Digital_Hex
A fan-fiction by Digital_Hex
Chapter 7
Mrs. Victory wore an apologetic smile on her face as I approached her. I cried on the inside. I knew that face.
"Digital Hex," she began, already coating her words with the horrible bath of sympathy and pity.
"I couldn't help but notice that you seemed to have trouble with the class today."
She stopped, perhaps waiting for me to say something.
Like Hell I was going to say something.
"Is there anything that you want to say?"
I refused to say anything, instead opting to stare thoughtfully at the ground. This was one of the times that I was honestly glad about my size (or lack thereof); she could only see the top of my head. She couldn't see my frustration. The anger I was directing towards me.
I never had trouble with class. With my dad, I knew the answers to everything. After the incident at Hope Hill, he'd taken to homeschooling me. Three years, from freshman year until now, it had been him leading my lessons from a book.
But here, it was all crashing on me.
I wasn't as smart as I thought I was.
"Digital Hex?" Mrs. Victory asked me.
"It's nothing," I mumbled as I turned around and trotted towards the door. She stopped me before I left.
"Digital Hex, I'm not trying to nag on you, but..."
She sighed.
"Perhaps you should review over previous courses before class tomorrow?"
I muttered a silent "okay" as I slipped out through the doorway.
I kicked at the ground as I trotted down the hallway, taking the news way harder than I should have. I knew I was probably going to be a little behind in some courses, but...
It hurt to not even know what was considered the basics. How had I even passed my dad's assignments in home school if I didn't even know such a simple question?!
The sun was high in the sky as I passed a wide window in the hallway. I paused, turning to look out it. The sky was a warm blue outside, clean and free. Maybe going back to high school was a bad idea.
I groaned as I swiped a hoof through the air around my head, feeling the familiar hum of chords around me. Against everything that was going on, I found the will to smile at the irony. That which made me weird was what cheered me up.
Awesome.
I pushed of against the floor, charging through the empty hallway. Nopony was in the halls; everyone was probably enjoying the lunch break.
The top second-story floor I was on ended in a railed staircase that opened straight outside. I leaped onto the rail, sliding down it. The cuffs around my hoofs screeched sharp notes. I jumped off the rail when it ended, rolling forward. It was all very dramatic, but it was working: I was venting.
Trotting forward, I entered the open field of the commons. Ponies were laying everywhere, laughing while talking with friends, enjoying company. I looked expectantly for any friends of my own, but I saw nopony I knew.
I pony bumped into me from behind, making me take a startled step forward. I bit back a retort as I whirled around, half hoping I was wrong as to my suspicions of who it might have been.
I grimaced as I recognized the dirty black coat, the toothy grin of the green-eyed pegasus. I remembered the bully now.
Silhouette.
He flicked his mane out of his face, spitting a thick wad next to me. I splattered sickeningly against the ground.
"Well look at who it is," he growled, voice high-pitched and gravelly.
"Silhouette," I growled.
His head twitched almost instinctively, and he roared dangerously. A few ponies nearby looked our direction.
"It's Tweak, dumb-ass!" He barked.
"Whatever," I spat back. Images of the first and last time we'd met flashed through my mind. Him and his gang at Hope Hill. Him flying backwards from me as he fell unconscious. The rage I felt. I could almost hear his laughing as clearly as I saw him before me now. It was like a bad nightmare.
"What do you want? How'd you end up here, anyways?" I growled at him, turning from him. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.
The poor fool didn't seem to understand the subliminal message of me trotting away.
"After you humiliated me in front of my friends, my parents thought it'd be a good-"
I interrupted him. "I didn't actually want an answer," I said as I explained the principles of a rhetorical question to him. "And honestly, I don't care."
Once again, I stepped away, wanting to get away from my past.
And once again, he spoke up.
"Hey, you shadow-eyed freak," he barked, grabbing my tail and yanking hard. My face smashed against the floor, my contacts shifting against my eyes. Ouch.
"I'm not done speaking with you!"
I kicked out with my rear hoof, landing a decent blow against his snout. I didn't realize his face was that close.
"I don't care," I repeated. More images played through my mind. Silhouette reeled back, grabbing my around my neck as he glared into my eyes.
And then I was back, three years ago. Hope Hill High School, my freshman year. More importantly, the first day of my freshman year.
Three years prior...
I'd just closed my locker when his hoof snatched me up, holding me aloft by the back of my neck. Silhouette with two of his friends had circled around me in the hall, which was deserted. I'd been late for my first class.
"Hey, look at what we've got here!" Silhouette coughed out, probably having just finished off a couple cigarettes. "I didn't realize they were letting babies into high school!" Silhouette cackled, getting a round of laughter from his two goons. I kicked out, failing to hit him.
"Oh, and would you look at that! He's a fighter, too!" He cackled. "Didn't your mommy ever tell you not to fight ponies bigger than you?"
"My mom ran out a long time ago!" I pouted.
"Can't imagine why, with a little shit of a son like you!" he cackled.
"Lemme go!" I cried, my twelve-year-old voice cracking.
Suddenly there was a horrible crack against the back of my head as Silhouette smashed me against the lockers, looking my dead in the eyes. His eyes were a ghostly green.
"Nah, I wanna see you squirm a little more-" he breathed, left eye twitching softly.
"My god! Look at his eyes!" he bellowed, ushering his goons closer. They laughing menacingly as they pointed there hoofs, making fun of my oddly-colored eyes. I was fine with that. I reacted naturally.
My eyes were unique. I liked it.
I saw the green and blue fields around me. Blue was for bass, green was for sharps. The two goons were absolutely coated in the green fields, with snaking tendrils reaching out to me, while Silhouette was on the other side of a thick blue blob.
