“Hey Short-stack!” Vlyka Velveteen winced at the grating voice, not even needing the tired old insult to identify which horrible pony was approaching behind the nine-year-old earth pony’s back. She kept her tired, pinkish-purple eyes turned down, looking at her maroon hooves as she tried in vain to escape the glaring eyes of her unwelcome followers.
Just as she tried to round a corner and flee, surprisingly adept at running away even with the oversized saddlebags she needed to carry her books, a gray hoof slammed down in front of her with enough force to make her freeze, flinching and shutting her eyes at the mere sight of it. This one too, she knew without glancing up at her opponent’s face. Vlyka absently crossed one of her forelegs across her body, the other holding most of her weight centered over it: it was a tell she couldn't control, an outward sign of her fear and stress, and it happened all the time, especially in the last few days. “Come on tiny, your head gets any lower and your buck teeth are gonna start gouging the floor.”
The little filly’s mouth tightened at the new insult, feeling the object of this torment assert itself on her lip. Vlyka’s four canine teeth had always been unusually sharp, one of many of her physical oddities that caused her to worry if she was a healthy little filly. But losing those teeth hadn't helped her any, since one had already grown back bigger than before, jutting past her lip while her mouth was at rest. It wasn't a struggle for her to work with one anymore, and she'd probably adapt to talking and eating with another, but the added length only served as a bigger target for everypony to gawk and laugh at her.
“Nice one Dare,” the voice from behind called as it approached. Vlyka didn’t look up, only glanced past the yellow hooves that had just trotted past her to match some sort of secret hoofshake with the gray one that had stopped her retreat. She was looking for an exit, some place to slip away while her friends here were distracted by their buddy-buddy relationship. But she ran out of time before she could act. “So runt, what’s new today?”
Tired from an awful night’s sleep, Vlyka seriously debated responding to his rhetorical question. A biting comment on how the yellow one's attitude would have fit perfectly in last night's reading on a barbaric era of Equestrian history slid straight to the tip of her tongue, begging to be used. But she held back, memories of the last time she’d snapped at one of these ponies she’d found herself “tripping” down a staircase, crashing into a wall and bruising her shoulder. That had set off her adoptive big sister, Crystal Lattice, who had physically dragged Vlyka into her own classroom the next morning and told off her teacher for letting it happen.
While Crystal had meant well by it, slight injuries due to a crushing bearhug of her little sis notwithstanding, it hadn't really helped Vlyka's situation any. She still had to deal with her nitwit entourage every day: Golden Moon and Jackpot Dare. The eleven-year-old unicorn and earth pony duo, occasionally joined by Moon’s ‘marefriend’ pegasus named Sugar Breeze, regularly harassed Vlyka ever since she'd been elevated into their grade. They'd torment her with everything that could get a rise out of her: of course, her abnormally short stature and teeth were a common target, but the one that stung worst for Vlyka was the ever-popular "blank flank" insult. it was hardly her fault the school had catapulted her a few grades forward, so she was surrounded by ponies who had earned their cutie marks at least a year ago. Though she couldn't help but worry that, even at her age, she should have earned a cutie mark by now anyways, and just plain hadn't. Of course, that had been a fear Vlyka had been dealing with on her own, alongside other fears of looking different than anypony around her to the point it had kept her from even speaking around strangers for weeks at a time. “Don’t think she talks much,” had been one of the early insults, that one by Moon, and the falsehood that drove Vlyka to tell him off…only to find herself a tangle of limbs and saddlebag straps at the base of a stairwell. Moon’s efforts to crush Vlyka had gotten a bit subtler than that first time, it having attracted far too much attention from the school staff. It wasn't much comfort, as Vlyka still found herself getting pinballed around the hallways, forced to turn down strange paths or get stopped entirely when she just wanted to walk past untouched.
Just then a set of pale cyan hooves clopped into Vlyka's downcast vision, most assuredly belonging to Sugar. Vlyka was proved correct a second later after hearing the smack of a pair of lips on a pony's cheek, a sound that sent unidentified chills up the tiny mare's back. "So what's going on with her today?" the lighter voice of Sugar asked, talking about Vlyka as though she wasn't even standing there. It didn't surprise Vlyka in the slightest, but somehow that didn't stop it from hurting.
