怪談とポニー Ep1 - Canterton High: Ponynormal

‘Apparently, I’m still alive!’ Lacy tried to blink when the darkness in her sight became thinner. She was unsure, but the last feeling she could remember resembled being hit in the face by a pillow… with a short blackout afterwards. At least Lacy wanted to think it was short.

‘Where am I then?’ Lacy took another look around the dark room. ‘Still in the school, in the storage room? It seems not!’

The sound, which distracted her from the thoughts, were the raindrops frequently hitting the glass and metal, but it was too dark around to discern anything. Dispersing somehow, the light reached that interior as very faint, but the sound of thunder, reaching her ears, told her that she found herself rather outside of the school building walls. Even if it was the reason…

‘Where is Misty?!’ flashed in the girl’s mind. ‘Where are the girls? If we managed to leave the school with Misty, then where is she… And what’s that place?’ she got up slowly, feeling residual vertigo. ‘I’m not under the clear sky for sure!’ she squinted into the darkness, catching a quiet rustle ahead.

‘So-o-o-o…’ Lacy wasn’t sure that she was to fear that sound or pay the primal attention to it; at the end of the day, if they managed to get out with Misty, the latter could be in the same or worse shaken condition as her. However, being entirely trustful wasn’t the smartest idea either. ‘It’s not the end of the… adventure.’

When her eyes accommodated a bit to the surrounding darkness, Lacy suspected where she got.

‘That sound of the rain on the glass… But how that was even possible?’

The following lightning flash confirmed her assumption, revealing the branches and twigs, all the mass of the various foliage, which filled the school greenhouse, making its glass walls almost opaque and blocking the only entrance and simultaneously exit.

‘Weird!’ Lacy rubbed her forehead and adjusted the glasses. ‘How did I get here… Well, scratch that! How will I get out?’

Light trembling of the leaves told Lacy that there was at least some opening or a weak spot in the construction, which let the wind in and which she could use for her escape. But as soon as she made a first small step aside, the rustling intensified suddenly. Before Lacy could analyze that fact, she felt that something was wrapping around her, trying to tie her up and restrain seemingly. Her hand stretched to push the sudden attacker aback met a thick rough vine, snaking around her body and scratching her clothes. Lacy Reins squeaked surprisedly, finding out that her legs were almost tied one to another already. However, she kept enough composure, dealing with plants was a common occupation for her.

‘Oh, come on! You must be kidding me…’ Lacy felt the attempt to lift her from the ground and completely deprive of any opportunities to fight back. Fortunately, her arms were still free.

‘Got it!’ the girl whipped the so appositely taken knife out of her bag. A few quick cuts and she felt the grasp of the strange vines failing; pulling and tearing off herself the pieces of the nasty herb, she inwardly thanked her usual sweater and jeans as the stalks appeared to be quite rough and even spiky perhaps.

Freeing her torso, even if the vines detached very unwillingly, taking bits and pieces of the clothes, Lacy dropped on her butt. Arching incredibly, she could untie her legs as well. But judging by the grumpy rustling and movement around, the nasty thing wasn’t going to give up yet.

Lacy decided to retreat to the spot, which seemed at least better lit. Swaying the knife like mad, she managed to severe a few more vines, trying to reach her, and after a few minutes of the intense bout, the green molesters left her alone, leaving numerous pieces of themselves on the ground.

That part of the wall and a small area of the floor were concrete, providing certain disadvantages for the vegetal hooligans, thus the filly could take a breath. Leaning on the wall, Lacy settled down in that corner, estimating the losses. The jeans received more cuts and holes, in addition to the one made by the nail, the sweater became completely out of commission, holding on her only as if by magic.

‘Great!’ the girl flushed, examining the large cut under the left breast, which almost made it exposed. The lower part of the sweater turned into some scallops.

‘So, I’m trapped now,’ confessed Lacy, nesting on the floor with more comfort, but keeping an eye. ‘And the others… oh…’ At that thought her chest ached. She had no idea, where the girls were, but somehow she thought that they hardly were given better treatment. ‘How could I leave Misty alone! If only we kept holding hands…’ Tears ran down the mauve cheeks, Lacy wiped them with her free hand, keeping the knife ready, in case the nasty vines decided to make another attempt. Minutes passed, but nothing disturbed her grief; little by little the girl began composing herself.

