Post by Nimble Hooves on May 9, 2015 0:48:41 GMT -5
The sound of fillies and colts laughing and playing pierce through the swirling mists. It seems to be daytime-- it is bright but there is no sun, no sky. Suddenly a bell starts ringing: a schoolbell. With that the mists begin to roll back, revealing a brightly painted schoolhouse.
Haunting_Melody blinks as she looks around and eeks she's late for school and runs off to get there, her mind just accepting what is happening as she tries to head there quickly.
The mist clears further, revealing the sky. A speck up there in the clouds beginst to grow. It is a a pony: a pegasus, and he seems to be approaching in a big hurry. "Look out below!" he calls. The pegasus, barely older than a colt, swoops in low, flaring his wings at the last moment, his hooves leaving small ruts in the ground as he skids to a halt. The chestnut colt grins widely, leaving lovely wings open for a few moments as if letting them cool off. They are the same chestnut on the top and white underneath, the ends of the pinion feathers tipped with a brilliant blue. He sees the filly and pauses....
Haunting_Melody blinks a few times at this as she watches the colt come flying in and then skid like that. She stares, something almost familiar, but like from a dream as she gives a little clap of her hooves, "Wow that was...amazing." she says to him, "You got here just in time for music class." she says motioning to the school as she turns to head into it quickly while glancing back towards the colt to see if he follows.
Nimble_Hooves blinks. There is a flicker of recognition, and then it is gone. "Amazing? Yeah! You bet! When I'm older I'll be trying for the Wonderbolts." His eyes settle on her horn. "A unicorn?" he says quietly to himself. "Oh, you must be the new filly. I'm Nimble and I'm gonna be a Wonderbolt." He suddenly stops. "Waitaminute. Did you say music? I-I raced all the way here for music class?? Awww.."
Haunting_Melody blinks as she thought HE was the new colt, but then shrugs it off, maybe he just hadn't seen her yet. "Yes, were going to be singing soon." she says as if it's the most obvious thing on the planet and heads into the music room where other students are already inside, "Wonderbolts though thats really cool, must be great to fly." she says.
Nimble_Hooves's ears drop and he scuffs the ground with his hoof. "Singing? I don't sing. Wonderbolts don't sing." He sighs, and then perks again quickly at the mention of flying. "Great to fly? It's AWESOME! Best thing ever! Racing through the sky! *zooooom*" He starts to get quite animated, and his wings extend slightly. "Dodging clouds at full speed! *fwshfwshfwsh*" He starts leaning left and right, mimicing the moves. "Yeah. It's awesome.... Hey, you're a unicorn right?" Stating the obvious. "You can magic up some wings can't you?"
Haunting_Melody blinks at this, "Maybe...though I never been quiet the magic user...I can do the simple stuff, but not half as gifted as the others, they can do far more advanced thern me, maybe some day I could...but not sure." she admits a little bit shyly, "And Singing is almost as great as flying, it lets you imagine being out there, when I sing it's almost as if I'm where I'm singing about, I'm sure you enjoy it come on in." she says.
Nimble_Hooves dips his head. "Oh... well it is okay. You'll get better... and it is more magic than those ponies have." He nods in the direction of the classroom. Suddenly he stops and puts up a hoof. "Not that earth ponies are bad. My friends are earth ponies... but sometimes I wish I knew another pegasus... someone who knows what flying is about." He thinks for a moment. "I don't know if singing could ever be as good as flying... maybe I'd enjoy it if I could actually sing."
Haunting_Melody nods her head, "Well come on in and we will sing maybe you will like it." she says, "Never know until you try." as she enters the clasroom and takes a seat while waving over to the colt to sit next to her in a empty seat.
Nimble_Hooves ducks into the classroom, hoping the teacher hasn't noticed his lateness. Again. He looks about at all the other ponies. For some moments the faces seem to blur, and he can't place their names. He shakes his head. Slowly, recognizable faces resolve themselves and he remembers names. For some reason each time this happens, a sense or dread grows inside him. He had thought to sit next to his friends, but right now the seat next to the new filly looks more inviting. Safer.