"Don't know, hadn't gotten that far yet," Dare replied, raising a foreleg up off the ground. Vlyka still refused to look up, trying to convince the more rational part of her mind that if these ponies couldn't see her eyes, they wouldn't see how scared and hurt she was. It wasn't working.
What would they have her do this time? Usually their abuse was only verbal, but every week they'd be planning some "harmless prank" to play on her, just to mix things up. Early on it had been stuffing her locker with damp grass clots, getting water all over her notebooks, but it had evolved to trying to trap her in one of their lockers, alongside somepony's odorous towel, filling the confines of the locker with a smell that would have made a normal pony's sense of smell revolt. In the case of Vlyka's sensitive nose she'd nearly thrown up, a fate she'd been saved by only because they'd feared a nearby teacher would notice Vlyka pleading for help. It wasn't all hooves-off her, however, as some weeks they took advantage of her sharp hearing and forced her head up against a locker while slamming a locker a few units down shut. The whole wall would reverberate and send sound right into her ears, making them ring for hours on end. It was admittedly a clever abuse, since there was no indicator anything was wrong besides her having issues paying attention in class thanks to lack of solid hearing. Her inattentiveness wasn't a great sign something was wrong either, since Vlyka pretty much got all her understanding from reading at home, and struggled to focus in class as it was...
"Ooh I've got it!" Moon exclaimed. At that Vlyka couldn't resist looking up, mouth slightly agape as she stared helpless at the yellow unicorn's malicious grin. "Think anyone would notice a wad of gum in her mane? Right in that bright patch," he pointed, making Vlyka flinch at the hoof coming at her. The deep, dark pink mane in question obscured the top of her vision, but she saw enough of Moon's face to know the look he was giving her.
"No no, what about in her tail? Then she can't even sit down without getting it stuck!". Dare's voice was still a whisper, but Vlyka's sensitive ears and the excitement in Dare's tone made it sound quite a bit like a shout. Her tail flicked up to her flank in response, to hide her cutie-markless haunch and protect it from possible attackers...probable attackers, at this rate.
"I dunno," Sugar muttered. "Seems a little too obvious, if she's going to react. Teacher's going to notice her not sitting down." Vlyka bit her lip again, almost hard enough to draw blood with her fang despite reflexively knowing how to avoid that injury. This was Sugar's idea of mercy, something Vlyka hated. Sugar seemingly felt guilt at picking on this speck of an earth pony, but only enough that hurting her deeply was too much: a shallow cut would do for her, instead of the deep stab Vlyka felt the colts aiming for every time.
To Vlyka's enormous relief, however, the five-minute bell rang at that exact moment, causing Moon to tear down the hall to retrieve something from his locker before class. Dare and Sugar said a farewell and parted ways, forgetting Vlyka was even there and letting her slip away. But as she hurried to her own locker and tried to get it open, her hooves were shaking so badly she couldn't properly enter her combination for a few minutes. This had been the model of her mornings at school for the past two weeks now, being so utterly nerve wracked that she couldn't even get her locker door open, assuming she had time after Moon's gang was done with her. Crystal had noticed Vlyka's added reluctance to split up and tried to stay with her little sis as much as possible, but Crystal's own surprise grade skip had ensured that her locker was in a different part of the building entirely from her little sister's, leaving Vlyka less time to hide in her sister's shadow after getting to school.
Vlyka slammed her locker shut finally, having to triple check that she'd gotten the right notebook this time, and turned to sprint for her classroom, pleading to make it before the bell. But fate was not on her side today, not that it really ever was on her side, because as she rounded the corner near her class the bell rang. She was late, no way even at top speed she could make it into the room before it finished. Crushed, she skidded to a halt and ran up against the wall, propping herself up as she tried to just breathe for a second. Her entire body was shaking violently, making it hard to fast-trot to class as she regained some sense of balance. Ms. Rosedance was always accepting of Vlyka's odd behaviors, and would politely excuse minor tardiness as "having trouble with her locker." But it wasn't the thought of her teacher's response that petrified Vlyka, it was her fellow classmates. Everypony would stare at her as she tried to slink to her desk, Moon would certainly snicker at her shame, regardless of her teacher's reaction.