‘Stop it, foal! Before your glasses misted and you couldn’t see a thing clearly. The tears won’t help you fix everything.’

“Girls… I need to get out and find you!” Lacy sniffed with a sigh.

There was more light coming in through the unobstructed part of the glass roof, she could even see the clouds, passing by in the sky and lit by the lightning. Scratched, ruffled and exhausted, Lacy pulled her knees to her chin, wrapping her arms around them, and thought deeply, listening to the rain outside.

***

The lightning flash, followed by the earsplitting sound of thunder returned the girl to reality. Expecting to see the dark storage room around, or some kitchen semblance, which could connect to the cafeteria on the ground floor, Misty blinked several times. The open window frame trembled in the wind, dinging lightly, frequent lightnings lit the easels placed in amphitheatre order. The rain poured mercilessly, veiling everything outside, its sounds and freshness were getting into the art class through the window, driving out the smell of paints.

“How did I get here?” whispered Misty, not believing her own eyes. “We were all the way back to the exit a moment ago…”

They were.

They were holding hands with Lacy, minutes before it happened, and broke the contact for a second, shocked by the view of the ghost. And then… Apparently, the door behind the counter worked as some portal, which transferred both girls into different places, following somepony’s wicked will. Deep inside the girl felt, or wanted to believe wholeheartedly, that her friends were okay. But she couldn’t predict what would happen to them without somepony coming to the rescue. Without her coming to their rescue!

Exhausted Misty slid down to the floor, leaning on the class’ door and wrapped her arms around the knees, tears started streaming from her eyes.

‘Girls! Lacy! That was entirely my fault! How could I be so careless? I… I should have prepared better not to fail your trust!..’

Several minutes passed, with silence being disturbed only by quiet sobs of despair. The easels mutely guarded girl’s woeful solitude, throwing long shadows with each lightning flash.

‘NO! It won’t work that way… Nopony saves you out of the blue!’ Misty sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes with the jacket sleeve. ‘I need… I need to find my friends first. And for that, it seems…’

Misty inhaled, bracing herself at the inevitable conclusion; the tears dried out, there wasn’t time for them.

‘For that I need to find out everything about that place, what had happened here and why!’

Finally, she was ready to move on, Misty even thought that she had a working plan. Another blackout was completely unexpected for her: girls vision darkened, she leaned on the door limply.

When the light returned, becoming strangely bright for the abandoned school at night, Misty realized that she couldn’t recognize the place. Blinded at first, she kept blinking until the world around her regained sharpness enough to distinguish the objects, turning from the smudged opal spot in her sight into some furnished room.

The first thing Misty could clearly see was a peculiar, completely wooden and beautifully carved table to her right. Its sunlit surface made an impression of warmth and the ripe fruits in the crystal vase spread sweet aroma so strong, Misty suppressed the first impulse to grab the one specifically tasty looking apple. She felt the familiar strange stiffness in movement as if she did and did not belong to that world at once; raising a hand would have taken lots of effort most likely. Nevertheless, the warm wind touched her face so realistically, she even squinted in an attempt to shake her head. The joyful sounds of some birds were reaching the exquisitely but laconically furnished room through the open window, accompanied by the bright sunlight; the wind playing with freely waving curtains brought the aroma and feel exactly as if the happening with her was real.

‘It can’t be happening,’ Misty took a look over the ornate walls, high ceiling, distant bright blue sky in the window. ‘It was far past 10 PM…’

The voice pulled Misty from her thoughts; further in the room, left to the table with the vase, a filly was sitting on a high, rich, but at the same time not artsy chair with a straight backrest. That filly looked only a bit older than Misty, and… Misty gasped soundlessly: she could easily think that it was herself, maybe a couple of years older. The girl was very light grey, almost white, the lush pink mane flowed almost to the floor, covering her shoulders and the backrest, the tail of the same colour funnily curled around the graceful stretched aside leg with the gold-shod hoof, peeking from under the snow-white negligee with complex golden embroidered pattern. Her long horn leaned to the easel, the filly was examining something with laudable attention, while her thin fingers kept fluttering over the canvas with the thin brush.

Misty blinked a couple of times: the only difference was a couple of large tightly folded wings, the tops trembled slightly, as the girl worked alternating between the canvas and the subject of her art.

