Chapter One
Blah, blah, blah went the teacher. At least, that’s what he might as well be saying. Most of the two dozen seniors in the room paid little attention to him. Sitting down in single desks that formed four rows, the teens distracted themselves or chatted with friends. One of them tried to listen to the old stallion, but his monotonic voice made it impossible.. Another senior created paper airplanes, throwing them into the air and watching them crash into a variety of objects.
In the back of the room, a red, female earth pony stared out one of the windows that lined the entire right wall of the room. Her amber eyes watched for movement while a hoof tapped against the floor. Another hoof held onto a pencil posed over a piece of paper. Thinking that she heard her name being called, she turned her head, which caused a strand of her violet mane to fall over one of her eyes. The teacher hadn't called her, so she looked to the paper on her desk, grinning at the stick figures. Three pony shaped figures played in a poorly drawn park, but the figures did not care. They were too busy having fun.
“Harmony,” called out the teacher as he finished writing out an equation, “would you please tell the class the answer for this question?” The red pony drew wings on one of her stick figures. “Harmony,” said the teacher a little louder. When no one replied he turned around with a grimace.
“Hey, Harmony,” said a voice to the red pony's right, “Old Iron Lungs is calling for you.”
Startled from her world, the red pony looked up. “What did you say Mr. Tube?” she asked. Several of her classmates chuckled at her absent mindedness. The offensive sound fell hard on Harmony's ears, but Mr. Tube ignored it.
“Please answer the question on the blackboard,” said the teacher with a trace of annoyance.
Harmony tried her best to decipher the equation, but the letters were too small and too foreign to understand. “I can't read it,” she said.
“Then come up to the board.”
“Yes sir,” said Harmony. As she scooted out of her seat, she scanned the surrounding area. Her classmates muttered among themselves, talking about something she couldn't comprehend. Reluctantly, she made the long walk up to the board. In reality, it was no more than six yards away, but Harmony's nerves made it far longer.
As Harmony walked down the hall, a leg snuck its way out in front of her. Not seeing the limb, she tripped on it and tumbled to the ground. Lying on her back, her head throbbed as she stared up at the ceiling.
“Oops,” said a classmate, “my bad, blank flank.”
More than several of Harmony's classmates broke out into laughter. Tears threatened to flow from her eyes, but she managed to keep them back. In her mind, she pictured the pony that did this to her. She saw a face and knew the name, but found little comfort in the knowledge.
“Mr. Shoe,” shouted the teacher, “do you want to go to the office?”
“No Mr. Tube,” said the classmate.
“If you do that again, I will personally kick you out of my room. Harmony,” said the teacher in a gentle tone, “are you alright?”
“I'm fine,” said Harmony as she got back onto her hooves, “just a scrape or two.” To make the statement more convincing she forced a smile. Based on the teacher's frown, he wasn't convinced.
“If you say so,” he said at last.
Before he could say another word, Harmony rushed up to the board. As she grabbed a piece of chalk from the ledge, she scanned the equation over. Behind her she heard several ponies yelp in pain. “Need some help?” asked a feminine voice from beside her. Harmony shook her head. After several more seconds of looking the problem over she wrote on the board. When she was done, she placed the chalk back on the ledge, feeling confident that her answer was right.
She turned around to face the teacher, examining her work. “That is incorrect,” he said. Deflected, Harmony looked back at the board confused. “Would someone else like to attempt the equation?” Harmony took that statement as her cue to leave.
As she walked back to her desk, a female earth pony walked toward the board. Said classmate “accidentally” bumped into Harmony. “Sorry,” said the classmate, but there was no remorse in the voice.
“Bitch,” said a voice near Harmony. A small jolt of electricity zapped the classmate in the butt. She squeaked before turning accusing eyes onto the red mare. Harmony kept on walking, pretending not to know what happened.
In her seat, she turned a wary gaze to the desk beside her. “Sistine,” she hissed, “you shouldn't have done that.”