Thankfully Vlyka pulled herself together and got to her homeroom in time, Ms. Rosedance had only just started attendance. "Ah Vlyka, wonderful! Forget something in your locker?" The cream coated, curly brown-maned unicorn standing behind the desk only smiled at Vlyka, her comment meant in nothing but good humor. Even Vlyka could sense that, despite being utter garbage at reading ponies...
"Morning..." Vlyka replied, voice trembling as she tried not to focus on how squeaky she sounded today. "More ammo for Moon," she sighed, unable to stop herself from glancing over at Moon's desk. The colt looked ready to fall out of his seat laughing, hoof pressed against the side of his muzzle to hide the enormous grin on it from their teacher. Vlyka ripped her gaze away from him before the tears welling in her eyes formed, refusing to give him the satisfaction of watching her cry. She trotted slowly to her desk, at least having the presence of mind to check her chair for anything abnormally sticky before collapsing in her seat, yanking a notebook out and planting her face straight into it. She was mostly in the back row, almost out of sight behind a larger tan-coated colt seated in front of her: Not even Moon or his cronies had a good view of her without some very obvious contortion. At least Ms. Rosedance seemed to notice that and came down harshly on any of the three when they didn't give their attention up front. It gave Vlyka all the peace and quiet she needed to force herself to not start crying.
Ms. Rosedance's lesson began predictably enough with a review of the reading material last night, stuff Vlyka had, at least temporarily, memorized, to the point she could practically finish Ms. Rosedance's sentences. It was for the best really, since Vlyka was paying almost no attention. She was instead doodling something in her notebook, something she couldn't even identify: She was just desperate to be anywhere but here right now. It took a few new starts on later pages for her drawing started to become a little more defined than just nervous scribbles, taking on a four-legged stance with a short neck and a tail...a dog, she realized. Oh how she wanted to visit that dog park right now, the one not far from her home. She loved going out there and watching, listening to the happy hounds playing with their owners and each other. But she hadn't been by there in a while...
"And these splinter factions, can anypony tell me where they originated?"
Ms. Rosedance's words cut through Vlyka's thoughts rather abruptly, snapping her back to reality. Her mind was already going ahead, drawing up what she remembered from last night's reading...that had been something of minor interest to Vlyka, something that had caused her to read a little ahead to get the answer she was hoping for. Vlyka glanced at the clock, confused when her routine was upset by suddenly being in new material. Only seeing what time it was made her realize they were deep into class by this point, well past when she should have faded back in and paid some kind of attention...surely Ms. Rosedance had noticed her daydreaming, directed the question at her to drag her back? Could she have known Vlyka had read ahead to just that topic?
Vlyka looked around at her classmates, and it became apparent she wasn't alone in being dazed. Everypony was casting glances at their neighbor, hoping they would have the answer and get the entire class off the hook. Ms. Rosedance cast her gaze across everypony, looking for one eager student to respond. She and Vlyka locked eyes for a moment, Ms. Rosedance offering a gentle smile surely in an effort to encourage quiet little Vlyka to speak up if she knew anything, but the lock didn't last long and she continued to sweep for a hoof in the air. "Anypony?"
Vlyka bit her lip as the tension mounted. She wanted to share the info she knew, feeling obligated to repay Ms. Rosedance for the kind smile, the gentleness and understanding of her teacher. She wanted to alleviate her classmates worries by speaking up and taking the brunt of the conversation: that's what Crys would have done. But Vlyka kept thinking she was wrong, thinking she was hooked into the wrong section of history, that she'd fumble her words and make a fool of herself in front of the entire class...but nopony was speaking, nopony else had the slightest clue...
"...er, yes, Vlyka?" Ms. Rosedance's surprise was evident as she answered the maroon hoof only barely raised off the desk. Shocked, the entire room turned to face the tiny filly, who flinched at the attention. But she swallowed her fear for a moment and let her memory take over.