Haunting_Melody sits down and smiles as the teacher begins the lesson giving them all song sheets, which don't really look legible but when the teacher mentions they will be singing 'Puff the Magick Dragon' the words begin to clear up more as she smiles and looks to you, "This is my favorite song, I love imagining what a dragon is like or the idea of flying like one." she adds mentioning their earlier talk as the music begins to play and she sways back and forth closing her eyes as the first line begins.
Nimble_Hooves looks to the song sheet, but the words are nothing but a jumbled blur of letters. "Th-this is your favourite song?" he asks, concerned. For some reason, his colour now seems much more muted. He winces as the music begins, and then tries his best to sing along. This starts off fine to begin with, but then he hits a wrong note. He tries his best to carry on, but then hits another wrong note. This time really wrong, and pronounced. At the back of the class, somepony sniggers.
Haunting_Melody continues to sing as she hears the sniggering but is lost in the song, her horn starting to gllow shile she winces a few times at your singing, though hey not everyone in the class is all that great anyway they are still young, as the singing goes on there appears a rather large tree looking thing in the middle of the classroom taking form, except it looks like a tree with scales and sharp roots.
Nimble_Hooves tries his best to keep singing, but the wrong notes he is hitting just seem to get worse, then suddenly tree. He leaps back at the sudden appearance, yet the other ponies of the class are oblivious of it. They just keep singing, especially the new filly. The sniggering from the back of the class gets louder, like another pony has joined in.
Haunting_Melody blinks as she spots the big tree in the middle of the classroom as it quickly becomes apparent that it's NOT a tree as there is a dragon standing in the room, it's head and body causing half of the schools roof to fall apart as it looks around, half the kids screaming and running out, while the other half seem oblivious to the dragon and continue to snigger at Nimble.
Nimble_Hooves's eyes widen, and he scrambles back as the tree comes to life. In his rush to get away, he trips and faceplants. At this, a handful of ponies oblivious to the dragon start to laugh at him openly. His ears flatten, and he tries to scramble back to his hooves. When he gets up, his wings have gone slightly grey.
Haunting_Melody blinks as she stares up at the dragon and cowers as she backs up and ends up bumping into Nimble, "no...not again...." she says having had this happen before, she knows that much and she remembers how horifying it was, thanfully no one was hurt but she quickly became mute from fear of what she might conjure.
Nimble_Hooves blinks and looks to the new pony, and then all the way up at the dragon. "A-Again? Y-You mean th-this is happened before? D-Did somepony do this?" He scrambles back clumsily, pulling the new pony with him and almost tripping in the process. Another pony begins to laugh. Nimble pretends not to notice. "W-we need to get away from here."
Haunting_Melody frowns, "I don't...know...I can't remember...I just remember singing...and it appearing..." she says her memories being clouded, but she knows it's happened in the past as she lets herself get pulled away, hoping maybe it was vanish as she closes her eyes wanting it to be away.
Nimble_Hooves looks between the new pony and the dragon, "Singing caused this? I knew singing was bad. B-but everypony has stopped singing. Why is it still here?" Ponies continue to snigger and chuckle in the background. Nimble tries to keep ignoring them, but his head lowers slightly. At the same time his wings become more grey.
Haunting_Melody shakes her head, "I don't...know, last time it just...vanished in time." she says as she looks around, "I...I think I made it...something wrong with me.." she says frowning as she admits her greatest fear.
Nimble_Hooves looks to the new pony, concerned, "S-Somthing wrong with you? What? You look okay to me." He looks up at the dragon, and at the hole where the roof used to be, a determined look suddenly crossing his face. "I have an idea.... I-I can fly up and lead it away." With that, he snaps open his wings and leap up into the air... only to come crashing down face first. At that a roar of laughter ripples through the surrounding ponies, blending into the roar of the dragon.
Haunting_Melody shrugs, "I don't...know.." she says as her mane starts to take on a rainbow like colour and she looks around worried as more dragons begin to appear in response to her fears while she rushes to Nimble, "hey whats wrong, you okay?" she asks missing completly why you fell.
