Moonlight Sonata

by TheronSniper

Ch. 1 Curiosity Killed The Cat

They say chance meetings are once in a lifetime, where an opportunity will never come back again. Most are blunt to even see nor hear as the moment comes and goes, calling out as it vanishes into the nothingness that is the past. For such people, when they do accidentally give into the rare option and act upon it, the future changes for them in the most dramatic sense. Like stepping into a mountain fed river, ice cold and within seconds the nerves burn to the chilling grasp of the water.

For Indigo Wreath, that moment would come for him on the very day he returned from a school sponsored trip right after the events of the Battle of the Bands. The light gray skinned boy with sweeping deep magenta locks had missed the entire thing after spending four days on the North West coast with a graduate student of the Everton program for gifted students. Recently he had quit Drama and Theater after burning out his inspiration, Indigo dived straight into pottery which gave him some alone time to think about his life and future. A young teenager having an early midlife crisis was hardly even fathomable and yet he found himself in quite the quandary. Only barely grabbing the skills to throw even a small bowl or cup on a throwing kick wheel in the arts department at the start of the year, he had managed to embed himself like a tick. The art instructor had taken notice of his determination to find a new outlet for his person and managed to coax him into the trip to the Nation Conference of Ceramic Education with the nearby university.

Through some way that looked good on Everton, Wreath had soon found himself on a plane for hours to the location and followed his graduate student guide to all that he should see. New scenery, new people, new food, and a diverse array of art had his mind feeling rejuvenated as if a good cold shower rinsed away the grim that tainted his purpose in life.

Now, the young man had returned after a good night’s rest with a sense of confidence swirling about his body eager to put it to use. Indigo had returned to his normal school routine following the weekend of his arrival with backpack in tow. Dawning the usual khakis and green long sleeve dress shirt, the boy walked from home to Canterlot High where he mirthfully awaited to tell the art instructor about his experience. On his way was a large open zone not yet taken up by a house or business, a place where trees grew high and birds danced about in their natural ballet of activity. A mere few hundred steps and he’d be on campus grounds, perhaps even meeting his fellow buddies to discuss his little adventure?

“I wonder if the school’s in pieces again? Man… that formal went so badly, magic and all that.” He said to himself chuckling as if it were a dream that never happened in reality.

Out of habit he checked his backpack for his homemade lunch, never one for the cafeteria food due to his own gut issues. He had packed away a couple sandwiches, a small can of hummus, and a few packets of sprouts for roughage which helped his ailing digestive track where the other students devoured sugar after sugar after fat and so on. His hands groping through the exterior lining of the pack he confirmed even the little thermos with a two cup serving of yerba mate.

“Well I guess it’s back to the old grind then?” he said as he noticed the school within a road’s width reach.

While looking about the little traffic that existed in the peaceful town, to his left his peripheral vision noticed something move. Quickly his eyes tracked onto the source through shrubbery at something cerulean or even fair sky blue, whatever it was had been too covered to be determined as to what it was. Indigo stopped mid stride and gave a closer inspection as to what caught his eye, squinting slightly as the figure seemed to stretch over to the left for something before returning to an upright sitting position. Someone was there that was no mistake, for which Wreath was thankful it was no wild animal or rabid dog having had a bad experience once as a kid. Though his heart had spiked for a moment, it began to gradually let down as his sight analyzed a bare arm and long hair that had to be thigh length.

Never one to dally the boy crept up on the person intent on at least getting a glimpse of who they were before returning to the school. It would be odd to see a homeless person in the town, Equestria was far too famed for its rich ranches and orchards that only the mentally ill couldn’t receive a side job to pay for some living costs. Of course at the state where the clay convention was hosted at it was very much the opposite, even the train ride from the airport to the hotel there were at least a hundred plastic tarp tents and covers shielding the inhabitants from the bitter chill of the climate. He helped two people a day ago with food out of the goodness of his heart, giving most of his lunch to them and the coupon to the food truck he visited that they gave out.

Reaching just enough to see over the hedge, Indigo stretched out on the tips of his toes craning his neck out as the person became visible. The broad leafed vegetation gave way agonizingly slowly to a female, for what he could determine was around his age give or take. His eyes scanned over the display of scavenged eats she had in front of her like a pathetic buffet of the poor if he had a finger to put on it.

