怪談とポニー Ep1 - Canterton High: Ponynormal

‘Okay, back to our plan: turn this place inside out and find what horrible mystery lead to that… corruption!’

Upon that thought, the unicorn filly found the strength to raise on her hooves finally. The quick “consistency check” showed that her camera was still on her neck, but what was more important – she kept holding the flashlight. The click called a beam of light to life and allowed Misty to see that everything in the class remained as they left it.

‘That’s maybe the neatest place in the whole abandoned building,’ that thought made Misty smile faintly. ‘Interesting… isn’t it directly connected to the character of its “owner”?’ The sudden remembrance that the place could have changed the endless array of owners throughout that thousand years struck her; however, the girl felt that her initial assumption must be right despite all its incredibility.

‘So, you really taught the Princesses,’ Misty sighed. ‘Maybe more the one, than another…’ she felt, how she began blushing again. ‘But you were to leave that prestigious job… I guess, there were reasons for that… escape.’

‘What made you come all the way down to…’ deep inside Misty was sure that the mare from her vision and the ghost, chasing them, was the same pony. That had sense. But what lead to that striking difference sprouting?

Before opening the door, Misty turned off her flashlight, letting her eyes accommodate to the darkness again. It would be an epitome of carelessness – to exit into the dark corridor with some light source, signalling at once of her presence and location. One thing she learned for sure – that place wasn’t simple; nopony knew who could wait for her, there wasn’t any reason to ease their task.

Carefully, trying to avoid the tiniest sound of the latch, Misty opened the class door… and froze. The old school managed to surprise her again. The hallway wasn’t pitch black, as she could expect that late in the night. A few lamps on the ceiling, scattered here and there, worked, strobing a little and giving the faint uneven light.

“So, it’s getting progressively worse,” muttered Misty. The mere fact that everything around her turned more time-beaten than on their previous visit, dramatically contrasting the neatness of the art class interior, revealed that the school must have been living its own life. The girl even looked over her shoulder to confirm that the class was still looking the same. Outside of it, the walls looked peeled and scratched, the doors time-worn and dried out on their rusty hinges.

‘If they screech, that’ll be the worst fail!’ glimpsed in Misty’s mind.

She decided not to test her luck and use the nearest stairs instead. On the tips of her hooves, Misty headed left and accurately pushed the door. Fortunately, there were no obstacles within sight. The dim light from the hallway seemed to emphasize the twilight in the corners, not dispelling it. Remembering about the suddenly appearing barricade, Misty turned on her flashlight and examined the stairs as far as the eye reached.

A lamp buzzed and went out in the far end of the long corridor, catching Misty amidst bracing herself before the descent. The light gust of wind made the hallway sigh audibly, disturbing the dust on the floor. Grasping the flashlight tighter, Misty rushed down without the second thought.

The first floor met her with the same progressing decay and gloom: the blinking light barely allowed to see the hallway with toppled and broken furniture, which appeared here and there, partially blocking the passage, some doors were still open and the flashes told about ongoing thunderstorm outside. The air there seemed especially stuffy, smelling of dust and old paper, the feeling she didn’t have before.

Anyway, finding the suitable hiding place was the more urgent problem, as Misty was sure that the ghostly mare was after her and hearing the lone confident hoofsteps nearby was the matter of time. However, being caught wasn’t in the girl’s plans, regardless of the ghost’s motives and aims. Finding her friends was her priority; supposedly, that called for staying safe as long as she could and searching for clues.

Misty was to admit that she didn’t have guts to hide in the biology class, where the skeletons would judgingly watch her moves through their empty eye-sockets. Her flashlight slid across them, leaving the girl a faint thought that she was losing sight of something important. But some gut feeling that she couldn’t waste time made her proceed.

The first room suiting her needs was the large open class they examined before. Throwing two quick glances into both ends of the hallway, Misty directed her flashlight inside. She was expecting that already, yet winced slightly anyway. Evidently, the room changed, the desks, chairs and cabinets were scattered around chaotically. Surprisingly, it gave more opportunities for hiding, not leaving an unobstructed look from the door to every corner of the classroom.

Deciding to check one idea, Misty reached and turned the light switch on the wall. Half of the lamps suddenly turned on, lighting the class and revealing better its ravaged state.

‘Strange, no lights worked before…’ flew in her head, but with the aid of light Misty recognized the room at once, when she saw the familiar drawing on the large blackboard. Two figures and “Fillycuddler”. But she had wiped them off!

‘What the…’

The sound reaching her ears from the stairs didn’t let the filly analyze the situation. Slowly opening door apparently made Misty’s blood freeze in the veins for a fraction of second. The next moment the girl hit the switch, inwardly praying for the change of light not being too visible; throwing a chair off her way, she rushed under the piled-up desks at the opposite wall near the window. One, the largest, had the closed construction, capable of hiding the filly huddled under it.

Trembling, Misty turned off the flashlight, trying to hold her mouth closed to avoid teeth-rattling or an accident groan of fear – she fancied the familiar hoofsteps from the hallway already.

The hoofsteps slowly approached, but she heard them worse and worse because of the increasing noise of rushing blood in her ears.

‘Is she searching for me?!’

The steps stopped, supposedly at the door of the nearest room, and fell silent for a while, then began approaching to her class.

Closer.

And closer.

