//------------------------------// // Castling // Story: Check in One // by JinxTJL //------------------------------// In the grand palace of learning devoted to the unlikely bonds between each and every creature on Equus, down the empty halls and past the dying setting sun flitting in through the windows, there sat a door slightly ajar at the end of a wing unlike the rest. Where each other wing of the School of Friendship bore the pride of a sole dedication to a touted Element of the highest virtue, this wing in the dusty back corner of the main hall held no such allegiance. Harmony had a curfew, but the halls of the Guidance wing were open as long as its Counselor was in the building. And this was her last appointment of the day. For as many doors amidst the twists and turns that led to special rooms for specialized therapy there were, the main office of the guidance counselor stood starkly out. It held no insignia, nor shiny plaque or adornment that spoke of its purpose; this office at the head of the hall kept a clean, tidy entrance with a simple hanging card on the door that read 'Welcome' in flowery script. As it was then, its occupant was as welcome as any other. The counselor's office was a place of trust. A place of peace and forgiveness. A place of vulnerability. ---------- Four days later. ---------- The Headmare's office was a massive, uncomfortably open room. A stern, cold place with a thin rug and a high ceiling that had seen more than its fair share of uncompromised business. It was organized. It was immaculate. It was orderly. As was the mare that sat behind the intimidatingly large desk at its back. Framed with a shining halo by the panning light of the room-height window she sat in front of, her hooves calmly crossed over the sturdy structure's surface, she seemed the perfect picture of authority. Of that virtue that she represented. All but the cold frown she wore. The shadow crossed over her tight, tense expression. Dwarfing the little chair set before it, upon which sat a smiling pegasus filly. The mare spoke. Quietly, yet startlingly chilly, she asked the filly a question. Intent and hostile. The filly, still smiling, gave a giggling laugh and a fully inflected response. Innocuous and cute. The mare, at once seeming obviously frustrated, leaned forward, speaking again in terse response. Another question. The filly, all the same, responded much the same. Another lie. The mare's hoof came down on her desk—hard. Hard enough that the wood, solid and sturdy as was the friend who had gifted it to her, audibly cracked from somewhere within its unflinching veneer. An organized collection of pens toppled and spilled onto the floor. The walls seemed to tremble. Yet the filly did not flinch. She only continued to smile, staring up at the mare sagging into her desk, who even then seemed to struggle just to reel her huffing breaths in. For anypony else, it may have been concerning to see the mare so distraught, edging so grievously close to the precipice of mania. The filly only stared, her crimson eyes wide and alert. Her ears lazily perked. Her hooves laid flat on the chair. Her wings settled motionless on her back. Her posture eased and comfortable. A perpetual smile on her dimpled cheeks. Her every muscle tense and ready to bolt. ---------- Four days earlier. ---------- The counselor's office was a cramped, cluttered affair. A warm, comforting place that kept a perpetual haze of heady, lived-in solitude. An eccentric's room with as many worthless knickknacks as there were treasured memories mounted on the walls. Kites of all shapes hung from the ceiling on twine. Three glassware cabinets displayed a colorful array of baubles and picture frames. Rolled-up sheets of paper collected like trash under an overflowing scroll rack. The room was gaudy and utterly sincere, as was the mare that sat behind the stout, stained desk at its back. She kept one hoof on her cheek as she yawned mouthily, blinking blearily even as she gestured towards the sofa that sat just before her desk. A sofa which a smiling pegasus filly soon found to be nearly insufferably plush and comfy. But of course, this wasn't the filly's first time on the couch. Far from her first, as evidenced by her hoof instinctively wandering to work its edge into a ratty hole in the cover as she shrugged her saddlebag off. No, it had been many times that the filly had taken a seat there. Many times in a long series of meetings, all of which began in the very same way as the pinkish mare behind the desk murmured out a sleepy, half slurred greeting. A greeting which the smiling filly with the dimpled cheeks would reciprocate by rote with the exact same words. The same tone. The same inflection. Every time. "Thanks for seeing me today, Miss Starlight! I think I've been doing better, lately!" ---------- Four days later. ---------- The door shut behind her with a none-too-subtle