Near and Far

by TheMareWhoSaysNi

An Ode to Reminiscence

Dragging her feet, Cadance was wondering why on Earth she was here. Her sisters had insisted for her to follow them. But was it reasonable, for a female teacher, to go in such a place. Just because she saw her family very sporadically, it didn't mean they had to make her do stupid things.

"Let's get out of here!" she claimed, turning tail.

Her sisters caught her back and linked her both arms together with hers, in order to make her walk in the right direction.

"Don't be such a party pooper! Why can't we have fun for once?"

"But... What if someone sees us? It's not a suitable place for a teacher, even less so for respectable housewives."

Her sisters laughed in her face. It always was this way. They never took her seriously. And they said being the youngest of a family was being at the best spot...

She looked at the street unwinding in front of her. Canterlot's red light district was unfolding its tawdry lights before her naive eyes. The place overflowed with bars that were more or less shady, of hotels rented rooms for one hour and of Host Clubs. It was to one of them that her sisters wanted her to go, so she could have a good time and relax, or so they say.

Excited, they envisioned some of the doors but they never stopped to any. A young man in a dazzling blue suit, a colorful lollipop in one hand and visit cards in another, approached them. His hair had the color of toffees, his skin was tan like Cary Grant's and his hair glowing with brillantine. He was the kind of boy that peopled female teenager's dream, an Elvis wannabe without the exotic smile. He placed himself in front of them, walking backwards and stretched out his cards to them. He seemed to be full of self-confidence and of loquacity.

"You look like movie stars, ma'am... Would you like to go to our club? It's very elegant and you'll be treated like the Queens you are."

She took a glimpse at the card he just gave her. The club's name was Heaven's Gate and on it was printed pictures of Adonis of the same kind than the young who was trying to convince them.

And he actually happened to be successful since her sisters decided that yes, indeed, they would gladly go to his club.

Cadance was surprised by the setting. She imagined it would be a tawdry bar, with red veils all over red sofas, half-plunged in the dark. Instead, the ceiling had moldings, the light was soft, the sofas were black and the walls were sober. In the hall, a young man had taken their coats and welcomed them as if they were very important celebrities.

The melody from a piano softly floated in the air. Young women, seemingly from the upper middle-class, with that attitude of the perfect housewives, were chatting surrounded by the Adonis of the pictures. They were given a table.

They sat on the comfortable sofa appointed for them, in front of which stood a silver and oak coffee table. The boy who escorted them to it asked them if they wanted to be with one host in particular.

"Someone handsome, young and sophisticated, the older sister said.

"And we prefer with a natural tan or no tan at all."

"Fine."

He got away and stopped at another table. There, two young men wearing a grey suit got up, apologized to their current clients and went to their own table.

Cadance was very impressed, and unsure why, her heart had started to play the drums in her chest. Her sisters were giggling like teenage girls, apparently in clover. At her right, a first young men introduced himself. His features were so delicate he could almost be taken for a girl, had not his frame been that of a full-grown man. He sat by the older sister's side. Another boy arrived at her left, and Cadance was so ashamed to be here that she only had a glimpse at midnight blue hair. The other host had already started his charm offensive with her sisters.

The new one introduced himself the same way, by slightly leaning over.

"Welcome. I'm Soarin Skies. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hearing that name, Cadance froze and abruptly looked up. Her surprise was as huge as the one she read on Soarin's face when he looked up as well. During a couple of seconds, both were unable to move.

What his homeroom teacher was doing in such a place? If she ever came to disclose the fact one of her students was working in a host club in the red light district, then all of Soarin's efforts to achieve his goals would have been vain.

"Soa... Soarin?" she asked, enunciating each syllables of his name.

Sighing, he got together and sat beside the teacher.

"Act normally, please. That's best for the both of us," she whispered to her.

She looked away. The other host, which name she couldn't remember, was offering a lighter to one of her sisters. Soarin, unshakable, moved an ashtray in her direction. Meanwhile, Cadance could hardly believe what she witnessed and where she was. Why was he doing this kind of job? Though, she had to admit, he seemed to be rather at ease in the role.

"Oh, he's absolutely charming," her youngest sister said.

Soarin had a smile. Deep within, he didn't care much about the clients' compliments but he had to smile, he was paid for it, and a lovely little sum, with it. Still, Cadance was looking at him as if she were sitting in the middle of a movie set. The illusion seemed to be so perfect.

"Thank you. That's very kind of you. Would you like something to drink?"

"I wouldn't say no! Scotch would be perfect. Wouldn't it, Cadance?"

"What? Oh yes, indeed."

Soarin haild the waiter and asked him to bring a bottle of Scotch. His teacher was as clenched as the fist of a boxer. This fool was about to ruin everything! He slightly elbowed her, so she would act much more naturally.

Yet, she couldn't help but wonder what motivated an eighteen years-old teenager to lie about his age in order to do such a job. This boy remained a mystery to her. He had many secrets... But was she woman enough to front them? As his teacher, she felt it was her duty to see right through them, in order to help her student the best way she could. The lingering question was that one - how could she do that?

