“You don’t stand a chance.”
“She’ll never like you.”
“Give up hope.”
“Just quit.”
Trey woke up from his nightmare. Voices were projecting in his head, his subconscious bereaving his conscious thought stream. He though he’d been over this. He had a bad habit of hanging on to the past longer than he needed to, and it was tearing him apart. Trey looked over at his clock, finding he woke up 30 minutes earlier than his alarm. Trey rose out of bed and put on a cheerful face, despite what raged on in his mind. Once he got an idea in his head, it wouldn’t leave. Today, that thought was Fluttershy. Trey had a bad habit of picturing himself with any attractive filly. He’d always wanted affection for so long, but was unsure how to act around ponies, fillies especially. So, for all those years spent in isolation from them, he’d had a lot of time to picture the perfect filly. His perfect, romantic desires. But, as always, they were dreams. He’d always gotten into the habit of automatically counting himself out, thinking he’d never stand a chance, hence the voices. Besides, he’d always had conflicting thoughts about being with somepony. He put those thoughts aside, not drifting into further contemplation.
That day was a good day for the band. In class, they got to the school’s fight song and school song, plus several stand tunes. After school, they learned all the show’s tunes, and started to put together the first movement for marching. All in all, it was a good day. “New beginnings” was the theme of this year’s show. Whether it was planned that way or just a coincidence of his arrival, he was unsure. Regardless, this show had a lot of potential. He planned to make it the best it could be.
“Alright, everypony! Hustle to the tower!!!” he shouted as practice ended. “There’s a lot of good work being done here. I may not know any of you yet, but I can honestly say that you’re possibly the best group of young students I’ve ever seen.” He paused, looking through the crowd. “Even you, Trumpetier!” he said, joking. Trumpetier was the class clown, and knew how to make-and take-jokes. He looked out at the band again, a smaller bunch than he was used to, only about 150 or so. “I’m proud of every one of you. Thank you for your hard work today. See you tomorrow! BAND!”
“MOVE!” they replied.
“BAND DisMISSED!”
“ONE, TWO!” they said, turning around with those steps. Trey smiled, and looked at them as they walked off, chatting with each other, putting their instruments in their cases. As Trey started to get down from the tower, a bright colored pony caught the corner of his eye. He looked over to see a tan pony, slightly resembling Fluttershy. Trey took another look. It WAS Fluttershy. Trey hurried down the tower and trotted towards her. Unfortunately, the tangled mess of kids kept him from moving too fast, and by the time he made it to the clearing, she was gone. Trey looked left and right, to no avail. He sighed to himself and went home.
Why was she there? Trey didn’t understand. Why did she just leave? None of this made sense to him. She took her own initiative to see him. He didn’t even think she knew he saw her. That made it even more mysterious. There was no possible way she could have been there on her own accord. Maybe she passed by on her way to buy some fruit or stuff. Trey’s opposing mindsets battled back and forth.
“There’s no way she came to see you. You don’t stand a chance!”
“But she still showed up...”
“That doesn’t matter. It was coincidental.”
“Well...maybe not...”
Trey grew frustrated with himself. Why did he have to be so terrible with social skills? Why couldn’t he simply accept a visit without trying to analyze the situation? Trey had a bit of a learning disability. He didn’t exactly understand social ques. As a result, he misread a lot of situations, especially this one.
“It was just a visit. Nothing more.”
Eventually his mind calmed down for the time being, though he did find it hard to concentrate on his work. He was desperate to know the truth. If he didn’t understand the situation, he was bound to make some conclusions that may not be conducive to him or a potential relationship with Fluttershy, whatever it may be. He put it on his list of things to do tomorrow and went to bed, drifting off to sleep. Tonight, however, he dreamed specifically about Fluttershy. When he woke up, he couldn’t remember a different night he’d ever slept that well.