Pain of the Past and Present
For the third time this week, Summer Melody watched as the strange stallion deliberately avoided the school house. But, why? Cheerilee is an awesome teacher! Plus, she'd been working there ever since she got her cutie mark, so, why avoid such a nice little school house? Was it something bad about it?
Many questions ran amok in Summer's head as she ran to get back to her house. But, when Summer was thinking to much on something, she often didn't pay attention to her surroundings. She ran right into a pole, the pole hitting her smack-dab in her face. Her vision went fuzzy and she walked around in a small circle before collapsing to the ground, still conscious.
"Omigosh, omigosh, are you alright?" A voice asked. Summer looked up to see two twin mint-colored unicorns. "Do you need to see a doctor?" The two unicorns asked at the same time.
"No, I have socks, thank you, though." Summer murmured, at the same time thinking What did I just say?
"Oh, this is bad!" The two unicorns said, stretching out the last word. "Quick, how many horns do I have?"
"Let's see..." Summer mumbled. She pointed at one unicorn, trying to keep her hoof up. "That one has a horn..." She moved her hoof the the other unicorn. "And that one has a horn!"
The two unicorns face-hoofed themselves. They then levitated Summer and shook her violently.
"Snap out of it!" They cried.
"LYRA! STOP!" A voice called. "Stop it this instant!"
The two Lyra's stopped there magic, making Summer fall to the ground, and making her breath escape her. Opening her eyes, Summer found that she wasn't all loopy anymore. Whoever had distracted the Lyra's had saved her from slipping into unconsciousness!
"Lyra, why were you shaking that poor unicorn half-to-death?" A light gray pony asked. that was the same voice that told the Lyra's-er-Lyra to stop!
"Thanks for saving me!" Summer said, intentionally interrupting their conversation. The two ponies looked at her. Quick as a flash, one grimaced, and the other looked worried. As soon as there expressions where there, they left.
"Your welcome." Both ponies said. Summer didn't bother correcting either of them. Lyra had tried to help. It was just a major co-wonk-a-dink that the gray pony told her to stop right when Summer was in the air.
"Octavia! Lyra! There you two are!" A white unicorn ran up to them. "Are we ready to go to Shot's house?" The unicorn turned an looked towards her. "Ew, what happened to her?"
"Vinyl!" Octavia said through gritted teeth.
"Oh." Vinyl said, getting the hint. "Sorry, dude."
"Uh..." Summer started. "Shot's house?"
"Yeah, man! We go there every weekend and just chill!" Vinyl said.
"Would you like to come with us?" Lyra asked. Summer nodded.
"Oh, I do hope that Shot won't mind another guest..." Octavia thought aloud. "Come, follow us, we'll be there by dusk." She said louder, turning away from Summer.
"Dusk?" Summer asked.
"Oh, yes." Octavia said, turning around. "Is that a problem?"
"Well, I know a teleportation spell..." Summer said. All shuddered except her.
"We already tried it." Lyra explained. "Long story short, we wound up in a lake, and somehow, Tavi's hair was on fire."
Summer, shocked, just stared ahead. "Oh."
"Don't worry, it doesn't seem as long when your with friends." Lyra said, putting a comforting hoof around Summer. "It seems like five minutes, honestly. Not long at all."
Summer nodded, and followed them all the same trail the strange stallion had been traveling.
"Oh, sweet Celestia, what happened?!" Shot asked. Shot was a tan stallion with a black mane and tail, brown eyes, and he was wearing a white hat with a red rim.
"Wonk t'nod I!" Summer said. "Rebemer t'nac I!"
"She started speaking in reverse halfway here." Octavia explained.
"Ah." He mused. "I should get on the case as quickly as possible."
"No need." Lyra quickly said. "She ran into a pole."
"Oh." Shot Lock looked disappointed.
"Maybe this will help..." Vinyl mused as he shout a blue laser at Summer. Yelping in reverse, Summer tried to dodge, but failed.
"Rof that saw thaw?!" She asked. As she spoke, a caption appeared before her. What was that for!? It read.
"To help." Vinyl said. "I can take it away, if you's like..."
"No, that won't be necessary..." Shot said, stepping forward. He still looked a bit sad, in Summer's opinion.
Noticing his cutie mark, she pointed and asked "Kram eituc ruoy teg uoy d'woh?" How'd you get your cutie mark?
"Oh..." Shot Lock started. "Well..."
"He doesn't like to talk about it." Vinyl cut in. Shot Lock shot him an irritated look.
"!Raeh ot tnaw ?esaelp" Please? I want to hear!
Shot Lock debated in his mind. One one hoof, he didn't even know this mare. She was a complete stranger with a horrendous bump on her head that almost looked like another horn. On the other, it would be rude not to.
"Esuohloohcs eht diova uoy od yhw" Why do you avoid the school house?
Shot Lock sighed. Plus, there was no way this mare would take "no" for an answer. He huffed and dived back into his painful memories.
Filly Shot Lock stood before the schoolhouse just as the bell ran. A small stampede of colts and fillys ran over him, at the same time, kicking up a cloud of dust. When the dust cloud lifted, Shot Lock was laying flat on the ground in somewhat complete pain. He knew from the start that it would be a bad school year.
Staggering to his feet, he clumsily walked into the classroom. All of the seats were taken, except one in the very back, where the rest of the trouble makers were. Just great... He thought. Walking back, he took his seat, took out a small pack of cards, and began shuffling them to pass the time.
A couple minutes later, the teacher called attention to the rowdy class by shooting up a small firework spell.
