//------------------------------// // First String // Story: Walk With Me In Hell // by Ravvij //------------------------------// FIRST STRING The seat of my chair was chafing my flank, my blank flank. The teacher droned on something about how the weather machines worked, drawing little diagrams on the drawing board. I heard the tick-tick-ticking of the clock above the doorway. The fillies in front of me were passing notes. Flitter and Cloudchaser, twins. They both had light purple coats, but while Flitter had a turquoise green mane and tail, her sister had a blue-white mane and tail. I think they both have purple eyes as well. Urgh! I'm so board! I rolled my red eyes and chewed on the end of my two toned mane, separating the black hairs from the brown ones. I wanted to bang my head against my desk two or three times and maybe get sent home for being sick or something. I didn't think school could get this boring! I mean, I know I've only been in school for a month, but come on! To say I was getting antsy would be an understatement. My wings were trembling and my hooves ground against my seat, for all the good it did me. Clouds didn't really give the rough, grinding sensation I saw searching for. Suddenly, the bell rang and my head shot up. I looked to the door and shot from my seat, zipping out the door. Behind me the pair of fillies who'd been passing notes followed. I landed not far from the door to the school, the twins walking up to me from behind. I took a deep breath. Ah, fresh air. "You okay, Fretlock?" Flitter asked. "No." I said. "What's wrong?" Cloudchaser asked. "I hate school." "Why?" Flitter asked. "If it makes you feel better, I didn't like today's lesson either?" Cloudchaser said, a small smile playing across her face. "It's not JUST that. I don't really care how the cloud machines work or why rainbows are spicy tasting. I want to learn about other stuff too!" "Like what?" Flitter said. "I don't know. That's the problem." I said and looked down at my hooves. "Have you told your parents?" Cloudchaser said. "Yes. But they're so clueless sometimes. It's like they expect me to be a weather pony when I grow up." I said scowling, "I don't even know anymore. I don't know what to do with myself!" I got a concerned look from the twins. "Why don't you try looking for other things? Things you don't know about." Flitter said. "Yeah! You could always try asking what other foals do to have fun." Cloudchaser said, her grin was nearly ear to ear. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Hmm... Okay." "Who would you like to ask first?" Flitter said. "What do you two do?" My question caught them by surprise for a second, but just as quickly they answered in unison, "Draw!" Flitter said, "Fly!" Cloudchaser said, "Okay. Show me how you two do it. Maybe I'll like it too?" "Sure! Let's start with--" Flitter started, "Flying!" her sister interupted, throwing her hooves up in my face. I dropped backwards onto my haunches. I liked her enthusiasm, but her in-your-face way of doing things was almost too much. "Cloudy! You're being rude again. Besides, we should start with drawing. If we try flying first he'll be too tired to hold a pencil." Flitter scolding her sister was kinda cute. "Pft. Fine." Cloudchaser scoffed. We all went back into the school and sat at our desks. Flitter turned her desk to the left so I could watch her draw and copy her. I took out a pencil and a piece of paper. We sat there and scribbled for a bit. Flitter's drawing was pretty good for a foal's. Mine? I needed a fireplace to burn it in. Flitter held hers up for us to see. I liked it. Cloudchaser did too despite her lack of enthusiasm. I pulled my drawing up for them to see. I smiled as widely as I could, hoping they would not laugh at me, at least not Flitter. I fully expected Cloudchaser to laugh. They both looked at each other then asked, "It's... good? What is it?" My ears drooped, "It's supposed to be you two." "Aww! It's a nice try." Flitter said kindly. Cloudchaser on the other hoof was holding in a laugh and nearly crying. "Yeah -- a nice try." she started giggling and Flitter gave her an annoyed frown, "I think Fretlock likes us --ck-k!" Flitter shot her a look and pushed her a bit. I gust stuffed the drawing into my desk. I rested my face in my hooves, a little red and embarrassed, I turned my gaze away from them. "It's not that bad, Lock. You can keep trying and get better at it if you enjoyed doing it." Flitter put a hoof on my desk. After she calmed her giggles, Cloudchaser looked at me, eager to do her favorite thing, "So Loverboy? Wanna fly now?" her wings fluttered excited ly, pulling her out of her seat a bit. "Sure. If it makes you happy and you get a laugh..." "Aww!" Flitter gave an elated smile. Her sister, a wide-eyed