‘Sweet Celestia! It’s her… only… only in my age! Even before the conflict between the Royal Sisters, judging by her mane colour…’ Misty stood like thunderstruck, forced to confess that there could be only one variant of an alicorn looking that way. ‘Another vision… but… why?’ curiosity easily took over the first-moment abashment and Misty already tried to figure what was actually going on… Not only with her, but in her evident vision as well.

She followed “young princess” (as she named the filly for herself) glance and felt how her mouth opened unwittingly. Misty had seen that pony already.

There was a comfy couch of golden wood with purple upholstery under the next large window, and it wasn’t empty. Misty froze admiringly, it was the same mare she saw on the sketch in Canterton school: tall, gracile and at the same time amazingly curvy in the right places, she lay freely on the couch putting one arm on the backrest. Two waterfalls of black with greyish strands mane and tail streamed to the floor, the high firm breasts trembled tenderly with her breathing. The beautiful dark-crimson eyes looked somewhere far and a faint smile accompanied the tranquil look on her face. And, like on that pencil sketch, she was completely nude!

‘I c-can’t take my eyes off her long tan-coloured legs… and… and… Squee!’ her face began to burn, Misty swallowed, yet unable to make herself look aside. A hot wave of some unknown to that moment feeling was building inside, going to flood the girl with her head. Her heart became large and loud, having not enough space in the chest, it was beating somewhere near girl’s collarbones.

“Teacher! I can’t master some shades,” Misty heard the rueful call of the apprentice, like through a thick layer of cotton. “No matter how much I try, it’s always not what I need…”

“Celly, dear, did you finish with the general pose?” not a single muscle moved on the shapely body, the mare spoke with her lips only, keeping her position unchanged. Only her eyes glanced vividly at Misty, making her wince.

‘They looked through me, of course. Silly filly!’ little by little her hearing, breath and ability to think rationally returned to Misty; however they risked, balancing on the thin line.

“Well, it won’t turn into a calamity if I leave the place for a while,” smiling with the corner of her mouth, the mare sat straight on the couch. “I can help you, dear, but you must finally obtain the skill on your own.”

Enthralled, Misty watched the mare, who got around the easel and stopped behind the princess.

“Here, here and here. Celly, you need to…” the naked beauty leaned over her student, taking the brush and demonstrating something right on the canvas. Misty felt dumbfounded, flashing like a carrot, she kept and kept staring at the bulged round firm butt, the dark wave of the tail curling around the elegant legs, the slim arching body. “Do you see the difference?” the mare leaned closer pointing at the work, her heavy breasts almost touched the shoulder of the filly. The latter looked as if she was going to boil at that moment and release a couple of steamy streams out of her rock hard perked ears, trying to look at the canvas and squint back on her teacher at the same time.

‘Errmmm…’ Misty understood Celestia well at that moment, then the princess finally unfroze.

“Um… t-teacher,” barely audibly started she looking at the easel fixedly, her thin fingers trembled lightly and her white cheeks started flaming. “M-m-may I ask one thing?”

“Certainly, dear,” heartily smiled the mare, straightening up and examining the work from some distance. “And… we seem to have agreed on that – Fran is more than enough, as you asked me not to call you “Your Highness” all the time.”

“Oh! Of course,” whispered Celestia, for a moment her eyes met at the nose bridge, while her entire face, moreover, neck and shoulders, the part Misty could see in the negligee neckline, flushed brightly. The princess finally found some strength to turn around, her shy glance met her mentor’s; her clothes slid dangerously low from her shoulder when she timidly held out the delicate hand. The girl’s fingers froze midair, not daring to touch. She squinted from her suddenly inspired courage, with her ears flattened. “Tea… miss… Oh!..” Celestia blurted out after a fitful sigh. “Fran, may I… pose-next-time-for-you?!!”

‘So, this is what happened!’ Misty blinked several times after the vision had faded. The girl suddenly felt very hot, falling ablush, but the anticipated revelation made her curiosity itch. “Fran…” unconsciously she pronounced it loud. ‘Fran… I… I think that missing teacher name was Fran. And that mare definitely looked like the one in the sketches we found. So she was actually teaching Celestia and Luna… Amazing! But how old is…’ Misty took out and spread the paper, looking at it incredulously. ‘It can’t be…’

***

Despite the terror and tension of the chase, Flaunty Mane couldn’t avoid looking back right in time to notice, how the locker fell and blocked the cafeteria door and how their, literally bloody, chaser stopped. The next moment the ghost mare leaned against the glass, looking out something inside.