Reclining in their chair, a purple pegasus glanced at her friend. Violet eyes rolled in circles while a hoof pulled some of her curly, brown mane over an ear. The other ear sported a diamond earring. “Grow a backbone and we wouldn't have this issue,” she replied nonchalantly. Harmony opened her mouth to reply, but the ringing of the bell stopped her. “Look at the time,” said the pegasus as she looked down at an empty wrist, “school is over. I'll meet you at your locker.” Sistine bolted up into the air and flew out of the room.
Harmony waited for the rest of the class to filter out of the room before grabbing her brown saddle bag from under the desk. As she headed for the exit, she swung it onto her back. As she walked through the doorway, Mr. Tube's voice froze her in place. “Harmony. Please come over her for a moment.”
“Yes Mr. Tube,” she said as she made her way to the teacher's desk.
Sitting behind a large desk covered with papers, a coffee mug full of pencils, several plastic bags, and a textbook, the teacher was working on papers. Harmony came up to the desk and waited for him to acknowledge her presence. Instead, he placed a sheet of paper before her. It took all of one second for dread to tighten her chest. A bold, red, forty-two written on the upper-right corner of the paper denounced her as a failure.
“This is the third test in a row,” said the teacher without looking up from his work. “Keep this up and you won't be graduating this year.”
Harmony stared at the two numbers for a brief moment, and with a sigh, she replied, “Yes Mr. Tube.”
With that said, she went into the hallways. She followed the flow of the crowd down the narrow hall. When she reached a certain set of dull, gray lockers she broke away from the crowd. After a quick scan of the locker’s tops, she found the one that belonged to her. Six hundred and sixty-six: the number of Discord. And the world's way of telling her that it hated her.
Waiting for her to arrive, Sistine stood to the side of the locker. When the red pony neared it, the pegasus saluted. “A few idiots tried to invade your private space,” proclaimed the pegasus, “but I was able to repel the invaders.” If Harmony was in the mood she would laugh for her friend, bu right now she just wanted to leave.
Harmony opened the lock-less locker, she’d given up replacing broken locks long ago, and looked through the lifeless container. None of the already stained books were violated so that was one blessing she could count today. If only she could make it over five today.
As she placed the last of six heavy books into her saddlebag, Sistine said, “Oh great. The Gorgon sisters are coming towards us from the left.” Harmony nearly caught her head as she slammed her locker door. She turned quickly to the right and broke out into a fast walk. Weighed down by the books, her speed was hard to maintain, but she managed to keep it until she reached a pair of doors. Forgetting that all doors leading out of the school swing inward, she slammed into it head first and fell onto her back. For the second time today, her head throbbed in pain.
“Clumsy Harm,” said a sickly sweet voice, “you’ve gone and hurt yourself again.”
Scrambling to her hooves, Harmony quickly scanned the area over. All of her books were scattered across the floor and three female ponies stared down at her with queer smiles. Two unicorns with matching sets of hot pink fur and light orange eyes, and a pegasus with the same set of eyes, but blue fur stood before her. They had their own cutie marks and mane style, but Harmony could care less about that.
Without saying a word the red pony retrieved her books. She picked four of them up before a gray glow enclosed the remaining two. “Look at the conditions of these textbooks,” said one of the sisters. She levitated a book to the other unicorn while opening up another one. The pegasus joined her as she flipped through the pages. “Messy eater much,” she asked sarcastically, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Give those back,” Harmony demanded weakly, “I need them.”
“Why?” asked the pegasus, “You're already failing half your classes. You’d be better off selling them for some dupe.”
Harmony tried to grab a book from one of the unicorns, but it floated out of reach. “Rude,” replied the unicorn as she turned her back on Harmony. Biting the bottom of her lips, the red mare glanced between the unicorns. All the while, every student in the immediate area stopped to watch the scene with amusement.
“Okay,” said Sistine as she got between the unicorns, “show over.” Spreading her wings out, sparks of electricity hopped onto the extended limbs. After several seconds, the purple pegasus raised her front hooves off the ground and placed them near the unicorns' muzzles. A small bolt of lightning shocked them squarely on the nose.