blush. "What?" Did I say something weird? The twins hopped down on their hooves and trotted out of the schoolhouse. I followed them out to the playground. Cloudchaser jumped and flew off threw the floating cloud hoops that hung over the cloudy grounds. She flew through them pretty quickly. Flitter and I followed her as best we could. This was much more fun than drawing! I was enjoying trying to do rolls and loops, I was doing something and enjoying it. Maybe I could do this more often? A group of rowdy colts flew in behind us. They were laughing and I could vaguely hear one of them say, "Hey, watch this!" before he bolted forward and rammed through me and Flitter. We spiraled off and crashed into the semi-soft cloud s below us. I heard flitter give a little yelp and then a poof when she landed in the clouds. Cloudchaser, however, was flying circles around the colts that ruined my buzz The three of us walked around the room of the school and looked through all the different things that hung on the wall or were laid out on the book shelves. I saw something on the spine of a book that struck out at me. I reached for -- Oomf! -- and was squashed between two fillies peering at what I'd reached for. "What'ja find?" Cloudchaser asked and pulled the book from the shelf. I found myself looking up at the back of the, now open, book and the two faces staring down at it. "It's a music book... but I can't read it." Flitter said. "Is it in another language?" Cloudchaser asked. I really want to see what's in that book. "I'm not sure. Let's ask the teacher when he comes back!" Flitter said, smiling. "Eh'hem!" they looked down at me, "I'm still here, you know." They stepped aside and let me out from under their hooves. Once I was up, I turned to look at the book I had wanted to see. I could make out a lot of rows of lines with dots and weird symbols. Maybe it was in another language. Cloudchaser closed it and pushed it back into the shelf, "No point. I don't feel like learning another language. Besides. Locky here looked like he enjoyed flying before he got knocked down, right?" "Locky?" I raised an eyebrow at her.. "Cloudy, don't give him cutsy nicknames! He'll get teased." Flitter nudged her sister again. "Oh come on. A little teasing might toughen him up." she gave me a playful smile. "I don't want more teasing." I said, unamused. "See?" Flitter nudged her sister again. Cloudchaser slapped her hoof away with a loud Whap! "Stop poking me!" "Ow!" Flitter said, tears welling up in her eyes. She looked angrily at her sister and shoved her. Cloudchaser stumbled back onto somepony's saddlebags. She jumped forward and shrieked. The clasp on the one bag hag broken halfway through and pinched her. Cloudchaser's head rammed right into Flitter's, knocking them both onto their flanks. A second of rubbing hooves on their heads and then they were crying. Loudly. I felt like laughing at first, but their crying made my chest tighten up and I felt like my head was being drained. I felt bad. I don't know why. Was it because they were hurt? Because It might be my fault this happened? Because I might get in trouble for this? It turns out, I got in trouble for this whole mess. The teacher had come back into the room, seeing me standing in front of two crying fillies. To say I was in trouble would be a misunderstanding. I got put into my seat, roughly, while the twins were taken to the teacher's desk to be looked over and bandaged were needed. They both got ice packs, I got detention. They sat back down at their desks in front of me and we waited til recess was over. We were getting odd looks from the other colts and fillies, me especially since I wasn't hurt. I felt like somepony had pained my smokey white coat bright red, like, Here! Look at me! I'm trouble! I felt pretty bad. Worse than I knew I should. The last class went by pretty quickly. Quicker than I thought, anyway. I was in my own in little world of bad feelings and worry. It didn't help that when the twins' parents came to get them, their parents gave me mean looks. My mom came to get me, but she had to wait outside for my detention to be over. The teacher, Mr. Long Feathers, made me write and recite, "I will not bully fillies." over and over for an hour. My lips tasted like chalk and my tongue felt fat and loose. When it was all over, my teacher explained to my mother (what he thought) he caught me doing. She looked at me. I couldn't tell what kind of look she had on her face. She looked like she wanted to spank me, cry, yell... Like I said, I couldn't tell. She just kept silent and walked me out of the school and then home. I don't think any walk home had been so long as this one. "Fretlock." she said calmly. I stiffened and my trotting beside her felt labored. "Yeah, mom?" "What - happened?" her