I should have talked with my dad about the fields. I should have explained everything to him. I should have done a lot of things. But there was one thing I shouldn't have done.
What I did next was that thing.
I punched out with my right hoof while snatching the tendrils with my left. The cuffs around my hoofs gripped the fields, the stored energy colliding with the fields. The fields only I could see, only I could truly use.
The effect was instant. A sharp wailing filled the air as blood spurted from the two goons' ears, while an explosion of deep bass rocked me and Silhouette. He flew back, unconscious before he hit the ground. I was crushed against the lockers, the air from my chest gone.
"Don't talk about my eyes," I wheezed, tears streaming down my face.
"You sound just like my mother when you do..."
Back to the present...
It was playing out just like last time, only Silhouette was even bigger than before.
I wasn't going to get expelled again, not like this at least. I wasn't going to have to tell my dad the news.
My left contact shifted ever so slightly, just enough to see a similar hue of blue coating Silhouette. It was so tempting. So, so tempting to see the look of shock on his face before he lost consciousness again.
But...
I felt his hoof collide with the side of my face, felt my body wrenched from his grasp from the force of his blow.
I fell to the floor, hearing a pony nearby scream aloud. Seriously, were fights rare enough here as well that ponies had to scream that loudly and obnoxiously whenever they saw one?
My vision fell to what was directly ahead of me, a green pegasus buck with a zebraik mane. He was standing next to White Cross-
Wait, she just saw me get punched like that?!
I leaped to my hooves, suddenly ready to throw down with Silhouette.
Luckily, I didn't have to. A soft blue aura enveloped him and tossed him right into Mr. Rash.
I saw White Cross give me a soft smile before rushing over to me, helping me up. I felt my eye beginning to swell, and I knew I was going to have a nice shiner there.
"I believe we've told you multiple times, Tweak, that there is no fighting on school grounds," Mr. Rash growled at Silhouette, dragging him by a leg towards the front offices.
"But I- He- But-" Tweak desperately tried to explain, flailing his other hoof in the air in emphasis.
"Don't care," Mr. Rash bellowed, and then they were gone. I knew deep down, though, that I hadn't seen the last of Silhouette.
"You okay there?" the green pegasus asked. He had the perfect surfer voice, I almost chuckled. Almost.
"Fine," I said, stepping away from White Cross. I suddenly felt very embarrassed by the whole ordeal. I'd let the bully get what he wanted; I let him win. I was ashamed, against all odds. I knew that what I felt wasn't what I should have been feeling, but it didn't change the fact that I was feeling it.
A slight tingling washed over my eye, followed by a pleasant cooling rush over it. The soft blue aura was from White Cross's horn. I guessed she had performed some first aid on my eye.
I should have let them help me.
I should have thanked them, at least.
I felt my contact rub against my eye again. I ran.
Turning down hallway after hallway, I tore down the school.
An open door ahead of me beckoned me forth. Slipping into the welcoming darkness, I found myself behind a thick curtain. Good.
I sighed, cracking my neck while pushing through the curtain. As I pushed through the last bit of curtain, I emerged onto the stage of the drama room.
Here, I was alone. Nopony was here.
Good.
"You thought it'd be better if you weren't there, huh?" I yelled, punching the air in front of me. An explosion of bass tore from the space I hit, perfectly amplifying my pent-up anger.
The image of my mother seared through my mind, her bubblegum pink mane whipping around her pale blue coat. Her wings spread wide as she left for the last time, my dad calling after her, begging her not to go, begging for my sake-
I screamed as I smashed my hooves together, an enormous clap that shook the room, the curtains billowing away from the energy. The air crackled around me as I swept a hoof around me, pulling it in and throwing it at the ground while kicking my back legs over me, swinging them in a clean forward arc. What followed was like clashing thunder.
Bright energy flashed everywhere. I growled as my eyes stung, wiping the contacts from my eyes. The pink rings in my eyes glowed as I let out my anger.
"Look at your son now!" I screamed, spinning around while pulling at every green field around me.
"Aren't you so proud now! Wouldn't you just love to see how he's doing now?!"
Everything was turning blue and green as the fields fell into my vision. Now, however, there were soft patches of pink in the mix.
I hit a blue field, sliding against a green blip while giving a tentative tap at the pink field. The patch retracted, a smooth blast of clean middle-tone chords flowing from it as it poofed out of existence.
I smiled a demonic grin.
A quick tap of the blue, followed by a steady beat of pink and green, mellowing into pink before a hard drop of blue. Overlap with blue, bounce with the green, clean with pink and blue.
I was so caught up in my dance of music that I didn't notice somepony else enter the room. I didn't notice that there was somepony in my presence as I started singing impromptu lyrics to my beat.
"Did you ever want to see, see what happened to me?"
I let loose with a set of blue, interrupting with a string of pink.
"Did you ever really care, do you miss me over there?"
Rapid fire with the green, clear backdrop of pink, end with a blue.
"Can you just see me now, can you hear me nice and loud?"
Alternate green and pink, growing in frequency.
"Will you ever really care, will you ever seem to care-"
I stopped my angry screaming at a cough.
I turned slowly towards the cough, letting all the music drop.
As I made eye contact with her, I saw her visibly shift as she saw my eyes.
"No, don't-" I started, but stopped, letting the words die as fast as my will to fight.
White Cross shifted her head slightly at me, seeming to understand what I wanted to say, understanding why I stopped.
I hung my head, breathing deeply.
She saw my eyes, she's going to think I'm so weird now... Weirder than she probably already thinks I am, at least.
Suddenly, I felt a hoof on my shoulder. I looked up, my eyes meeting White Cross's.
And then she smiled. It was a beautiful smile.