Both yelped in pain. Losing their concentration, they lost hold of the books, which in turn fell to the ground. Before the sisters could move, Harmony darted forward, catching a book in mid-air while grabbing the other off the floor. Quickly, she placed the books into her saddlebag and dashed toward the door. This time someone had just opened it, allowing her to bolt on through without stopping.
She ran for several minutes, not slowing down until she was well out of sight of the school. Panting, she took a quick look of the area. It looked like another spot in town. Brick buildings packed closely together, looming over the cement sidewalk filled with pedestrians. To her right, pony drawn wagons and carts traveled up and down the cobble street. Overhead, the afternoon sun journeyed west, its warmth neglected by the cool air of a Fall day.
As soon as Harmony gained her bearings, she started home. Not soon after, Sistine appeared to her left, flying several feet overhead. “That was a nice run,” stated the pegasus, “we should go to the ice cream parlor and get some ice cream to cool off.”
Harmony shook her head. “I got chores to do.”
A deep frown formed on Sistine's face. “Forget about the damn chores!” she exclaimed. “Your dad can handle one day without you being the housemaid.”
“If he wasn’t drinking,” said Harmony with a shrug, “maybe.”
“If he’s drunk,” said the pegasus with the roll of her eyes, “stay away from the house.” Sistine got no reply. With a sigh she said, “Whatever.”
A quarter of an hour later, they reached the outskirts of town. Near the border of where town end stood a small, rectangular building. The excuse of a yard in front of it would make a gardener faint. Tall, yellow green grass intermixed with invasive weeds. Several bushes, that dotted the yard, were either dead or dying. Vegetation of all sorts pushed through the sidewalk leading up to the house. In general, it was a disgrace compared to the well-kept lawns of the neighbors.
The house was hardly better. Light blue paint peeled off its walls. One of the two front windows was boarded up while large cracks riddled the other. A large number of shingles was missing from the roof, making for black holes among the brown roofing.
Walking up to the building, Harmony sent a questioning look at her friend. “I'm not going inside,” said the pegasus, “even though I really should...” A loud crash and a stream of slurred curses erupted from inside the house. Sistine shot a concerned look at the red mare.
Harmony forced a toothy smile. “Sounds like Dad had a little too much beer again.” For a moment, the pegasus gazed at her before shaking her head.
“Try to stay safe,” said Sistine as she flew off.
As soon as the pegasus was out of sight the smile faded away, replaced by a wary, knowing expression. Grabbing the door handle, she gave an experimental twist. Either Dad was in a better mood than she thought or forgotten to lock the door.
The pungent odor of stale alcohol greeted the mare. Entering a short hallway, Harmony maneuvered across the trash covered floors, careful not to step on the beer bottles littering the place. Something wet dropped onto the top of her head, causing her to stop and look to the ceiling. She involuntarily sighed. A yellowed-brown spot degraded the ceiling. Another leak, she thought as she entered a room.
A lonely couch pressed up against the tacky yellow wall faced a rectangular television set, but other than that, the room was empty. No pictures. No decorative pieces. And no knick knacks graced it. However, there was plenty of trash scattered about. He must have stayed up all night, thought Harmony as she walked over to the chair. After giving it a quick examination, she found nothing wrong. Dad must have fallen out of bed.
She was about to go to her father's room when something hit her hard above the ear. Face first on the wooden ground her right ear ringed from the impact. “There you are,” shouted a slurred voice. “Where have you been for the past hours?”
Slowly, Harmony got to her hooves. “At school,” she muttered, “like any other weekday.” The pony snorted. The red mare turned to face an outright dirty pony. A greasy, brown mane, matted with knots and stuck to his neck. Blue, bloodshot eyes resided on a grim face. Neon blue fur reeked of alcohol and his tail was as matted as his mane. His cutie mark, a sundial, was the only area on him that looked remotely clean.
“I really was at school,” Harmony whined, hoping that the pony would believe her. “Why would I be carrying my saddlebag if I wasn't?”
With another snort the pony said, “I don't get why you even waste your time. You're better off dropping out and getting a job flipping veggie burgers.” Harmony automatically nodded in agreement. “Put the saddlebag away and start cleaning. This place smells like a farm.”
“Yes Dad,” said Harmony dejectedly. With nothing more to say the stallion walked off.