Nimble_Hooves gets to his hooves slowly. He winces and hangs his head, not from injury but from the laughter surrounding them. "I-i-it is o-okay... I-I juts tripped while trying t-to take off i-is all." He tries to put on a brave smile for the new pony, but it seems more like a frantic grimace. "I-I'll be fine o-once I-I get in the air." With that he moves as if to launch himself again, but his wings just stay stuck out, immobile. "H-Hey... m-m-my wings. W-what i-is happening?" He tries to shake his wings into motion, but all that happens is a feather falls off and flutters to the ground. Except when it hits the ground it is not a feather, but a piece of paper drawn and cut to look like a feather.
Haunting_Melody blinks at this as she noses him, "Your feathers...whats wrong with them?" she asks noticing them turning into paper, "Oh no...this is me I know it..." she says thinking it's just something she's done again. The dragon near her that isn't vanishing wasn't helping at all. She looks panicked at Nimble's wings.
Laughter echoes around the classroom. Twisting and combining with the roars of the dragons makes it seem like the dragons are laughing too. "N-n-no! No, no, no.... Th-th-this can't be happening." The wings now seem quite grey, and more and more feathers fall, yet now they become paper before hitting the ground. Whispered words join the sounds of laughter, eventually becoming loud enough to make out. "Faceplant""Can't fly""No wings" Nimble turns to the new pony. "Y-you're a unicorn. Y-you can help me. I-I-I made them real this time. Y-you saw. Make them come back."
Haunting_Melody stares at Nimble as she blinks and looks at the feathers, "What...what happened?" she asks as she aims her horn at his wings. She can't do magick well...but the fear and the feelings she tells from him mean she has to try. Her horn begins to glow while she tries to focus upon his wings trying to make them re-appear and she does....sorta. The feathers are back, but still just paper.
As many new feathers appear, more keep dropping off and flutter to the ground. A wind begins to whip around the classroom partly because of the dragons flying about, but moreso because a storm seems to be brewing high overhead. Words that had been whispered beyond the laughing begin to merge, becoming a chant. "No wings, can't fly. Faceplant ain't no pegasi." Upon hearing this, Nimble sinks to his knees and puts his hooves over his ears to block out the sound.
Haunting_Melody frowns as she tries to ignore the dragon and leans down to hug Nimble, "Block them out...don't...let them get to you..I will...help fix your wings...I swear." she says as she tries to hold on as much for his comfort as her own, to block out the screams. She still hears the fear of what her illusions can do.
More and more feathers fall until barely any are left to fall. Instead of exposed flesh and bone, the bare structure of Nimble's wings is a rickety wooden contraption, tied to his back with string. Nimble cowers, holding his ears. The storm above intensifies, beginning to unleash thunder and rain. Wind whips up the paper feathers, and the now wet paper fragments stick to whatever they land on, all except Nimble. Along with the storm, the chanting also increases, rising in volume
Haunting_Melody holds on as the nightmare gets worse, her ears pinned against her skull as she cries out to the sky, "GO AWAY! LEAVE US!!!." trying to sound braver then she feels, but just wanting all of them to leave the two alone. She can't help but feel at a loss as to what she could do, but she feels a kinship to Nimble that she can't quite explain, at least in the dream.
The wind rips about the classroom, twisting the sounds of laughing, the taunting chant and all the dragons' roaring into a horrible cacophony puntuated by occasional peals of thunder. Yet, the moment the filly steps up and cries out, a ripple flows through the space silencing the chant, the roars, the laughing and calming the wind. The silence is deafening. The only noise for a few moments at the last remaining paper feathers fluttering to the floor. Nimble looks up. "W-what happened? Th-this is..." He slumps down, sleep claiming him before he can finish his sentence.
Haunting_Melody blinks, "I...don'..." she says as she too before the sleep claims her, though it's not long before she wakes up with a start, a bit troubled by the dream, it was so real, and isn't fading as completly as most dreams do for her, she sits up in her bed a few moments trying to calm down.
A much older Nimble gasps and jolts awake. Another nightmare. Like the other ones, this one was so vivid. Like the other ones, this one dug deep into his past. Faceplant. He had't heard that taunting nickname since he was a colt. He winced at the now raw memory. Like the other ones, this dream preyed on the same insecurities: the loss of his wings, not being good enough, public failure, and humiliation. Yet this dream was different. There was that filly. He knew her, but he'd never known her as a filly. Why was she there? The end of the dream was different too: instead of waking up screaming or in the midst of a fall, this one, despite its content, ended peacefully and in silence. Nimble looks to his pillow. There is no way he can get back to sleep now. "T-time to get up, I guess."