"Splinter factions were often a problem for major governing bodies and beliefs, but after Nightmare Moon's rise and fall, many Equestrians began to question Princess Celestia's beneficence and power. Organizations like the Cult of the Stars rose up worshiping Nightmare Moon as a savior. Some later began to question the fabric of reality itself, and...". Vlyka fell silent after that, in part because she had forgotten the rest of the statement she was going to make. There had been something about ponies believing in old gods, entities that had shaped the world, but that was as far as her memory had taken her. Of course, the stares from everypony in the room hadn't exactly helped her feel okay to keep talking.
Vlyka glanced at some of the eyes staring at her, biting her lip as she tried not to show how badly she was shaking, ashamed at how difficult it had been to talk in front of everypony. Her forelegs were crossing even as she sat still, feeling too ashamed to move. She didn't hold eye contact with anypony for long, especially Moon, who shot her a particularly nasty look that caused her to lower her gaze so fast she nearly smashed her snout into her desk.
"Yes, exactly right Vlyka, well done," Ms. Rosedance finally said, after a moment of stunned silence. It sounded like she was praising Vlyka alright, sounded like encouragement for talking in class, but Vlyka couldn't bring herself to look up and check what her face said, not that she would have been able to read it clearly anyways. Whatever genetics she'd gotten from her biological parents, they clearly hadn't had the social intuition that Crys and her family had...
“Oh come on,” came a sharp voice from a few seats up. “She just read that straight out of her book.” Vlyka cringed, still finding a way to be surprised by Moon finding any way to put her down.
“Golden, please,” said Ms. Rosedance, stamping a hoof irritably as she addressed him.
“What? There’s no way she remembered all that just from reading it.”
“Maybe you ought to read your homework once and a while,” somepony Vlyka didn’t know responded, prompting the class to giggle. She wanted to smile at Moon getting some just desserts for insulting her, but she was too busy obsessing over his words. He was right, of course; one of Vlyka's oddities was an above-average short-term memory, letting her absorb and recall information for a limited time without much effort. It was surely part of what had already catapulted her forward two grades in school… but was that really as good a thing as her dad, as the letters from her school's principal and other important ponies, said it would be?
“Settle down everypony,” said Ms. Rosedance as she tried to calm the class, with delayed but effective results. “Now, Vlyka is correct…”
“Freak.”
Vlyka winced again at the whisper, loud enough for her to hear with her sensitive ears even when she couldn’t be sure that anypony else had heard Moon insult her under his breath. Though this time, he didn’t get away with it.
“Now that’s quite enough!” Ms. Rosedance snapped. “I won’t stand for you insulting a student in my classroom, young colt. And if you insist on pushing the matter you’re welcome to take it up with the principal’s office.”
There it was, the hollow threat to send Moon away for “discipline.” Nothing ever seemed to come of it, save Moon and his cronies coming down on Vlyka harder for the next few days as punishment for having him sent there. Sometimes it brought Moon in line, at least for a class period or two, but the words only set off a new dark cycle of thoughts in Vlyka’s head. Surely Moon was going to harass her worse for putting him in the spotlight, making him the teacher’s target for today…
With that distraction ended, Ms. Rosedance continued her lecture, mentioning something about ancient societies that might have vaguely interested Vlyka on any other day. But she was exhausted now, and the emotional strain of pretending she wasn’t about to break down in tears sapped the energy to even think from the little mare. She just wanted to go take a nap, go home and sleep, even snuggle a bit with Crystal’s cat: as much as she hated the chaos that animal brought to the house, it was something warm and soft she could hold, pretend that things were alright. By now Crys would try to work the problem out, surely only making things worse, and she already owed her dad enough for adopting her, raising her like his own flesh and blood, there was no way Vlyka could put more on that stallion’s plate.