bang. A parting gesture from a mare too worried to know any better, though smart enough to direct it in the right direction. Too smart for her own good. One way or the other, it didn't matter all that much. After all, she was on the other side of the door now, wasn't she? Scot-free. In an empty hall at the end of the Magic wing, the nexus of the silent building, the filly stood with her haunches against the massive, imposing door of the Headmare's office. Left staring blankly forward with a pleasant little smile carved into her chubby cheeks, almost accusing for how dead-pan it seemed. Very near to a glare, at second glance. Indeed, for every second that she stood in silence, smiling beatifically without a seeming care in the world, her wide, unblinking stare looked to all the world more and more like a hateful, seething grimace. Furious. Murderous. Until the very moment that a purr rose from her chest. A tinkling, intoxicating hum that crawled into her throat on a chilling rumble that shook her body as it bloomed, and as her breath began to lilt, the purr lost its edge and began to cycle into a giggle. Short, peaky, rolling giggles that filled the silent hallways with growing echoes, gaining in pitch for every breath for every eternity it went on, rebounding and redoubling until the self-sustained chorus of voices seemed deafening. For that moment, despite the seclusion of its students during the current crisis, the School of Friendship was full of laughter once again. Until it stopped short. Cut quiet, at once. The filly went silent, her eyes still stuck on the single spot from where they hadn't strayed an inch since she'd left the room. Not as her entire body had shaken with laughter had she moved, nor had her face even twitched, carved and hollowed out by an empty half-circle of a grin. She never took her eyes off the adjacent wall, where a glossy picture of seven smiling friends hung. Then she turned and left, cantering away from the door to Headmare Twilight's office without a second glance back, leaving the cheerful picture by itself in the empty hallway. A proudly displayed photo of better times which had, for a single moment, shown in its reflection the eerie shadow of a demon. A demon whose face had remained a cruel, jagged smile even as its voice tore with howling laughter. A demon whose immaculate blue bobs of her curled mane bounced along with her gait, as with every step on her journey through the peripheral-blurred halls of the lifeless school, her smile only grew. When the hallway split, she took a right, towards the library. ---------- Four days earlier. ---------- The door shut behind her with a quiet, pleasing click, kind courtesy of the mare standing aside the entrance, smiling down at her with a tired, yet fond glimmer in her sunken eyes. Her horn snuffed as she turned and trotted across the room, gesturing the filly towards a green couch across from the desk she circled, from the back of which she pulled a soft looking sitting room chair. The mare and the filly both took their seats, sharing wide smiles as they settled into the borderline uncomfortably plush furniture. The filly undid a buckle on the saddlebag she wore and slid it off to the side of the couch, while the mare at the desk brushed a plate of stale candy to one of its cluttered corners, pulling an unseen drawer out with a flourish of magic and producing two mugs. As she did, she raised her baggy gaze to the filly across from her and warmly murmured a quiet greeting. "So, how are you doing today, Cozy?" The filly, crimson eyes wide and trained on the mare's mana-wreathed horn as a pitcher picked itself up from a table at the wall and carried towards the desk, kept her ever-present smile wide and glowing as she perked and cheerily raised her voice to respond. "Thanks for seeing me today, Miss Starlight! I think I've been doing better, lately!" The mare chuckled wanly, dropping her gaze for a moment as the pitcher she held upturned and filled one mug, then the other. "I tell you every time, Cozy. You don't have to thank me for these meetings." The pitcher flew back to its place as two other drawers at the desk slid open, freeing two spoons from one and two paper packets from another. The mare raised her gaze, lidded with humor, back to the attentive filly. "We're here for you, after all. I should be the one thanking you for opening up to me about what's troubling you." As one packet then the other ripped open and spilled its crumbly brown contents into their respective mugs, each spoon found itself dipped into the stained water and began to stir while the filly let loose a lilting peal of laughter that she put a hoof to her cheek for. "Aw, I know, but I'm just real glad for everything you've helped me with!" As the quiet tinkling of metal tapping against ceramic filled the air, the filly swerved her gaze up from the floor as the mare busied herself