Haunting_Melody blinks as she looks around and eeks she's late for school and runs off to get there, her mind just accepting what is happening as she tries to head there quickly.
The mist clears further, revealing the sky. A speck up there in the clouds beginst to grow. It is a a pony: a pegasus, and he seems to be approaching in a big hurry. "Look out below!" he calls. The pegasus, barely older than a colt, swoops in low, flaring his wings at the last moment, his hooves leaving small ruts in the ground as he skids to a halt. The chestnut colt grins widely, leaving lovely wings open for a few moments as if letting them cool off. They are the same chestnut on the top and white underneath, the ends of the pinion feathers tipped with a brilliant blue. He sees the filly and pauses....
Haunting_Melody blinks a few times at this as she watches the colt come flying in and then skid like that. She stares, something almost familiar, but like from a dream as she gives a little clap of her hooves, "Wow that was...amazing." she says to him, "You got here just in time for music class." she says motioning to the school as she turns to head into it quickly while glancing back towards the colt to see if he follows.
Nimble_Hooves blinks. There is a flicker of recognition, and then it is gone. "Amazing? Yeah! You bet! When I'm older I'll be trying for the Wonderbolts." His eyes settle on her horn. "A unicorn?" he says quietly to himself. "Oh, you must be the new filly. I'm Nimble and I'm gonna be a Wonderbolt." He suddenly stops. "Waitaminute. Did you say music? I-I raced all the way here for music class?? Awww.."
Haunting_Melody blinks as she thought HE was the new colt, but then shrugs it off, maybe he just hadn't seen her yet. "Yes, were going to be singing soon." she says as if it's the most obvious thing on the planet and heads into the music room where other students are already inside, "Wonderbolts though thats really cool, must be great to fly." she says.
Nimble_Hooves's ears drop and he scuffs the ground with his hoof. "Singing? I don't sing. Wonderbolts don't sing." He sighs, and then perks again quickly at the mention of flying. "Great to fly? It's AWESOME! Best thing ever! Racing through the sky! *zooooom*" He starts to get quite animated, and his wings extend slightly. "Dodging clouds at full speed! *fwshfwshfwsh*" He starts leaning left and right, mimicing the moves. "Yeah. It's awesome.... Hey, you're a unicorn right?" Stating the obvious. "You can magic up some wings can't you?"
Haunting_Melody blinks at this, "Maybe...though I never been quiet the magic user...I can do the simple stuff, but not half as gifted as the others, they can do far more advanced thern me, maybe some day I could...but not sure." she admits a little bit shyly, "And Singing is almost as great as flying, it lets you imagine being out there, when I sing it's almost as if I'm where I'm singing about, I'm sure you enjoy it come on in." she says.
Nimble_Hooves dips his head. "Oh... well it is okay. You'll get better... and it is more magic than those ponies have." He nods in the direction of the classroom. Suddenly he stops and puts up a hoof. "Not that earth ponies are bad. My friends are earth ponies... but sometimes I wish I knew another pegasus... someone who knows what flying is about." He thinks for a moment. "I don't know if singing could ever be as good as flying... maybe I'd enjoy it if I could actually sing."
Haunting_Melody nods her head, "Well come on in and we will sing maybe you will like it." she says, "Never know until you try." as she enters the clasroom and takes a seat while waving over to the colt to sit next to her in a empty seat.
Nimble_Hooves ducks into the classroom, hoping the teacher hasn't noticed his lateness. Again. He looks about at all the other ponies. For some moments the faces seem to blur, and he can't place their names. He shakes his head. Slowly, recognizable faces resolve themselves and he remembers names. For some reason each time this happens, a sense or dread grows inside him. He had thought to sit next to his friends, but right now the seat next to the new filly looks more inviting. Safer.
Haunting_Melody sits down and smiles as the teacher begins the lesson giving them all song sheets, which don't really look legible but when the teacher mentions they will be singing 'Puff the Magick Dragon' the words begin to clear up more as she smiles and looks to you, "This is my favorite song, I love imagining what a dragon is like or the idea of flying like one." she adds mentioning their earlier talk as the music begins to play and she sways back and forth closing her eyes as the first line begins.
