Solstice

by Scorpius

One Letter at a Time

Since she hadn’t any chores to do that morning, and Miss Everfree was up and about, Heavyweight had headed down to what she liked to think of as her own, private room—an old, abandoned classroom in the basement of the Arcana that almost certainly would have vanished from the floorplan years ago had Heavyweight not made sure to visit it every day. That was the thing about the Chaos of the Arcana—it was only able to work when the old building was sure that nobody would be around to watch it. Heavyweight could understand that. After all, she’d never liked braiding her mane in front of the other serving-mares.

The room was smaller than many of the classrooms still in use. Heavyweight supposed it had been used for one of those optional lessons, like the ones Miss Zama took up in her tower with only a few students in attendance. There were a few desks, which she’d pushed to one side and were now slowly collecting cobwebs, and a small bookshelf with a few, damaged textbooks left lying on it.

Heavyweight smiled, and trotted over to the bookcase. Picking one book up with her teeth, she flopped it down to the floor and settled herself down beside it, turning over the cover with a nudge of her muzzle.

She liked books. They smelled nice, and when she was looking at them she could pretend that she was studying magic, like one of the students.

She lifted a hoof and flicked over a page, watching as the parchment curved slightly under pressure before falling down on the inside cover. Straightening it out with a hoof, Heavyweight looked at the markings on that page, and tried to see if she could recognise any of the words. There were only a few on there… but the writing in the book was particularly small, and in the dim light of the candle from the corner Heavyweight found herself straining her eyes to make out even a single one of the words.

Sighing, she rose and walked over to the chest in the corner of the room. The lid was heavy, but she was more than used to carrying far greater weights—it took her barely a moment to push it open, the crown of her head shoving against the lid of the chest at just the right angle to slide it up. Inside lay a small, sky-blue orb of glass, glowing brightly. It was just large enough that she had to struggle to hold it with her teeth, but after three attempts she managed to lift it out; carrying it carefully in her teeth, hoping (as she always did) that she would not break it, she trotted back to her book, laying the light-ball down beside it.

Heavyweight, like most earth ponies, had never formally been taught how to read, but, before she had been moved to the Arcana, she had been stationed at a nursery in Canterlot. She had spent more time than was proper listening in on the young unicorns’ lessons, and had made sure to commit to memory the most useful skills that she was able to learn. She never learned to read many words, but she’d learned every letter.

Mumbling to herself, she traced one letter at a time with a hoof, her lips carefully forming each letter’s sound as she came to it. After each word, her hoof paused, and her lips repeated their movements. Sometimes, she would smile to herself and move straight along, but more often than not her brows would furrow and she’d keep on saying each word in different ways, her volume rising with each repetition.

“Luh… oh… vee…”

“Miss Heavyweight!” The voice at the doorway startled her, and she jumped to her hooves almost without thinking. She had never been found in her room before, and she’d been coming to it for three years. Had she gotten careless?

Then she stared up at the figure in the doorway, and her body froze in shock. Standing almost tall enough to touch the tip of her horn to the doorframe, her fire red eyes wide with surprise, Headmistress Phyra Sol Fenglade was staring at her with mouth agape. Heavyweight very quickly lowered her head to the ground in a bow, touching her forehead softly to the cold, stone tiles and holding it there for a few seconds before rising again. Despite etiquette, she couldn’t quite bring herself to make eye contact with the formidable unicorn.

“What are you…” the Headmistress’ eyes darted around the room, quickly settling on the light-ball by Heavyweight’s feet, and the incriminating book that lay open beside it. Heavyweight could only watch as all pretense of humour faded from the Headmistress’ face. “You were reading?”

“Yes,” Heavyweight admitted, in a small voice. “Well, no, not really, ma’am. I can’t read, but I know my alphabet, you see, and I like to try reading out the letters. I wasn’t meant to be working now, ma’am, and I didn’t think it would hurt anypo— anyone.”

Heavyweight gulped as the Headmistress too a step towards the book, before lifting the light-ball in a shining sphere of red magic, which did strange things to the light that was being cast around the room. “And this?”

“A g-gift,” Heavyweight replied. “A student wanted to thank me for helping them.”

“It is your job to help them,” the Headmistress replied. “So this gift was entirely unnecessary. I shall be taking it with me—if it was a student’s Enchantment, then it has likely not been inspected by a member of staff for safety, which as I’m sure you’re aware is against school rules. You should have taken it to one of us at once, Miss Heavyweight.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Heavyweight wasn’t even pretending to look at the Headmistress’ eyes any more, instead staring down at the floor, her cheeks hot with shame.

“Your break times are, of course, your own to use as you see fit,” the Headmistress continued, her voice now somewhat wary. Heavyweight was sure she hadn’t broken any more rules—but then again, she hadn’t thought the light-ball was breaking any rules at the time. “But I should recommend that you do not read in here. The candlelight in the basement is dreadfully dim and, since you are unable to create any further light of your own, it would be terribly bad for your eyes.”

Heavyweight understood. “Yes, Ma’am,” she repeated, lifting her head and meeting the Headmistress’ eyes for the first time, so that she could nod, slightly, in agreement. It was only then that the Headmistress finally smiled.

“I’m glad you understand, Miss Heavyweight,” she said, her voice softer now, and calming. She stepped back into the corridor, as if to leave, before turning to look over her shoulder. “Oh, and do please rearrange the furniture in this room. It may not be used with the current timetable, but one never knows when one might need a spare classroom in an emergency.”

And then the Headmistress was gone, her hoofsteps echoing down the corridor, quieter and quieter, and with her went Heavyweight’s only tool for reading. She couldn’t take a book out of this room—where else would she be able to read, away from prying eyes?—and she couldn’t read here. It might have been a stupid, unachievable dream, but being able to pretend had been such a wonderful escape…

Heavyweight sunk to the ground, rested her head against the open book that she could no longer see clearly, and sobbed.

Comments

[The Wolf]

I get the feeling that Heavyweight is going to end up being rather important.