As Vlyka tried to hold herself steady, zoned out from everything while she just tried to appear like things were fine, a sudden tap to her shoulder nearly scared her out of her skin. She glanced over to see a pony passing a scrap of paper to her. Wary of it, and heart still racing, she took the folded paper and set it on her desk, already knowing she should ignore it. But something possessed her to open it, trying to brace for whatever was there…only to find a crude drawing. It was a short, malformed-looking earth pony, a dopey expression on what barely passed for its face. There was no label on it, but Vlyka could only assume it was somepony’s interpretation of her…namely because of the one, massive spiked tooth jutting from the pony’s jaw and imbedded in the floor. Now she realized the pony looked somewhat baffled, trying to either figure out how to dislodge itself or uncertain why it couldn’t move. It ultimately didn’t matter, as one of Vlyka’s hooves flew to her fang, smacking into it roughly and jarring her entire head unexpectedly. She winced and stared at the drawing unblinking for a few seconds, trying to process something, anything else, but she couldn’t. The end of her rope slipped from her grasp, and without any consciousness of her surroundings Vlyka broke down sobbing, collapsing out of her desk and falling on the floor. She curled up tightly, hooves locked together as emotions flowed uncontrollably from her tiny frame, unable to be withheld any longer.
“Vlyka!? What’s wrong?” Ms. Rosedance darted down the aisle of desks and knelt by Vlyka as she shook. But Vlyka was too entrenched in her own tears to hear her teacher, much less respond in any meaningful way. It fell to Rosedance, then, to figure out what had happened…and after gently propping Vlyka back up in her seat, trying to comfort her little charge despite Vlyka seeming adamant to refuse all outside help, Rosedance’s eye caught sight of something on Vlyka’s desk. “WHO is responsible for this!?” she roared, making Vlyka recoil despite the massive sound wave pointing away from her. Ms. Rosedance yanked the drawing from Vlyka’s desk in her magic and held it aloft, eyes sweeping the entire classroom with a piercing gaze that made her students flinch.
Ms. Rosedance held the scrap of paper aloft for thirty seconds straight, glaring at her students as each of them looked back in fear. Some glanced at the paper to try and get a better look, but Rosedance folded it to avoid humiliating Vlyka any further: the culprit would know precisely what they'd drawn. Nopony confessed, not that it surprised her, but she couldn't allow that to go unnoticed. “I’m extremely disappointed in all of you,” she shook her head, before gently lifting Vlyka onto her shoulder. “I expect all of you to have written three pages of ‘I will not bully my classmates,’” she snapped, grabbing her chalk from across the room and slashing the phrase onto the board, “over and over, line by line by the time I get back. Get started,” she growled, as she walked for the door, still trying to cradle Vlyka’s resistant body as she left.
The door to the classroom slammed shut behind Rosedance as she turned towards the hallway. By now a couple of straggling students, pupils from nearby classrooms enticed by the yelling, had poked their heads out to see what the commotion was about. But another deathly glare sent them scurrying away to other places, allowing Rosedance to turn her attention back to Vlyka.
“Please put me down…” Vlyka whimpered, still shaking, tears still flooding her eyes despite trying her hardest to stop them.
“Of course sweetie…” Rosedance very carefully lifted Vlyka again and set her down, letting the little filly stand up on her own hooves. It wasn’t worth much really, since Vlyka was still shaking so badly she could barely stand, much less walk as Rosedance gently tried to shepherd her towards the teacher’s lounge. “I’m so sorry that this happened, I shouldn’t have let anything come to this. Golden Moon has been out of control, and I’ve done so little to stop him…I hope you can forgive me...”
“Please…” Vlyka moaned. “Just leave me alone…”
Rosedance paused for a second, letting Vlyka process. She could at least admit that her teacher didn’t like what was happening in her classroom, and maybe Vlyka could even understand if she, somehow, didn’t have control over it. Maybe there wasn’t anything else she could do to Moon to get him to leave Vlyka alone? But in her state, it didn’t take long for Vlyka to stop caring, only wanting the pain to go away however possible. Ms. Rosedance hadn’t helped with that, and only made it worse by coddling Vlyka in plain view of every student in her classroom, Moon and his cronies included. They had all kinds of new material to use against her now, and nothing but “a stern talking to” to prevent any of it. Predictably, losing control had only made her life worse…she really just wanted some time alone, where nopony else could hurt her.
“Honey, I know you’re scared and upset right now…”
“This is beyond scared and upset!” Vlyka roared in her mind, but her outrage was suppressed. She didn’t have the energy to scream, she couldn’t even look up and interrupt Ms. Rosedance as she spoke.