Nimble_Hooves looks to the song sheet, but the words are nothing but a jumbled blur of letters. "Th-this is your favourite song?" he asks, concerned. For some reason, his colour now seems much more muted. He winces as the music begins, and then tries his best to sing along. This starts off fine to begin with, but then he hits a wrong note. He tries his best to carry on, but then hits another wrong note. This time really wrong, and pronounced. At the back of the class, somepony sniggers.
Haunting_Melody continues to sing as she hears the sniggering but is lost in the song, her horn starting to gllow shile she winces a few times at your singing, though hey not everyone in the class is all that great anyway they are still young, as the singing goes on there appears a rather large tree looking thing in the middle of the classroom taking form, except it looks like a tree with scales and sharp roots.
Nimble_Hooves tries his best to keep singing, but the wrong notes he is hitting just seem to get worse, then suddenly tree. He leaps back at the sudden appearance, yet the other ponies of the class are oblivious of it. They just keep singing, especially the new filly. The sniggering from the back of the class gets louder, like another pony has joined in.
Haunting_Melody blinks as she spots the big tree in the middle of the classroom as it quickly becomes apparent that it's NOT a tree as there is a dragon standing in the room, it's head and body causing half of the schools roof to fall apart as it looks around, half the kids screaming and running out, while the other half seem oblivious to the dragon and continue to snigger at Nimble.
Nimble_Hooves's eyes widen, and he scrambles back as the tree comes to life. In his rush to get away, he trips and faceplants. At this, a handful of ponies oblivious to the dragon start to laugh at him openly. His ears flatten, and he tries to scramble back to his hooves. When he gets up, his wings have gone slightly grey.
Haunting_Melody blinks as she stares up at the dragon and cowers as she backs up and ends up bumping into Nimble, "no...not again...." she says having had this happen before, she knows that much and she remembers how horifying it was, thanfully no one was hurt but she quickly became mute from fear of what she might conjure.
Nimble_Hooves blinks and looks to the new pony, and then all the way up at the dragon. "A-Again? Y-You mean th-this is happened before? D-Did somepony do this?" He scrambles back clumsily, pulling the new pony with him and almost tripping in the process. Another pony begins to laugh. Nimble pretends not to notice. "W-we need to get away from here."
Haunting_Melody frowns, "I don't...know...I can't remember...I just remember singing...and it appearing..." she says her memories being clouded, but she knows it's happened in the past as she lets herself get pulled away, hoping maybe it was vanish as she closes her eyes wanting it to be away.
Nimble_Hooves looks between the new pony and the dragon, "Singing caused this? I knew singing was bad. B-but everypony has stopped singing. Why is it still here?" Ponies continue to snigger and chuckle in the background. Nimble tries to keep ignoring them, but his head lowers slightly. At the same time his wings become more grey.
Haunting_Melody shakes her head, "I don't...know, last time it just...vanished in time." she says as she looks around, "I...I think I made it...something wrong with me.." she says frowning as she admits her greatest fear.
Nimble_Hooves looks to the new pony, concerned, "S-Somthing wrong with you? What? You look okay to me." He looks up at the dragon, and at the hole where the roof used to be, a determined look suddenly crossing his face. "I have an idea.... I-I can fly up and lead it away." With that, he snaps open his wings and leap up into the air... only to come crashing down face first. At that a roar of laughter ripples through the surrounding ponies, blending into the roar of the dragon.
Haunting_Melody shrugs, "I don't...know.." she says as her mane starts to take on a rainbow like colour and she looks around worried as more dragons begin to appear in response to her fears while she rushes to Nimble, "hey whats wrong, you okay?" she asks missing completly why you fell.
Nimble_Hooves gets to his hooves slowly. He winces and hangs his head, not from injury but from the laughter surrounding them. "I-i-it is o-okay... I-I juts tripped while trying t-to take off i-is all." He tries to put on a brave smile for the new pony, but it seems more like a frantic grimace. "I-I'll be fine o-once I-I get in the air." With that he moves as if to launch himself again, but his wings just stay stuck out, immobile. "H-Hey... m-m-my wings. W-what i-is happening?" He tries to shake his wings into motion, but all that happens is a feather falls off and flutters to the ground. Except when it hits the ground it is not a feather, but a piece of paper drawn and cut to look like a feather.