words were slow and deliberate. Oh. She was mad. "Nothing." I said softly. She turned to look at me and I froze. If her eyebrows could meet in the middle, I'm sure they would have. "Bullying two fillies is not 'nothing', Fretlock." I hated when she used my whole name like that. "I didn't do anything to them! I promise!" She backed off a bit, raising her head to its full height. I shank before her height. Her shadow fell over me. The bright blue sky from earlier was growing darker as the weather ponies were laying cloud after cloud higher in the sky for tonight's rainfall. I kicked a hoof at the cloud beneath me. "Then tell me what happened." she said even calmer than before. "W-well..." I started slowly. In about ten seconds flat I told her everything that happened when Flitter and Cloudchaser got into their fight. Mom looked like she believed me, but then, "Alright. We'll wait till we hear from their parents before we decide what to do. Climb on, Locky." I was in no mood to fight my mother's pet name for me. I climbed onto her back and she flew us home. Being in detention had taken quite a bit of time out of our usual walk home. Oh, we flew here and there, but mostly we walked home from my school. I felt her warm body under my chest and legs. Her tan coat and purple mane brightening up the darkening sky around us. I couldn't tell if mom was angry with me, but I loved being this close to her. I always felt better when I rested on her back. The chill winds only got colder as the sky got darker and darker. I was getting more and more tired by the minute. This had been an awfully long day. Before I knew realized it, we were home. Mom landed on the roof and opened the top door to step inside. The white door on the red roof of the house swung shut after her and I rode on her back all the way down to the living room, past the drawing room, my room and my parents' room on the second floor, and down onto the main floor where the living room, guest room, kitchen, dining room, and closets were. Mom sat me down on the couch gently and went into the kitchen. The soft cloud-furniture of our house had fabric magically woven over the fluffy stuffing. Our living room had two long couches on either side of the room, two book cases on either side between the couches, and a short table on the middle. The only bad thing about living in a cloud-house was that if the skies were dark outside, so were the walls, floors, and anything else made from the magically shaped clouds. Come to think of it... do all pegasi have an obsession with making nearly everything out of clouds? The lights in our house were what dad called "soft lights'. Each one was coming to life with a magic flame that cast yellow and orange lights over the walls and warmed the house. The fireplace slowly built to a roar from the enchanted gems near its base. Against the darkening walls and shadows around the house, the warm lights were welcome like hot cocoa. And, speaking of hot cocoa. I could smell it from the kitchen. I trotted over to the doorway of the kitchen and peeked in. Mom was mixing cocoa mix and hot water in the black mugs. One, two, three? Oh! Dad should be home soon! I'm not sure if I should be happy or scared. "Mom?" "Yes?" she turned and looked at me. No smiles, no frowns... it looked like she was annoyed, maybe. "Is dad going to be home soon?" "I hope so." she glanced at the clock. "Are you going to tell him what happened today?" "Yes. I am." "Oh. Okay." my ears fell flat against my head and I looked away. I knew I shouldn't feel this way, but I did. "Fretlock?" I looked up at her, "Do you love your mommy?" "Yes. I love you lots and lots." my hooves rubbed together. "And since you love me so much, do you promise me that you're telling the truth? That you didn't bully those girls?" "I do!" I said, "They were helping me look for something to do. We tried drawing and flying. Me and Flitter got knocked out of the sky by some mean older colts. And then we were all just looking around the class at books and stuff... and then the girls started fighting . They hurt each other. I just watched." She looked at the ceiling for a second then smiled at me. "Come here, Locky." I walked over to her slowly and sat next to her, looking at the floor. She reached down and nuzzled my cheek with her nose. I leaned into her and closed my eyes. A smile crept over my face and I found myself nuzzling mom's face. I love my mother. I love her a lot. She was always warm and she never yelled at me. Maybe she'd raise her voice to get my attention, but it wasn't yelling. Mom returned to fixing the hot cocoa and then took it into the living room. We sat on the floor and sipped our cocoa, waiting for dad. I'm glad toady isn't all bad. I don't think every day could ever be all bad.