..."but I think you need some time to talk, or just some time to be in a place nopony is going to hurt you.” As if on cue, they arrived at the door to the teacher’s lounge, Vlyka looking up in fear at the sight. She’d never been in here before, surely this was a place that students were never meant to go, right? How many rules was she breaking because her teacher had brought her here? Was there going to be trouble to come because of this, should she not look around?
Vlyka was so preoccupied with her fears that she simply let Ms. Rosedance lead her to a couch and sit her down gently on a pillow. “If you’re up for it, I think a little calming tea might be well deserved,” she said with a gentle smile, carefully brushing Vlyka’s mane away from her face. The little filly looked up just barely, meeting her gaze for only a second before dropping it and turning away. She didn’t move again until Ms. Rosedance returned with a hot cup of tea for her. “Watch the heat, I tend to make it very hot for myself. I forgot to ask how you liked it.”
Vlyka took the cup carefully and sniffed the vapor wafting up from it cautiously. “It’s some ginseng tea, helps to alleviate stress and exhaustion…you look like you didn’t sleep too well, am I right?” Vlyka looked up at Ms. Rosedance with one eyebrow cocked in disbelief, to which the mare laughed gently. “Tired students are fairly obvious, but I try not to bug them unless it becomes a habit. And I know you’re not usually…”
“Please just leave me alone,” Vlyka sighed, looking back down at the tea for a minute. “I hate talking, just leave me alone…”
Ms. Rosedance sighed, but when she tried to speak again Vlyka raised her eyes to meet her, staring her down with the most pitiable look on her face. She didn’t mean to guilt her teacher like that, she only wanted to pay attention if she really insisted on talking despite Vlyka’s pleas. But the crushing emotional weight she was under etched itself on Vlyka’s face and eyes, making even what was supposed to be a neutral, vaguely interested look into one suggesting she was about to start bawling again. “Okay Vlyka. You’re welcome to talk if you want to, or stay here as long as you need. I need to go back to class and make sure nopony gets into worse trouble though. If you feel alright, come back to class, if you just need me come as well and tell me. If you need me to send word to your dad to come pick you up I’m happy to do that as well.” Vlyka shook her head and averted her eyes again, not moving until Ms. Rosedance got up and started to leave.
“You know it was him, right?” Vlyka murmured, even after fighting herself to say nothing. She heard Ms. Rosedance stop and turn to face her again, prompting Vlyka to begrudgingly finish her thought. “It was Moon, I know he drew that…”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Ms. Rosedance sighed. “But I can’t punish him without proof, and sadly your word isn’t enough…but I promise I’m done letting him walk all over you. If I can do anything to get him in trouble for his actions, I will.”
Vlyka shook her head, unwilling to believe Ms. Rosedance. She'd already known from Crystal's confrontation that Moon had been a problem, and yet she’d done nothing Vlyka could see to fix the problem. She'd hoped for anything, especially during the few days after the talk Vlyka had felt brave enough to bring her problems forward. But there had been word about Moon’s dad and something about the school board, all beyond Vlyka’s understanding: all she knew was her teacher had done practically nothing to stop this. Nopony besides Crys had, and it wasn't right to ask for anymore work from her…
Ms. Rosedance saw Vlyka’s head shake, and could only sigh in disappointment with herself. She knew she’d let poor Vlyka down. This poor little filly was alone in a strange grade, bright enough to outpace her other pupils but so shy it was hard to remember she’d walked into a room sometimes, and as an authority figure in her life Rosedance had let her down by not stepping up to help her. It was easy to see Golden Moon’s hoofprints all over Vlyka’s torments, as much as the little mare tried to hide and act like nothing was going on. Vlyka had pretended to not even notice things happening to her, but she was bad at hiding it, especially to somepony trained in dealing with foals. Of course Rosedance had tried to bring attention to this, bring it up to the appropriate higher ups, but had run into trouble with the school board, somepony suggesting her job would be on the line. But she’d let an innocent little filly suffer for her job for the last time: she had to end this before the situation got worse. She just needed the time to figure it out, if Vlyka could hold on for that long.