Haunting_Melody blinks at this as she noses him, "Your feathers...whats wrong with them?" she asks noticing them turning into paper, "Oh no...this is me I know it..." she says thinking it's just something she's done again. The dragon near her that isn't vanishing wasn't helping at all. She looks panicked at Nimble's wings.
Laughter echoes around the classroom. Twisting and combining with the roars of the dragons makes it seem like the dragons are laughing too. "N-n-no! No, no, no.... Th-th-this can't be happening." The wings now seem quite grey, and more and more feathers fall, yet now they become paper before hitting the ground. Whispered words join the sounds of laughter, eventually becoming loud enough to make out. "Faceplant""Can't fly""No wings" Nimble turns to the new pony. "Y-you're a unicorn. Y-you can help me. I-I-I made them real this time. Y-you saw. Make them come back."
Haunting_Melody stares at Nimble as she blinks and looks at the feathers, "What...what happened?" she asks as she aims her horn at his wings. She can't do magick well...but the fear and the feelings she tells from him mean she has to try. Her horn begins to glow while she tries to focus upon his wings trying to make them re-appear and she does....sorta. The feathers are back, but still just paper.
As many new feathers appear, more keep dropping off and flutter to the ground. A wind begins to whip around the classroom partly because of the dragons flying about, but moreso because a storm seems to be brewing high overhead. Words that had been whispered beyond the laughing begin to merge, becoming a chant. "No wings, can't fly. Faceplant ain't no pegasi." Upon hearing this, Nimble sinks to his knees and puts his hooves over his ears to block out the sound.
Haunting_Melody frowns as she tries to ignore the dragon and leans down to hug Nimble, "Block them out...don't...let them get to you..I will...help fix your wings...I swear." she says as she tries to hold on as much for his comfort as her own, to block out the screams. She still hears the fear of what her illusions can do.
More and more feathers fall until barely any are left to fall. Instead of exposed flesh and bone, the bare structure of Nimble's wings is a rickety wooden contraption, tied to his back with string. Nimble cowers, holding his ears. The storm above intensifies, beginning to unleash thunder and rain. Wind whips up the paper feathers, and the now wet paper fragments stick to whatever they land on, all except Nimble. Along with the storm, the chanting also increases, rising in volume
Haunting_Melody holds on as the nightmare gets worse, her ears pinned against her skull as she cries out to the sky, "GO AWAY! LEAVE US!!!." trying to sound braver then she feels, but just wanting all of them to leave the two alone. She can't help but feel at a loss as to what she could do, but she feels a kinship to Nimble that she can't quite explain, at least in the dream.
The wind rips about the classroom, twisting the sounds of laughing, the taunting chant and all the dragons' roaring into a horrible cacophony puntuated by occasional peals of thunder. Yet, the moment the filly steps up and cries out, a ripple flows through the space silencing the chant, the roars, the laughing and calming the wind. The silence is deafening. The only noise for a few moments at the last remaining paper feathers fluttering to the floor. Nimble looks up. "W-what happened? Th-this is..." He slumps down, sleep claiming him before he can finish his sentence.
Haunting_Melody blinks, "I...don'..." she says as she too before the sleep claims her, though it's not long before she wakes up with a start, a bit troubled by the dream, it was so real, and isn't fading as completly as most dreams do for her, she sits up in her bed a few moments trying to calm down.
A much older Nimble gasps and jolts awake. Another nightmare. Like the other ones, this one was so vivid. Like the other ones, this one dug deep into his past. Faceplant. He had't heard that taunting nickname since he was a colt. He winced at the now raw memory. Like the other ones, this dream preyed on the same insecurities: the loss of his wings, not being good enough, public failure, and humiliation. Yet this dream was different. There was that filly. He knew her, but he'd never known her as a filly. Why was she there? The end of the dream was different too: instead of waking up screaming or in the midst of a fall, this one, despite its content, ended peacefully and in silence. Nimble looks to his pillow. There is no way he can get back to sleep now. "T-time to get up, I guess."