Flaunty’s fists clenched, she almost turned back, but Windy was relentless: with the speed of a good mail train, the sister pulled Flaunty according to her previous plan, making her grit the teeth and obey with the aching heart. The girls flashed through the rest of the corridor, almost bumping onto the windowsill in the end, and stormed the swimming pool door, gasping for breath.

“There!” Windy slammed the door, she grabbed some metal rod from the floor and shove it through the handles. “I thought my heart jumps out of my throat, Flo! So much for the training…” she let out a nervous laughter. “Well, it fell back… Dunno, if that thing can help, I mean, hey it’s a ghost,” she inhaled deeply, trying to cope with the adrenaline rush in her blood and threw a doubtful glance at the cleaning brush she used as a lock.

“What’s up, Flo?” Windy slowly turned, feeling how her sister, all that time silent, pulled her by the sleeve. “The hell is…” quietly dropped the pegasus filly under the impression, noticing what exactly Flaunty was observing for a few seconds already, unable to say a word.

The swimming pool generally remained the same: tiled floor and basin, here and there dirt and broken tiles, old benches and dusty windows, lit by the lightning flashes, heavy clouds visible through the transparent part of the roof washed by the rain mercilessly. Two things changed though, two very important things. First of all, the pool wasn’t empty anymore, now the dark rippling surface almost reached the edges of the basin; the sound of dripping became more pronounced.

Before the girls, exchanging the puzzled glances, thought that rain even that hard couldn’t fill the entire pool in less than an hour, another flash made them want to mistake. Even crave to be mistaking. In the silvery light flooding the room for a fraction of second, the liquid appeared dark red, thick, least resembling the water.

“Do you see what I see?” feeling the goosebumps running up her legs, Windy asked. “Is it…”

“…blood,” swallowing a lump whispered Flaunty with a tiny nod.

“Shhhiiit!”

A faint moan sounded in the large empty room like a nail ran on the glass, making the pegasi sisters feel their hair standing on ends and wings fluffed from terror. The girls realized where the sound of dripping was coming from, following it; the find chilled them to the bones.

High above the centre of the pool, almost under its transparent roof, there was a naked body… floating in the air. Arched back as if it was hung on under the chest, seemingly soft and motionless. The legs and arms of the mare dangled limply, her mane and tail flowed down like a black waterfall, her thrown back face couldn’t be seen, and the sisters were truly thankful for that. The blood, covering her entire body, dripped and fell into the pool. There was nopony else, who could produce that moan, but deep inside Flaunty and Windy were to confess – they would have preferred that mare to be dead to any other variant.

“CLACK!”

Unwittingly Windy made a small step aside, suddenly producing quite a loud echo.

As if that was the only thing it waited for, the body slowly straightened in the air. Flaunty felt how her teeth started rattling against her will. The mare leaned forward, staring at them with her large dark eyes. For a short moment another lightning made her perfectly visible: blood-soaked body, drips falling from the high breasts, arms outstretched as if she was going to grab them. A sudden gust of wind fanned her mane, forming a flowing halo around her head; the dark eyes shone and the mare produced a heartbreaking shrill, overshadowing even the sound of thunder rolling above the school. The next moment her body went limp, like being shot through… and collapsed into the pool. A column of blood shot up and fell, sending the small drops fly.

“Let’s run, Flo!” creaked Windy in a breaking voice, fighting the tremor in her knees. “I don’t want… to stay here, when that… thing climbs out!”

The sisters dashed around the pool, without taking their eyes off its surface, which noticeably calmed. Fortunately, one of the doors on the far side was still open and the girls stormed in, finding themselves in the large shower room. The large latch from that side was a stroke of even more unbelievable luck, even if inwardly the girls admitted that it was futile against the ghost if she decided to visit them at all costs.

Snuggling into the dark corner, the girls fell silent, fearing that their heartbeat could easily give out their hiding spot.

“Eh… Is this normal?” whispered Flaunty; a few minutes passed, but nothing spoke about somepony or something really threatening them.

“No! Don’t go close!” Windy pulled her sister back.

“Shhh!” Flaunty’s fingers covered Windy’s lips gently. “I’ll just listen…”

She slid to the entrance like a shadow and pressed to the wall, providently not appearing behind the door itself. Leaning her perked ear to the small gap at the frame, Flaunty held her breath.