"Hello, class. My name is Ms. Scoops. This is my last year teaching, so, lets make it a good one!" Mrs. Scoops was a light green unicorn with a rose tail that was streaked neon yellow and orange. She had blue eyes and her cutie mark was a scoop of pink ice cream in a cone.
Strange appearance, for a teacher... Shot Lock thought. But she did seem nice, so, he let it slide.
"Let's get to know one another, shall we?" Miss Scoops asked the class. Shot Lock barley payed attention as his classmates said there name and something interesting about themselves. What he did notice, however, was that Miss Scoops missed him entirely!
Over the rest of the week, no matter how high he raised his hoof, Miss. Scoops somehow missed him and called one somepony else entirely. After a month of this, he decided to give up entirely, thinking nopony saw him at all. He was wrong. During recess, the stronger colts beat him up while the popular fillys made fun of him. He knew it was no use to try to alert Miss Scoops, so, he sat in the back of the class and just listened to what was happening.
Then, on the day before nightmare night, he noticed something strange about Suri Polomare, a filly that sat right in front of him. He couldn't describe it, but, something about her behavior was...off....
"Oh, yeah, I totally know what, like, an obtuse triangle is!" She proclaimed. "I, like, could, like, totally draw one with my eyes, like, totally closed!"
"Ok, Suri, why don't you come up and draw one for the class?" Miss Scoops asked. She sounded like she genuinely believed Suri.
Suri left her desk and began to walk up to the front of the room, small cheers erupted around her. Shot Lock didn't like that. Why should she get attention for something she doesn't know how to do? He bet she couldn't even spell 'obtuse'!
Shot watched, infuriated, as Suri picked up the chalk. Enough is enough! He thought as she started drawing the triangles base.
"She's lying." Shot Lock said.
The classroom went stone-silent. Suri laughed uneasily and turned around.
"What?" She said. She didn't sound very friendly. Shot Lock took a big breath for courage and left his seat, so everypony could see him.
"She's lying." He repeated.
Suri let out an uneasy chuckle. "Uh...no, I'm not..." She said, nervously shooting a glance to the teacher, to the class, to Shot Lock himself. "And...I don't know why you'd even think that..!" She started sweating.
Shot Lock moved forward to the front of the class. "She's lying." He said for the third time that day. "I can tell that she is. I noticed it right before she came up. Right before she even spoke, in fact."
"How do you know, uh---colt...?" Miss. Scoops asked, blushing.
"My name is Shot Lock." He said, louder than intended. Suri was starting to scoot away. He ran and blocked her path. "I can tell by the way she acted. By the way she spoke. Too many 'totally's and 'like's. This wasn't obvious to anypony else?" He asked his class. They all shook there heads. Some seemed transfixed on him, some seemed scared and attempted to hide under their desks.
"We don't believe you!" A colt he'd come to hate named Bulk Biceps shouted out. "Prove it!"
"Ok. Shot Lock took a step in Bulk's direction. Bulk involuntarily scooted his chair back. "How about we make a deal, Bulk?" He asked. Another step. He had no idea where the sudden wave of energy and courage came from, but he kind of liked it. "If I can prove her wrong, then you-all of you-" H added, waving his hoof across the class. "Can leave me alone at recess."
"If I can't prove her wrong, then you can beat me till your heats content." He said. Bulk smiled. Oh, Celestia, why did I just say that? He asked himself, but forced himself to stay calm.
"BEATING?" Miss Scoops interjected. Everypony ignored her.
"I think it's a deal." Bulk said.
"Perfect." Shot hadn't notice that he was right at Bulk's desk. He turned and went back to the front of the room. "Ok, Suri, go ahead." He said. "Spell 'obtuse'."
"Pfft, that's easy!" Suri claimed. "O-b-t-u-s-e."
Shot stiffened. Two more chances He thought to himself. Keep calm...keep calm...
"Ok, draw and obtuse triangle." He said. When Suri didn't move right away, he added, "go ahead, it's just the whole class that your doing it in front of."
Suri picked up the chalk and slowly drew a right triangle. When she was done, she moved away. "T-ta-da..." She spoke.
The class murmured. "See?" Shot asked. He pointed towards the triangle on the board. "That is a right triangle. I proved her wrong."
"Still doesn't mean I can beat you up during recess." Bulk called.
"BEATING?" Miss Scoops yelled again. "That is it, Bulk Biceps. You and I will have to chat during recess today. You, and whoever else is involved in this beating of..." Miss Scoops looked towards Shot Lock again.
"Shot Lock."
"Shot Lock." She repeated. "Who else has antagonized you during recess?" She asked Shot.
"Everypony except Mac." Shot Lock responded.
"So, you got the whole recess to yourself?" Lyra asked. "That's so cool!"
"Me and Big Mac had the whole recess to ourselves for a month, yes." Shot Lock said. "I became the most feared colt in our little class, it was nice for a time. But everypony avoided me except Mac. Everyday, we would play cards outside Big Mac beat me every time. At the end of the school year, I beat him. That's how I got my cutie mark, I was last in the class." He paused, then added "that's also how I became a detective."
"Looc!" Summer said. Cool! Her caption read.
Octavia looked over at Summer and grimaced again. "I think we should take you to a doctor..." she said, then faced Shot. "Is it OK if Summer comes by next week?"
Shot nodded. "Just make sure she doesn't have...I mean, that the b-er-uh..."
"Yes, we get it." Vinyl interrupted. "See you next week, Shot Lock!"
Shot waved as they all left his house.
The next day, Summer was a bit better, and she noticed that Shot Lock didn't avoid the schoolhouse this time.
"Ok, Summer, you should really rest." Nurse Redheart said, coming up to her. "You can look at the town later."
Summer clumsily followed Nurse Redheart back to the hospital to rest.