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Organised by
RogerDodger
Word limit
1000–25000
My Sunshine
You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are grey
You'll never know dear
How much I love you
Please don't take
My sunshine away
I can only ever hear her voice when that box plays, and I watch her twirling in place like the perfect porcelain performer she is. Petal, the light of my life, and the song she always sang with me are together in that box; they’re like two notes in perfect harmony, but they seem empty without each other. She had— has the most beautiful voice, like silk and velvet for the ears. I miss it every time I close the box, and come back to this nightmare.
I run without direction in the twisted, suffocating darkness that keeps everything from me except the next step ahead, and the only thing my mind can seem to conjure: the music box I carry with me. It’s my only key back to reality, out of this prison. The light from my horn is barely enough to spot a doorway ahead, and I duck inside without a second thought, closing the door behind me in an attempt to stay hidden. My heart is pounding in my chest as I hear the hoofsteps down the hallway, trying to find me again. At least, I hope they’re hoofsteps. Something is out there, maybe everywhere with how often I hear them shuffling about.
Taking deep, jagged breaths, I sit down and try to calm myself. The sounds are getting closer, but I keep my eyes focused on the music box. I trace a hoof across the gem-encrusted surface before turning it upside down and winding it tight. The hoofsteps are almost there, and I can feel the fear trying to overcome and ensnare me. I push it aside, and open the box once again.
With the first clear note, and the sight of her again, I’m home.
It’s morning, just when classes are supposed to be starting at the academy. Fillies and colts are scurrying about in the courtyard, trying to make their way to classes, but I’m more content with where I am, beside her. The view of Fillydelphia was always amazing from the music academy, perched on a hill overlooking the city. It gave more than enough inspiration for the some of the student’s pieces, I’m sure, but mine always came from Petal.
She’s looking out over the city, taking bites of her breakfast. She seems younger in the morning light, almost as if I’ve seen the exact same thing years before. Then again, our routines aren’t very spontaneous. I take a moment to look down in front of me, at the music box still playing. I can’t hear her voice as she tugs me away from my seat, but I must have lost track of the time, because when I look up we’re in the practice room, with the sun going down out the window.
My hooves trace across the grand piano’s keys, mimicking the notes of the music box without a second thought. Her voice is even more perfect in— than my memory can recall. She’s dressed up, just like in the box, with an eagle’s feather pinned in her hair. It’s the smallest change, but she seems so different with it. She twirls, spins, and floats around the room, making the sunlight seem like her shadow’s partner across the floor. Before I even notice, she’s finished, and my hooves stop when she’s beside me.
But the music box isn’t playing. I only see her smile for a moment and say “Thank you, Sonata” before the box shuts tight.
I gasp for air as I wake up. It’s odd, because I know I’m in a dream, a nightmare, instead of reality. It’s not the same place I was before, I think, but the music box is still with me, and that’s all I care about. I hear a door click, just across from me, and the heavy breath of something. I try to scurry backwards, but I’m already pinned against the wall. I can hear it creeping closer with heavy steps.
It utters my name, with heavy, emotionless groans. I slide across the wall, hoping it keeps walking towards where I was. After making to another wall, I feel a door knob press against my back. I can feels eyes watching me, and I hear something muffled coming from the darkness, coupled with my name, a threat maybe. I don’t waste any time getting through the door, careful to take the box with me.
I start running again, searching for a way out, despite that the only way is clutched next to my side with magic. I hear the door slam open, and the pounding of hoofsteps getting louder and more hurried behind me. I take a corner and find another door, quickly shutting myself inside. I wait, lump caught in my throat as the hoofsteps pound against the floor. I can barely breathe as a clutch the music box to my chest, and hope that it’ll miraculously end.
The steps fade away after what seems like hours. I take slow breaths to stay calm, careful to make sure it’s really gone before I wind up the box again.
I was in my room at the academy, looking through notes I had been making about a personal project. It was cold, even though the sun was shining brightly through the window, but I paid no mind to it. A knock came from the door, and I quickly stuffed the notes away before answering it. It was Petal, and I couldn’t have been happier to see her.
“Sonata, do you mind if I come in?” she asks, and I’m more than willing to oblige. I shut the door behind her, and sit down with her, trying to focus as I hear the music box still playing.