***

This morning, Pinkie Pie was feeling a bit more self-confident than any other morning before going to class. Yes, she had no friends but she felt that Starlight Glimmer would cease to bully her. Her first class was geology. It was a demand from her mother - she had to try to get better grades in the scientific topics, out of mathematics, or her credits would never be enough. Pinkie Pie had chosen geology because her family loved rocks and so she thought it would be easier than chemistry. She didn't have huge abilities. Yet it remained a difficult topic.

What could be Rainbow Dash's first lesson today?

***

Rolling his pencil over the table, Dr. Horse remained silent. In front of him, Rainbow Dash, her arms crossed, was entranched in her usual mutism. She wore three dressings: one on the cheek, the other near her left eyebrow and the last one, bigger, on her hand.

"What an interesting look. I didn't know dressings were in fashion."

"Mind your own business!" she said without a look.

"Would you like to know how I chose to become a psychiatrist? My parents divorced when I was a kid, and it was even more dishonorable than it is right now. So, I've been send to see a lot of psychiatrist because that was in fashion too, back then. And I hated them. When you don't like something, you have to deal with it, don't you think so? That's how I chose my job."

"Moving story. Send the script to Sirk. Do you think I care?"

Well, at least, she had said something, though it was a very small victory. But maybe that was time for a revolution. He looked through the pocket of his brown suit and took a cigarette pack. He gave her one of them, just to see Rainbow Dash's reaction.

"No thanks. Those mint thingy taste awful."

Shrugging, he lit his cigarette and waited. He gave her until the end of it before she would say something from her own will, anything, even insulting him, that she opened her mouth and expressed herself. That was all he asked. Once this deadline would be reached, he would use a new method and not a soft one.

Of course, Rainbow Dash didn't open her mouth. She only watched through the window, silently. Yesterday, red leaves of the maple trees were playing with the wind on the tip of branches. And today, they all lain on the ground, colorless, digrading. Everything was so elusive...

Dr. Horse crushed his cigarette in the chrome-plated ashtray. She hadn't said a word. In that case, he was going to use the other way.

"You're not going to speak, uh?"

No answer.

"Frankly, you don't gain anything not to speak. Because if you don't explain, I'm going to have to stick to the facts."

He took a thick file out of a drawer of his desk. Upside down, Rainbow Dash recognized what was written on it with a black felt-tip pen. Her name. This was her file.

He could stick to the fact as much as he wanted. Not that she cared. Not that he could do anything for her. Talking would be no help. Only actions mattered.

"When reading this file, do you know what's the main feeling? Don't you? It feels like Rainbow Dash, because of her tragic past and her high-level IQ, has turned into a slacker who doesn't give a care about anything and anyone. She thinks she's so superior that she couldn't accept she lost her boyfriend and she went hysterical. Then she tried to ruin things even more because she was too much of a coward to front the fact life doesn't have always to go her way."

"You don't know sh*t about me!"

"Right, so why don't you explain?

"Whar for? What else are you going to do. Things won't get any better because I had talked to you."

"I never said they would."

"So, what? What's the point, then? Changing what the facts make people think about me?"

"No. Only it would relieve you of a burden and you'll be able to move forward again."

"Well, I don't want to move forward," she said, with tears in her voice. What if what I really want is that everything would go back to normal... When he was still here with me?"

Rainbow Dash, who had sat up from anger, dropped heavily down the red-velvet armachair. She had just realized. Right now. She always acted as if her only focus was on the future, on University, on the promise but in reality, she was overwhelmed by remorse. She regretted her former life, although it was a life filled with nightmares.

A single tear rolled over her cheek. She bit her bottom lip in order not to scream. It hurt. It hurt like hell.

"No one can go back in time, Rainbow Dash. You don't have the choice. You have to move forward. And I think there's much to celebrate. You're free and so is your boyfriend."

"But that freedom is useless. We wanted... to get it together. If we're apart, then everything's meaningless."

She had spoken, staring at emptiness. Her eyes displayed a cruel and baffling mix of deep hate, sorrow, contempt, disgust. Dr. Horse finally understood. When she lost that boy she loved so much, the only person she ever trusted with all her heart, it was as if a part of her had died. Everyone needed someone to trust and love. Someone to help you cope with the truth of ordeals. This mysterious nameless boy was that someone for Rainbow Dash.

It was a miserable child sitting in front of him. In her way, she was touching, although her grief and pain were really aggressive.

Dr. Horse took another cigarette from his pack. Staring at the young woman, with her eyes staring at emptiness, he wondered what motivated her to get off her bed every morning. She never tried to kill herself. It meant she had something to cling to, despite circumstances.

"And why did you choose to stay alive?"

"A promise. Soarin and I made a promise to each other. I don't know whether he still remebers. But just in case he does, I'm staying alive. If he doesn't, well, then..."

She never finished her sentence. The bell of the end of class rang. Of course, they had made an incredible progress, in a very short time. The girl who had never uttered a word until then had explained everything in barely the quarter of an hour. He had been right to drive her into a corner.