After placing the saddlebag on the couch, Harmony went into a short hallway. In that hallway was a door to a closet. From it she received a trash bag and a pair of gloves. An hour later most of the trash in the house had been picked up. She then washed a mountain of dishes, cleaned sticky grime off the counters, swept the floors, and scrubbed down the bathroom. Lastly, she cooked dinner.
By the time she pulled the broccoli casserole out of the oven, the clock hanging on the nearby wall proclaimed that it was eight thirty. Right on cue, a series of knocks came from the front door. “Harmony,” yelled the father, “answer the door!” As soon as the mare placed the casserole pan on the table she dashed toward the entrance.
Opening the door, she was greeted by her least favorite pony in the world. “Hey there, Harmony,” exclaimed a burly, brown stallion as his legs wrapped around her neck. “How’s my favorite filly doing today?” A moment after he wrapped his legs around her, Harmony felt an uncomfortable squeeze on her hind end. She tried to pull away from the hug, but the stallion kept a firm grip.
“Raindrop,” shouted a masculine voice. “Let go of the filly and move out of the way.”
The moment the stallion loosened his grip Harmony bolted away. She nearly ran into her father as he came into the living room. Based on his cleaner appearance he had showered but still smell like a drunk. “Hey boys,” he shouted as he walked on by his daughter, “ready for a great night?”
“Sure am,” said a yellow stallion as he shoved his way through. On his back were several cases of beers.
As the stallions chatted among themselves Harmony retrieved her saddlebag and excused herself to her bedroom. The small, neatly kept, rectangular space was better suited for storage. A bed took up half of the room while the other half was taken up by a dresser she hardly used. On top of a dress sat an unshaded lamp, pencils, and a picture of her mother and a younger, happier Harmony in a golden frame. There was no window or air vents, so the door was cracked open for ventilation.
Throwing her saddlebag onto the bed, Harmony turned the lamp on before hopping onto the covers. She immediately took out a math book and proceeded to work on her assignment. After the first few questions, she traded the math for history. All she needed to do was read a few pages. That wasn't so difficult. However, the rumbling of her stomach and the loud noises from the living room made it difficult to focus on the words.
“Please settle down,” she pleaded. Her plea went unheard. Late into night she listened to a mix of drunken stallions, a screaming television, and a protesting stomach. At first, she tried to study the books, but frustration persuaded her to put them down. Sprawled across the bed she stared up at the ceiling. Not a coherent thought ran through her mind for the coming hours. All she did was exist for the sake of it.
It took Harmony a few minutes to notice when the house finally fell asleep. Sitting up in her bed, she listened to the world. Except for a faint humming in the background, the house was silent. Slipping out of bed, she turned off her lamp before venturing out. In the living room, dark masses lying in strange positions remained still. Careful not to make a sound, Harmony crept through the living room and into the kitchen. From there she went to the back of the room, out a door, and into the backyard.
Harmony waded through tall, dense grass to reach a stone bench. Brushing the bench off with a hoof, she sat down and scanned the area over. Rotten fences covered in vines cut the yard off from the outside world. In certain places, the grass was noticeably shorter and intermixed with a couple of stray flowers. Off in the distance, the top half of a bird bath stuck out of the grass. Overhead, a full moon accompanied by legions of stars flooded the yard with its pale light. The red mare turned her gaze on the glowing orb in the sky with glossy eyes.
It was said that Princess Luna, keeper of the night, watched out for ponies in distress as she patrolled the night skies. Maybe tonight, she would see the tears that ran freely and hear the quiet sobs that emitted from Harmony. Like the story of old, the Princess will fly down from the heavens to whisk away the hapless soul to a better place where she could enjoy life to the fullest and be untouched by pain and misery.
However, eleven years of weeping below the moon sapped away the hope. This ritual she had formed now only helped to relieve some of the pain. By herself, she felt comfortable to show weakness to a sleeping world. As the gleaming tears dropped from her muzzle, they took part of the world's burden with them to the earth. Sadly, Harmony fell asleep before enough tears were shed, allowing reality to follow her to the realm of dreams.