with stirring their drinks, once again watching the unicorn's horn intently as she breezily went on. "I've been understanding a lot more about the right and wrong ways to help since I started coming to you, and it's helped me to make a lot of new friends!" The mare flashed her a small smile, and the filly dropped her eyes bashfully. The instinctive giggle rose and died in her throat as there was the quiet sound of mana thrumming to life in the air. She jerked her eyes up with a silent curse, and though it had only been a second, she found the drinks were suddenly steaming. The spell had been cast and over with before she'd even begun to realize it was happening. As it always was. That was how the counselor always did it. The filly's breath quickened as she took a shallow swallow, while the mare looked back down to the mugs of cocoa and the spoons set themselves onto the edge of the nearby plate. She could hear her heart in her ears—loud, yet steady. Her blood was beginning to pump. Her fur was starting to itch. There would never be a better time than now. "Actually, speaking of, Miss Starlight, I got something for our cocoa, today!" ---------- Four days later. ---------- The library was a cavernous place, three levels high and wide enough to fit the innumerable compendiums of social studies that the Headmare had insisted upon. Ladders and stairs on every railing-bound floor each led to a world of their own; in ink-laden pages and across epics of written words on time-honored shelves spanning yards, for every subject that one wished to learn, one needed only to ask the staff for directions. Today, the library was not empty. Today, the library only served as a passage. Today, the ornate brass grate in the very far back corner was open. But only for the moment after a pale-furred pegasus filly dropped into its depths, and a hoof cautiously slid it back into place. And the library was empty once more. As the dark halls of the school's catacombs yawned to swallow the filly whole. The architecture of the halls beneath the school seemed as overgrown by shining, reflective walls of creeping crystal as a jungle in the deepest reaches of the world might, yet beneath the walls of solid minerals frozen over the forgotten infrastructure like sheets of ice, there remained hoof-made tunnels somehow precisely cut through the mighty internal structures of Equus. They stretched for miles, it seemed, and each circuitous turn to yet darker depths all but threatened to completely rob direction from the poor souls lost within the unknown maze. The entire understructure had somehow skated past awareness all through the school's construction, and the filly had found that there wasn't a single reference to their existence on any plan anywhere. Official, unofficial, government; nopony had made a note of the caves, and nopony seemed to know they existed at all. Only six creatures who had sworn never to venture their depths ever again. As well as one pegasus filly who stalked their depths like a second home. ---------- Four days earlier. ---------- As the mare behind the desk began to offer one of the steaming mugs of cocoa forward, the filly whom she intended it for raised her hoof brightly into the air, stopping the mare short with a blink as the grinning foal reached over for her saddlebag. "Actually, speaking of, Counselor Starlight, I got something for our cocoa, today!" As the mare watched curiously, the filly flipped the flap of her bag open, rifling about its interior for a moment in search of her prize. She brushed aside a cold metal ring and a compact coil of rope before the small baggies rustled against her frog, and she carefully fished them out. The filly turned from her bag, flaunting the two plastic bags, each full to bursting with a bunch of small, smushed marshmallows. At once, the mare's sagging eyes lit up, nearly seeming energetic for once as she leaned gently over to peer at them. "Oh, Cozy! How thoughtful!" The mare settled back, tilting her head aside with a warm smile. "I'm so glad you've taken my advice on social awareness and generosity to heart," she spoke as her horn lit, and with the filly holding them confidently forward, she plucked them into the air to bring them closer, turning to nod once more at the filly before she pried the bags open. "This is a very appropriate time for a gift, and since we both benefit, it's very warranted." The filly stayed silent for a moment, watching intensely as the mare leaned in to sniff at the bags' contents, immediately finding a smile and a disarming giggle as the mare leaned back with a satisfied, if tired, smile. "Aw, gosh, I guess it's really starting to seem obvious to me!" With the filly making a bashful show of rubbing a hoof behind her head, the mare busied herself with turning the little bags of marshmallows over into each cup of cocoa. One, then the other; continuing to giggle and