Past the tattered clothing she had on her person, there were several acorns in a pile to the left, followed by dandelions, a half eaten hamburger likely from the school’s dumpsters, an oddly freshly caught flopping catfish which had to have been from the creek nearby, a freshly discarded breakfast taco, and two over ripened apples to the right ending the cascade of barely eatables. All laid out on a canvas sheet that appeared to be taken off the road after it had flew off the truck it likely covered at some point.

Indigo held his stance painfully as his toes and feet started to cramp up, watching intently as the fair skinned arms reached outwards and grabbed the catfish as it continued to breath air to no respite of its slow suffocation and inevitable death. Dainty soft hands gripped its head and tail securely before rushing it towards the owner’s maw faster than he could blink. The fish shuttered in the predators hold as he heard the mushy sound of teeth meeting flesh, the rather oddly familiar sound that reminded him of wedging wet clay into something usable.

Try as he might, his will to keep silently intruding onto the persons personal space had failed after a cramp locked his muscles and sent him into a classic timber fall. Without fail he let no word out as his arms flailed about looking for purchase, what was he to do in that moment as his own weight bore the downfall of his sin?

In that instant he kissed the shrub the woman had been hiding behind to which she whipped her head to the sound like a deer to headlights. She frozen in place with a mouthful of uncooked catfish as Indigo swam his way up with leaves and twigs in both his hair and mouth. No amount of pressure with his hands or arms brought him any closer to standing up as they pocked through empty space within the plant. It was then that he immediately regretted doing what lead up to the moment and acting upon it to keep the other person calm.

Spitting out the foliage, “Quite the fair day we have today? I seem to have taken a fall, I do apologize…” he started to say before the wide eyed girl tilted her head like a dog barely understanding their owner’s words.

Her mouth stood stock still as her magenta orbs locked onto his alert as a mouse hunted by a cat, confusing him as to the reaction she was having to the intrusion. Her long mane appeared wet as if she’d recently bathed, her skin slick in some areas with her clothing showing dampness. Putting two and two together and the puzzle pieces made sense after that guess, Indigo realized the catfish was something she captured herself bare handed most likely.

“While I again offer my apologies for invading your personal space… if I might ask… did you just catch that fish a moment ago?” he inquired as his thoughts swirled with the pictures of a homeless person actually fishing with no tackle.

The girl blinked once and the ingested the morsel she ripped out shortly ago, “Ya, there’s like a little river over there.” she pointed to the creek he figured she used, “The taco I found had a maggot in it… I didn’t want tacos after that so I went for the next best thing!” she happily displayed the still jerking meal.

Her smile and tone were as innocent as a child’s yet the implications were rather alarming. Indeed this was a homeless and a young girl at that who still had happiness and with no clear signs of psychological issues. Not like those people at the other city, stricken with cursing uncontrollably and talking to themselves in an argument of a shattered mind.

“Do you want some?” she gestured as the fish gaped its mouth and swiveled its whiskers in a dying death throw.

Grinning nervously he shook his head, “I must negate, I had an early big breakfast and I believe my stomach won’t take anything more as tempting as it is.” He rose to his feet finally.

Shrugging, “Well, more for me then!” she chuckled before resuming her feast and ignoring him outright as if he’d never stumbled upon her.

The one thing that snagged his attention however was not the fact that she was living off the bare minimum, but that there were clear bruises of some extent present on her arms and her cheeks. Deeper shades of blue showed either heavy work or abuse, though what caused it was yet to be attainable. Wreath simply backed away as he kept an eye on the girl whom he knew not her name nor history. He was a young boy with no real way to respond to such a meeting, but he knew it needed to be addressed.

As his legs propelled him back onto the right path with time to spare, he wondered what his art instructor would say to do. Would they even believe him if he told them?

Seeing Canterlot High not even a jog away in all its glory, Indigo pondered how even he might help the poor human being. Having grown up in a female dominated family it felt like the right thing to do and assist the person before they ended up like the others he met. She had to have been newly homeless judging by the state of her condition, though her willingness to eat what she caught was a bit disturbing to say the least.

Sighing he rubbed his head as he waited for the cross walk sign to allow passage, “This was not the way I had hoped my return would be, well at least my folks are out of town still. Just my aunts nearby… Perhaps Principle Celestia might know what to do? She’s either hurting herself by accident or something is hurting her.”

He grimaced at the low life that’d attack someone with little to offer, it made his blood simmer like that time a distant cousin harassed another. His reason purely based on social hierarchy, so he pushed her around until he himself intervened because he knew it wasn’t right. Though as time would tell, family was a word that had no meaning as you earned respect, never given.