Somepony entered the room and stopped again. The next moment something, that Misty least expected, happened – the lights turned on again. Without the click of the switch, simply as by itself. And the hoofsteps moved along the room. Somepony sighed; it sounded almost like a normal mare sigh, full of sadness and anguish. Misty felt as if somepony was whispering in her ears when the steps passed her hiding spot, or maybe it was the blood noise at its loudest.

Another sigh sounded like “TIAAAAAAAAAHHHH!” for the scared and almost fainting girl.

And then… Misty heard the girly gasp of wrath. The hoofsteps rattled to the far end of the class, where the large blackboard was.

A loud hit on wood!

Silence blanketed Misty as she fainted.

***

“…and you may rely on full support from me personally and the teaching staff, mademoiselle Von Selle,” a tall stallion in a very old-fashioned suit watched the streams of water, running down the small glass panels in the peculiar wooden window frame. Far away, across the freshly planted and growing park, behind the brick wall with forged metalwork, the wooden houses, varied in size and form, stood veiled with the foggy cloak of rain. The low grey sky full of running clouds told that it was at least the middle of autumn. “Our school is new and developing, but the enthusiasm of the colleagues is truly inspiring, just what the growing town needs. The only position we were missing was the art teacher, but…”

The stallion turned back to his large and broad like a landing line desk to face the young unicorn mare sitting across in the comfortable armchair. Her elegant dress was probably even more old-fashioned than her collocutor’s clothes; bringing her thin fingers together, she watched and listened to the principal with polite interest.

“But I could never imagine getting somepony as skilled and famous as you, miss!” the stallion beamed a smile, still unsure of his luck. “I beg your pardon, but I can’t manage to lay in my head that you left your position in the castle. Teaching the Royal Sisters! Isn’t it something any of us may only dream to approach.” He spread his arms, shaking his long mane cut; the glasses shone, reflecting the light of several gas lamps on the walls of the large study, surrounded by the bookcases and filing boxes.

“Believe me, sir, there were reasons,” the mare quietly downcasted. “Not because of the princesses. Harmony forbid! If it was purely up to my will, I would never leave my dear girls.”

“I see,” nodded the principal, taking his seat. “So, forgive me some lack of tact, the information about problems between you, miss Von Selle, and your fiancé…”

“Not anymore,” she allowed herself a tiny smile, while the faint shadow glimpsed in her beautiful eyes. “The veil finally fell from my view.”

“I’m ready to give myself to the new work entirely,” the mare nodded determinedly. “Despite the remaining sadness,” added she under her breath.

“Awesome!” principal’s eyes shone behind the glasses, then he hesitated, remembering something. “However, I can’t guarantee your safety, miss, except maybe within the school grounds. Apologies!”

“Oh! I extend my hope that won’t be necessary! I’m heartily grateful for the concern, sir!”

“So, it’s a deal. Do you like the conditions? Please, tell you do and plan to accept!” the stallion blinked, watching her hopefully.

“Of course, I do!” the long eyelashes batted, miss Von Selle got up from the armchair with the light rustle of her dress. “Thank you, sir!”

“Oh, I’m not sure if you are the one who needs to be thankful here,” the principal almost jumped to his hooves, following the mare to the door. “Go and create, mademoiselle. I have high hopes for the results of your work!”

***

Cheerful singing of the birds in the lush spring foliage behind the window couldn’t dispel the depressive and gloomy atmosphere in the office. The bright sunlight danced on the large table, littered with the papers as if nopony touched them for several days at least. But it couldn’t dissolve the deep shadows clouding around the hunched figure of the principal. The stallion sat in his armchair, leaning on the desk heavily and running his fingers through the mane, which looked greyed to those who knew him well.

Probably he sat that way for a while, as one of the guards in recognizable antique police uniform, standing in front of principal’s desk, decided to remind of themselves and coughed tactfully. The stallion winced and raised his glance, looking seemingly through the guards. Slowly, as if specifically making some effort for that, he rubbed his nose bridge and picked up the glasses from the papers in front of him. Gaining his attention the police officer continued.

“You shouldn’t worry, we’re doing everything possible… Including avoidance of excessive information leakage.”

“Damn the school’s reputation!” closing his eyes again, the stallion slowly started to boil, a small vein throbbed on his temple from barely restraining temper. “One of our best teachers went missing! Better or worse reputation won’t return miss Von Selle… And the police tells me I shouldn’t worry?!”

“Excuse me, but I should worry!” he grabbed the edge of the desk, forcefully leaning forward and glaring at the officials. “I must know what’s going on! What you found… if you did…” he smirked bitterly.

“The vague evidence doesn’t allow to build a clear image. The police are still working,” calmly stated one of the guards, those two got used to the wide variety of reactions, keeping unflappable face regardless of their real feelings. “Unfortunately the existing trails are scarce… A few blood stains in the swimming pool allow us to assume that the incident might have started there. But the trails in the left wing are massive, whoever that was, they were heavily wounded. However, no other evidence is yet found.”

“We recommend to restrict students and staff access to these areas for a while longer, while the investigation is still in progress,” added another guard after principal’s heavy sigh and put a tagged ring of keys onto the papers.

“I can restrict the pool usage as long as it’s necessary,” the principal raised his glance at them again. “But the left wing… I can’t stop the students using our library, that would break the studying process.”

“We understand, sir,” with imperturbable look nodded the officer. “Restrict the basement access at least. That’s the area to be examined thoroughly yet!”

The principal only waved his hand tiredly.