murmur to herself, the filly watched with wide, crimson eyes as the puffy white sweets bobbed and swirled in the steaming cups. Waiting with bated breath. Smiling. Laughing. Watching. ---------- Four days later. ---------- Down the first turn into the second slanted hall from the left, past three tunnels on the left side and four on the right, and into the fourth on the left. Into the larger, circular cavern, squint into the dark for the pair of tunnels next to each other and take the right. Up the slope until the floor evened out into a hallway with a low ceiling, then take the first left. The path opened into a long hallway full of even-spaced, thick wooden doors, each latched and patched with sheets of cold iron. It was the seventh on the left, as innocuous as any faceless door around it. The door she had specially chosen. The catacombs were like a maze; they were built and designed like one, with dead ends and pitfalls and things that lurked where she couldn't see that waited to jump out at her if she idled for too long. Those fools that had come before her had said they were just harmless illusions, but she didn't trust them. Illusions conjured from her mind wouldn't stop at spooking her. When she traveled the catacombs, she traveled quickly and discreetly. Peering around corners and darting through the halls with wide eyes scanning through the shadow and perked ears straining through the dark. Stopping at the sound of hoofsteps and doubling back to start over when she began to hear her name echoing off the crystal. Above all, she never stared into the walls, but not for fear that something else would stare back at her. For fear that she would stare back at herself. Like a monster's reflection in a pool. Underneath the most touted institution of virtue in the land, there lurked monsters the likes of which virtues had never dared to smile upon. What lay beneath was a boundless terror that had nearly driven those naïve children mad—a fear that crept on familiar hooves, that spoke in familiar tones, that howled like something out of a nightmare. All too often, by the time she found herself before that closed wooden door amidst the many, she would discover her mouth drifting open and her throat rubbed raw. The fading echoes of her own voice trailing across the crystal. Drowned out by the scrape of wood creaking open, and the quietest sound of whimpers. ---------- Four days earlier. ---------- One mug of cocoa lifted into the air before the mare, while the other carried itself forward. The filly reached forward to accept it eagerly, staring unblinkingly as the mare before her returned to stirring her spoon through her drink. She followed every motion unflinchingly, watching unconcernedly as she took the mug between her hooves and sat back. Around and around. The marshmallows dissolving into the sweet, chocolate drink. None the wiser. Smiling, she took a deep breath and focused on the mare's face. "I always like to put these marshmallows I get when I go into town in my cocoa, so I thought you might like to, too!" The mare gave a soft sound of appreciation as the filly hummed giddily, and quickly brought the mug up to her lips for a sip. The as-yet undissolved marshmallows in her own drink bumped against her face while the hot, untainted cocoa rushed over her tongue, scalding her mouth fast enough that she couldn't pull away in time to stop herself from choking. Gagging, the filly jerked her head away from the steaming mug, sticking her stinging tongue out in a grimace as the mare across from her sucked in a breath and raised a hoof forward. "Oh, Cozy, I'm sorry! Did I make it too hot?" Shaking her head at the mare's concern, the filly forced a smile onto her face as she raised her watering eyes back up. "No! I just- golly," Resting her mug against her haunches, she coughed into a hoof, snorting backwash away as she did her best to seem forcefully nonplussed. "I guess I just got too excited. I shouldn't have tried to drink it yet." Straightening with an apologetic smile, the filly cradled her steaming drink to her barrel. "I think I'll just wait a while so I don't go and burn myself again." At that, the mare blinked, and a moment later, an easy smile broke out over her face, and she nodded. "I definitely know what that's like, but don't forget to slow down and savor the little things, Cozy." The warning was as lame and easy-going as the mare's smile as she raised her dripping spoon from the cocoa she held, the marshmallows fully dissolved into the drink, as the filly knew she liked it. "I'd be slow with mine too if I didn't know I needed the sugar rush!" The filly laughed at the poor attempt at humor, while the guidance counselor merrily raised her mug and brought it to her lips. One, two, three sips, then she set the cup back to her desk, licking her lips with a pleased hum. And the filly found she no longer had to pretend to smile.