Her next class was mathematics. Rainbow Dash decided not to go. When she left the room, though, she felt less burdened and at the same time, a huge feeling of melancholy was washing over her heart. To mention it had been trying. She didn't know what she could do with what had just been said. She didn't know what to think and how could she think about it. She was feeling completely lost.

***

Her head empty of thoughts, like a puppet driven by someone else's actions, Pinkie Pie was heading to her main classroom. Her freedom was short-lived. Already, she had to front with the most complete of loneliness and to cope with pregnant looks. To meet Starlight Glimmer's eyes after what happened in the closet seemed to be almost insurmountable.

"Pinkamena!"

Her homeroom teacher's voice resounded behind her back. Pinkie Pie turned around. Celestia was scampering about her, textbooks and papers in her hand.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Is everything okay since the last time we talked?"

She hoped she would give her a sharper insight of her situation. She suspected the bullying but she absolutely needed her account or else she would never be able to help her. But one more time, Pinkie Pie decided to keep it secret. It wasn't for her own sake, it was because of the fight in the closet of cleaning supplies.

"Yes, don't worry. Everything's perfect."

"Oh. Well, that's fine, then."

Celestia resumed her walk and met Rainbow Dash coming from the opposite direction. She was walking rapidly, as if she was trying to flee someone as fast as possible, her backpack hanging on her shoulder by a single strap.

"Don't be late, Rainbow Dash..."

She passed her by without a word. Celestia stopped and looked at her with concerns. Obviously, she wasn't going to go to class. Did something serious happened with Dr. Horse?

"Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash," Pinkie Pie said when she passed her by as well. "Yesterday, I forgot to say thank you."

"Leave me alone! I'm sick of you!"

Just like she did with her teacher a few seconds earlier, she kept on walking straight, eyes focused in front of her, in a hurry. The hurry of avoidance.

***

At broad daylight, he looked like any senior students. Except that he spent way too much time sleeping at the back of the class! Yet, she could still picture him with his elegant grey suit, smiling to her sisters, pouring them drinks, litting cigarettes. Between this vision and that of the moody student, it was like associating milk and oil.

Faithful to his habits, Thunderlane was drooling over pages of his favorite magazine, proud to show them to his friends. Silver Zoom was the only one paying attention, while improvising a bridge game against himself. Flash Sentry was thinking hard, his eyes lost in the contemplation of a stain on the cream walls. Just like her other students, the bunch did exactly what they wanted, and nothing but what they wanted. That didn't include learning anything, though.

Cadance sighed of discourage. There really was nothing she could do.

Weary, she turned to her blackboard and took a long look at the vocabulary written on it. It wouldn't be of any use but here she was so she had to keep going...

"Please not these words in your directories. It would be great if you could form sentences with these new words. They're not so hard."

Obviously, no one listened. She completely ignored how to gain the firm hand which would help her to catch their attention. Teaching in a class of students in great difficulties was way much harder than she used to imagine when she was at University. She thought it would take time, effort and understanding but that she would eventually make them work. It hadn't worked well, so far.

The bell rang. It was lunch time, already. In an astounding racket of chairs and tables knocked over, the boys who were her homeroom class got up one by one and left the place. They never had their lunch here.

Before he run away as well, she hailed Soarin.

"If you have a minute, please."

Hands in his pocket, he stopped and turned around with a look that conveyed how much he considered her a nuisance. But he walked forwar, anyway because she was his teacher, after all. Though he never really had any real respect for her authority.

"It's about last night..."

"I won't tell anyone you were at the red light district, don't worry. It's none of my business."

"No, that's not the point. I trust you, I know you won't say anything. It's just that, I wondered... Why working in such a place? Wouldn't that be better to work at a garage or maybe at a nice dinner?"

"In what is this your business?"

"Well, it's dangerous. I mean, if someone from PTA notices, it could ruin your future."

"Are you dumb or something? This isn't a posh private school here and no one from PTA can afford going to my club. It's even strange that you've been able to afford it yourself."

"My sisters have husband in the advertisment industry, they're very rich. But as I said, there are many other casual works for a young man of your age."

"No, there are not. None of them are as easy and bring that much money in."

"It's a public school, fees are very cheap. You don't need that lot of money."

"I do. I want to go to University. It's very expensive, as you know, so I have to save money. So, even if..."

He looked away and suppressed some tears. It was already complicated enough to explain it to this teacher, he didn't want her to pity him with it all. There was no way he would show her how destroyed he was inside.

"Even if the person I wanted to go to isn't here anymore... In her memory, I have to go there."

"I see. In fact, you're a very upstanding person."

"Nonsense!"

"Well... You aren't concentrated in class so I wonder how you're going to have enough knowlege for the selection exam. It's very difficult."

"Don't worry about that."

He got back his weary gait in order to leave the room. No matter what were the reasons why he decided to confide in her, at least now she knew a bit more about him. Cadance smiled to herself as she realized that, actually, her most difficult student was the one with the biggest ambition.

That was when his words "even if the person I wanted to go with isn't here anymore... In her memory...". So he had lost someone dear, someone precious. That could explain a lot.

Comments

[Midday Giggle]

So much to take in... And, oh, it's raining