence of her friends than saw them beside and even the air seemed unyielding to her.

The next thing she noticed made Misty Lagoon inwardly shudder: she… they were not alone in the school corridor, right in the middle of it three colts pulled somewhere a unicorn filly they held restrained. The girl looked too exhausted to call for help, her moans sounded more like quiet unintelligible pleas for the kidnappers, more automatic at that moment than voiced in hope for their mercy.

“Shut it!” dropped one of the earth colts, nudging the faltering filly under her ribs and pulling her hand forcefully. “If you end up waking the janitor…” added he with a sudden and undoubted threat, that the filly fell silent losing her breath for a moment.

“LEAVE HER ALONE! YOU FUCKING MORONS!!!” Misty could never expect herself saying something alike, moreover, shouting that in the situation like the one happening. She failed to think about what might happen if those actually heard her, but the evident fact, that they didn’t, made her freeze inwardly. Sudden guess pierced her mind like the lightning bolt the skies above the school…

“What next?” so casually, that it sounded insane, asked another one, pulling filly’s another arm. “All the doors are closed… or…” he muttered something and Misty could only hear, “… right in the hallway?”

“Calm down,” the leading unicorn colt grinned, waking cold fear in Misty’s heart. “I managed to get copies of a few keys. From that class in particular!” he pointed at the door slightly further, looking seemingly through Misty and making her wince, despite she understood that by some miraculous reason they couldn’t percept her, or her friends’ presence.

Meanwhile, the victim of the molesters let out another weak moan.

“Come on,” chuckled the unicorn git coldly. “We are supposed to “establish relationships between classes”, aren’t we? I don’t see that method being any worse than others…” The three predators burst laughing, causing blood rushing up Misty’s head.

But some part of her conscious kept watching with eyes widely open: in their fiendish joy, neither of the three colts noticed something even more wicked started happening. Behind their backs, further in the hallway, a part of gray dull wall rippled, as if watched through the hot airwave. The small dark stain appeared on the surface; growing and spreading fast, soon it became visible that the colour of that formation was rather dark red and violet than black, and the whole thing looked like a spreading under the skin hematoma with snaking darker veins. The centre of it remained almost black though. The moment it started distending, the bright flash blinded her for a second and… Misty woke in the dark corridor, levitating her flashlight and grasping her camera to the whitening fingers.

“What…” she looked around. “Did you…” She couldn’t cope with a lump in her throat and rushing pulse for a while.

To her relief, her friends were beside; to her even greater relief, they definitely saw something as well. Both sisters gloomed and clenched their fists, Windy’s clenched teeth glowed in the light of the lamp, Lacy’s pursed lips trembled, her eyes glistened with tears.

“Bastards!” breathed out Windy with tears in her voice, the ray of her flashlight wavered.

“It’s okay, Lacy,” Flaunty Mane hugged the girl lightly on the shoulders. “Don’t think of it… It was… just a vision?”

“I’m fine…” Lacy sniffed loudly in a second. “You know… I’m not some prude… But I believe that the main thing is consent! Regardless of the number of… sides.”

“What did you see?” Misty felt adrenaline slowly leaving her blood, letting the strained muscles relax.

“Ehh! Everything was blurry… We better saw your reaction, bud!” Windy glanced at the unicorn girl. “You staggered first, then started to shout like mad… somepony… those shady figures to “let her go”. Then grabbed your camera. Did you want to take evidence?” smirked she bitterly, as the girls finally found the strength to walk further.

“Windy?!” Misty had no idea if she should take offence by that remark or find that idea reasonable.

“Seriously, bud…” Windy wiped her forehead with the back of her free hand, then jerked the drawstring again. “I had no doubt it would be scary, but not at that degree of scary. I mean,” she raised the tone, not bothering about the echo, “over-the-top-scary! That’s some serious shit, Misty! When you planned to come here… Did you expect it to be like that?!”

“Windy!” Flaunty threw a reproachful glance at her sister, but Misty felt that inwardly she was on the sister’s side.

“What?! One thing is to read and discuss some… “scary stories”, ramble around some bucking school with the flashlights and completely another – to come across something… weird, unnatural. Okay, okay, supernatural!” Windy exhaled through her teeth. “Here, I said that…”

“I’m sorry!” Maybe Misty wanted to say something else, but that came out first. “The whole thing looked like urban legend…”

“What happened a minute before looked like a vision of yours to me! And I assume we all saw something, more or less, so strong it was. Dunno, kinda creepy… And from what I could understand, it didn’t tell a funny story,” Windy helplessly clenched and unclenched her fists. “Poor girl!”

“Girls, please, don’t quarrel! It would be quite nice to get home unscratched,” Lacy’s quiet voice interrupted Windy, who inhaled already to retort… but reconsidered. “That pony above and the blocked stairs… Honestly, wasn’t that enough for you to understand – we should stick together, not altercate like that.”

“She is right!” Flaunty shook her mane. “That’s more important than quarrelling. We knew, what we could come across potentially, yet we agreed to go willingly… Our expectations were different, different from what we got, I guess.” She sighed. “But we are all in the same position now! Right, sis?”

“Yeah…” slowly and tensely confessed Windy, putting her hand on Misty’s shoulder. “But I feel like we are in some bucking kaidan, only it’s not on the screen or comics, but happening in reality. Not sure I like where it goes!”

“Ehhhhh…” Misty gawped at her friend, she noticed from the corner of her eyes that other girls are equally surprised; even Flaunty found something new about her sister. “You like anime?”

“Who said about “liking”…” the redhead ruffian downcasted with flushing nose. “Simply… eh… Aw, come on!!!”

“I guess, the rumours are indeed lying… and the sisters don’t spend all the time together,” slyly smirked Lacy.

The pegasi girls blinked a few times, alternating between themselves and friends; Flaunty cracked a smile first and in a moment all four fillies started giggling, muffling themselves.

“I’m sorry, Misty!” simply said Windy Mane, calming down and looking at her friend apologetically. “We chose to join you here… and we’ll stick together, bud.”

Instead of an answer, Misty grabbed and pulled her friends in a hug.

“Sorry, I put you all into that,” she sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes. “Let’s get out of here before things get any worse.”

“The stairs must be here somewhere… Yeah, that’s the biology class,” Flaunty Mane peeked into the room on their right: the flashlight slid over the posters and anatomical aids next to the blackboard, dimly shone in the horn of one of them, then jumped to the next opening. “Yay!” the quiet joy in her voice was self-explanatory. “What did I say? This path is clear.”