Predictably, Rosedance’s class was halfway to a riot by the time she got back. Only two students had done the assignment she’d slammed down in anger, only worsening her mood and feeling guilty that these two students; they had clearly done nothing wrong, but had been so terrified of her losing her temper that they’d listened without question. She made a quick note of those two, hoping to give some extra credit or leniency as a reward, before she moved to her next task and trotted up to Vlyka’s desk. “If anypony has taken anything from Vlyka’s desk while I was gone, it will be returned to her, undamaged, by the end of today. Am I clear?” she said sternly, stomping her hoof to emphasize the last word of her sentence. Nopony responded directly to her, her glaring eye having cowed the rebellion with just a glance. She was almost grateful her mother had taught her that look of disapproval that so expertly had corralled many an insane adventure in her youth…but now wasn’t the time to reminisce, as Rosedance carefully rounded up everything she could find from Vlyka’s desk and packaged it away neatly into the bag. She expected Vlyka was particular about what went where in her saddlebags, and would have to apologize later for messing up her organizational system, only hoping the little filly could forgive her that transgression on the grounds of keeping her things safe from the other foals.
Rosedance proceeded to run through the rest of her lesson plan for the day, checking in on Vlyka during her lunch break to see if the filly had improved any, only to find her sitting there unresponsive to anything. She’d drunken her tea and set the cup down, but now the only sign she hadn't been petrified was the occasional twitch of her ear and retreating when Rosedance tried to touch her. “I guess I’m enough of a stranger to her she hates the idea of me touching her at all,” Rosedance sighed to herself as she left the room again, having tried to pass along some comforting advice to Vlyka. She hurriedly stuffed her face with her lunch and hurried back to her classroom to complete today’s lesson plan and assign an extra heavy workload for tonight's homework, a perhaps unjust price for the malice that had festered until today. "Too late to regret it now," she thought as she packed her things and headed for the teacher’s lounge to check on Vlyka, resting the tiny filly's saddlebag resting on her back. She'd entirely forgotten to bring it to her during lunch, admittedly hoping Vlyka would have come back to her for any reason.
“Excuse me, Ms. Rosedance?” Rosedance turned at hearing her name, spotting the caller almost instantly: Vlyka’s older sis Crystal Lattice, a bright green unicorn with a short brown and yellow mane. She was almost always smiling about something when Rosedance spotted her in the hallways, and it saddened her to remember the angry, personally offended glare she’d seen on the filly's face when they were first properly introduced. Her expression now wasn’t much better, a look of slight worry she was trying rather well to hide from a teacher. “Have you seen Vlyka anywhere? She wasn’t where dad and I usually meet her.”
“Oh yes, Vlyka had some trouble in class today. I suspect she’s still in the teacher’s lounge. I was just going to see how she was, why don’t you come along? I’m sure she’ll be glad to see a familiar face.”
Crystal’s cyan eyes looked infinitely more worried, begging to ask what had happened, but it was clear she didn’t want to overstep her bounds as a student by asking her teacher what had happened. Instead she only nodded and fell into step next to her. “I’m sorry for your sister, I’ve let her down,” Rosedance sighed, keeping her gaze forward and whispering to Crystal to avoid everypony around from catching wind. “I promise I haven’t liked seeing what’s been going on, and I’m done cowering. From now on I’m helping her no matter what it takes.”
Crys didn’t seem to know what to say, instead opting to say nothing the rest of the walk, arriving outside the teacher’s lounge and only entering at Rosedance’s gentle gesture. But as Rosedance looked up and around, she saw no sign of Vlyka anywhere, just a fellow teacher. “Did you see a little filly in here earlier?” she asked him.
“You mean the one who was here during lunch? She hasn’t been around for a while no,” he replied. “Left just a little before lunch ended, when I asked she said her dad was here to pick her up.”
Crystal and Rosedance’s eyes widened at the same time, hearts skipping a synchronized beat. Rosedance was about to ask for conformation on an earlier statement, but Crys blurted it out without prompting. “Dad hasn’t seen her since he dropped her off!”
Rosedance's heart froze in her chest, her mind instantly flooded with fear. For a brief, selfish moment all she could think of was her job being in jeopardy because a foal had gone missing on her watch. But only half a second later she snapped out of that fear to properly recognize the far more horrifying fact: a foal had gone missing.