swirls of sunbeams

by the silent symphony

01: sulking_in_shadows

Walking home through the musky leaves of he surrounding forest, fluttershy stepped side-to-side to avoid the newly-formed puddles of crystal rain after that had fallen that afternoon, no pony wants wet hooves unless they plan them to get wet, tracking mud into a household is never any fun.

She was walking at a somewhat slower pace, taking in the scenery, even though she had seen it a dozen over 178 times before or so. She had no rush, all the animals she knew about that had injuries were cured or recovering which was all she really wanted in her life. The sun was setting, rays of gold were peeking through the sparse autumn leaves, striking the ground and setting it alight with color, for the sun does such marvelous things to an ordinary object, even more marvelous with a pony.

A splash

“Oh no..” fluttershy gave a small sigh, she wasn’t looking where she was going and has clumsily stepped into a pool of water, although this made her stop, and now that the sounds of her own footsteps had been silenced and she was presented with the sounds of the forest, she heard a quiet scratching, a clawing, like a stone on the creases of wood.

She looked through a small wall of forage and greenery, accidentally shaking a few spiders off their webs and onto their backs. There was a small clearing, only around 4 feet in length around, like one had trampled it for quite a long while from coming there often, preventing the soil from producing new plant life; in the clearing lay a completely pink pony, his mane looked like it had been torn out, his hooves had shown the ware of travel, and his stature was very slouched as if in some physical or mental state was exhausted.

“Hello there” fluttershy spoke out, not wishing to eavesdrop or spy, she stepped closer to the clearing.

The pony snapped his head around in a startled manner, stood up, and locked eyes with fluttershy.

She could now see his eyes. She was pierced by the hauntingly beautiful stare, above the bags and creases of sleepless nights, the pony’s pupils were almost completely black, it seemed to be staring into a void of something that is so foreign that tugs at you and makes you want to know more.

They stared at each other for what was probably more then 2 seconds, but it felt like a never-ending eternity for fluttershy, she felt paralyzed while looking at this pony, bound by an invisible machine. Unable to move, and just barely getting by with involuntary breathing, it seemed as if the world had frozen over and she was the last one left conscious.

She gazed at his face until he finally turned and fled through the thicket.

She had been set free, she didn’t know what came over her, what was it about him? He was just a normal pony, she hadn’t seen him before, but she didn’t really know everypony in ponyville either. She convinced herself it was just an awkward encounter with just a random pony, but somewhere in her subconscious she couldn’t stop wondering what was in the depths of those black eyes.

But her facade shrugged it off, she decided to finish the short distance home then rather then idling, and so she did.

She passed pinkie pie’s bakery and bought a raspberry scone, she always delighted in the ever-sweet taste of the pastries that pinkie-pie made, and she liked helping out her friend as well.

She dropped her small pouch of medical supplies onto the cold yet clean floor, crumbs from the previous goodies were shook off as she walked inside. The sun was soon to make the mountains its resting place, shedding its final rays of red glory for warning to the occupants of what it was leaving behind. Fluttershy knew that the birds would be home soon, they had been trained to, she loved sleeping with the cute critters upon her roof, they were the nicest neighbors she could ask for, and soon enough, the flapping of wings of which every color imaginable came to the canopy of leaves and overgrown shingles that had infested her house.

Fluttershy bid each and every one of them goodnight, a long process that took a toll physically on her, but not mntally, for she needed them each to know that they had her undying affection. By the time this [process had finished, the sun had completely left the sky and had let the moon take dominion of the slys, spreading its stars like kittle kingdons of white that teinkled as if hoping they’re not alone.

Fluttershy rested on he bed, she knew that the release of sleep would soon sweep her into the midst of abstract dreams, hopefully of animals and the forest, but until then she rested her eyes on the clock, a ticking machine that never rested, like a heart, it kept beating.

The clock was such an intricate monstrosity, its short, clicking sounds bounced across the wooden floor and up the walls, it became more and more quiet as the room became darker in fluttershy’s perception, she did wish for cute and soothing dreams, but her subconscious was lingering, lingering on something she had seen, and something so plain and ordinary that it could not be harmful at all, or threatening even, did she have a nightmare? He next day she would not have been able to tell, for the conjurings of ones own mind are the biggest mystery unsolved.

Somewhere, a pony was crying. His tears barely scraping the ground but lashing at the thin ties of his arms more and more. He had one last vinyl record, he put it on his gramophone, it belonged to his grandfather, the horn was bent out of shape from the unfortunate treading of the owners.

He put the needle down, it picked away at the dusty disc until it started playing faint cello harmonics, it was the only thing soothing left for him. He wanted to be nothing, he wanted nothing, he wanted silence, he wanted a bombardment of sounds.

A crow landed on a piece of board jutting from the frail shelter he had made himself, it laughed.

Author's Note:

hi, i know this is a short chapter, please bear with me, the chapters may not be evenly spaced, i do not have a schedule of writing, i apologize.

i hope some of you enjoyed it, as difficult as that seems to me, please give feedback and criticism, i may not apply the criticism to my work but it is always good to have input.. so they say.

i hope you have a nice day.

Comments

[My Little Epona]

hope some of you enjoyed it, as difficult as that seems to me

This is a really good start! Don't undermine your own writing. It's got me interested. XD
It seems you could use an editor, as there are quite a few punctuation and capitalization errors. I'm only a PM away if you'd like someone else to read over it!
This is a great start! Keep up the excellent work!

[the silent symphony]

9926897
thank you very much!
i do understand the weakest aspect of my work is the punctuation, and i would love an overlook of it by someone else, to help improve the punctuation and such, if its not too much of a bother of course, (i wouldn't want you to unwillingly be forced to read something).

again thank you for the kind words :)

[My Little Epona]

9926998
It's no problem! I'm happy to help in any way I can! Just shoot me a PM if you're interested.