“Nothing…” she turned her surprised eyes to Windy. “Nothing seems to be moving there.”

“Bet it’s a trap!” quietly huffed Windy; getting up from the floor, she carefully approached and snuggled to the gap slightly below her sister. Then tried to peek through. “Damn! I can’t see anything, the frame curves behind.”

Her active nature demanded some action and moments later Windy already alternated from hoof to hoof in an attempt to decide what to do next.

“There must be another door to the dressing room!” She moved around, examining the shower stalls, the time-worn walls, the tubes touched by rust, the dirt-stained floor.

“Umm…” the girl loudly muttered, reaching the opposite wall. “I have a strong impression that everything looked way cleaner before… Oh, here it is!” she reached for the handle cautiously, as if it was the lid of Ponedora’s Box.

“I’ve noticed, sis,” Flaunty nodded, keeping her watching post for a while longer. “The pool looked shabby, I just realized, it wasn’t that bad when we first visited…”

“By the way, have you noticed?”

Windy looked over her shoulder, Flaunty stopped at the centre of the room, pointing at the ceiling.

“Nothing was working, when we first came,” she noted, swaying the chestnut mane back. “And now, look.”

The girls stared at a couple of working lamps above, in the heat of the chase and later hiding they paid absolutely no attention that the shower room was actually lit by them. Dim, blinking randomly with a faint buzzing but still functioning, otherwise the sisters couldn’t see anything without windows.

“I said, it was a trap,” Windy Mane gloomed, nervously jerking the drawstring, another end of which almost disappeared in the cape; she chuckled grimly. “At least they left us the light!” She bit her lips, weighing something. “Anyway, we won’t find out otherwise!”

“What?” quietly asked Flaunty after a moment of silence.

Windy turned away from the door and her right eyebrow twitched, Flaunty watched how her sister clenched the fists.

“Nothing! It’s locked…”

Before Flaunty could react, her sister quickly and determinedly crossed the room; with her mouth open, Flaunty watched how Windy inhaled and grabbed the handle. She quickly turned the latch-lock and pulled the door.

That door didn’t budge either.

“Both doors are locked, but nopony except us touched that one…” slowly started Windy, boiling inwardly. “And the electricity is working… It wasn’t when we tried first. I ask, What! The actual! Fuck?!!”

“Somepony must be messing with us!” Windy’s breath hardened, Flaunty tried another door, finding out it was actually locked. “Maybe it was all set up on purpose, maybe not… but that doesn’t matter now!”

“Some fucking lunatic tries to give us trouble… Okay then!”

“Careful!” Flaunty raised her hand, remembering her own futile fight with the… glass door, but before she could explain…

“Let’s see…” stepping back a little, Windy gathered her strength into one monstrous blow. “Kyaaa!!!” With the force enough to break manticore skull, her hoof hit the door near the lock, the air fanned girl’s uniform skirt giving a glimpse of her white-blue striped panties, but Windy gave no damn about that.

The loud dry sound of wood being heavily hit echoed in the room, but no visible damage registered on the door surface.

“Ugh!” Windy cringed, jumping on one hoof, shaking another in the air, then carefully stepped on both legs.

“Are you okay?” Flaunty’s wings fluttered, she watched the sister compassionately.

“No, I’m not. We all are not!” Windy rushed around the room, still limping a little, she jumped to the locker-room door and shook it mercilessly, to no result though. “We’re trapped here… and somepony… I’m sure that’s a trick and somepony is after Misty and Lacy. Damn it, the whole and all the parts in particular!” She desperately hit the tiled stall wall with her palm, leaning on it and closing her eyes.

The next moment Flaunty witnessed something unexpected. Tears flowed from under her long eyelashes, forming two affluent streams on Windy’s cheeks.

“I’m such an idiot… Girls are in danger!” sobbed she, breathing irregularly. “Maybe in worse one than we are…” she shook her head. “We should keep together… And… And I blamed her for bringing us here… Foal!”

“Calm down, Windy,” soft wings cuddled her from behind. “Nopony could predict. We all treated the whole thing too lightly. It’s neither Misty’s fault nor yours.”

“But we came here to give her a hand, Flo. Isn’t that what the friends normally do?”

“Then we must figure out how to…” Flaunty turned her still sobbing sister, wrapping her tightly in the feathery embrace and stroking her unruly mane. “…provide that help.”