“Do you need something? I’m still practicing for the concert, if you’re worried.” I’m speaking, but it feels like I’m just hearing them. The music box gets quieter as I try to push the thought away.
“No, of course not. I just wanted to see how you were doing. You spend a lot of time locked up in here.” She sounds sincere, and she probably is, knowing her. I do spend a lot of time alone, working or thinking about her. It’s only natural though, that I spend all my time honing my talents, or thinking about someone so perfect.
“I’m fine, really. You know how I usually am.” I can feel the chuckle forced through my throat, and the fake smile on my face. The box gets even softer, like a whimper now. Something is caught in my throat, I think words that I’ve wanted to speak, but can never find the strength.
“Of course, but you should see more sunlight than what peeks through the window.” Her smile is more sincere than her words, that does more justice than them too.
“I’ll... try to find the time. Maybe after practice, sometime?”
“It sounds fine,” she says, and with that it seemed sealed. We say a short goodbye, and she’s gone. The room was warmer now, like a season had passed during that conversation: winter giving way to spring. The music is louder, but it’s slowing down, just about finished. I try to grab it and wind it again, but then it slams shut in my face, defiantly.
There’s a crash, like a boom of thunder in the distance. I can’t tell if that’s what it is, because I couldn’t see any spark of lightning. Maybe there was, but the darkness was just strong enough to keep it hidden. I’m sprawled out on the floor, and there’s pain shooting through my body. I assume I fell, but when I see the box in front of me, still intact, I feel relief that I was injured instead of it. I get to my hooves and walk forward, bumping into something a few steps ahead.
I light my horn, and see a dust-covered piano. It seems pristine, otherwise, but I wonder what it’s doing in such a prison as this place surely is. I reach out to touch it, but I’m stopped when I hear her, for the first time without the music box. It’s Petal, singing in the distance, but it’s not our song. It’s the one she san— that she’s supposed to sing at the concert. Why... why am I so confused about it?
The melody echoes through the halls, and I’m drawn towards it. I can almost hear the notes that support it, holding her higher than she can fly alone. They get louder as I get closer, but... they grow sour. The notes are low and long, blaring and cutting into my ears, drowning out her dulcet tones. Despite that, I’m still drawn to it, hoping she’s there to take me away, but then her voice changes too.
It’s deep and harsh, like the nothing in the dark that called my name before. I try to turn away, but it keeps drawing me, like there’s something there I have to see. Just when I think it’s around the corner, when it’s growing louder and louder by the inch as I approach a door, it vanishes. The room it led me to is empty, except for a candle. I feel cold, seeing light here for the first time, and I crawl over to it in hopes to stay warm, but it barely seems to do anything.
I sit there, and wonder why this keeps happening, and why I can’t seem to think straight. If everything keeps skipping at home, but not here, is it real? Are they both dreams? I don’t remember anything that happens there, but it doesn’t seem new when it happens. It’s like watching a film, but it can’t be that.
I pull out the music box again. There are a few gems missing from it, but I never saw them fall off. It’s chipped and dirty too, but I always clean it. I wind it up, carefully, but it creaks from wear and tear. I flip it open, and try to hold it there, hoping it will never close.
It’s the concert. I’m on the stage, hooves gliding across the keys as I play my part. It’s halfway through the performance, but I know what’s coming soon: Petal’s solo. We’d practiced it for months, at least, if not more. She’d written it all, and I pretended to do something more than just help her along. It was hers to own, and I knew everyone was going to love it, and they did.
The music stopped for a moment and the lights went down. When they came back, they were all on her as she sat perched on a cloud just above the stage. I started playing, but I never took my eyes off of her. Her voice was even better in the concert hall than a practice room, or my head, or that asylum that twisted and broke her beauteous notes into cacophonous noise.
She floated around like a feather in the wind, caught on the own melodious breeze of her voice. The lights followed her around, but she was alone up there. The lights were so bright and glaring, and so there was no shadow of her on the stage and no partner to dance with her. Nothing except my notes, and they started to soften and quiet, along with her voice. I could hear something else, the words I longed to say, but never could.
“I... love you, Petal. I always have!” I sounded so sad, like I’d been rejected, but I hadn’t done that ye—
“Sonata. This... this isn’t the time to talk about this.” I could hear her talking, with that same sincerity she always had, but she was still dancing above me. My body felt cold, like the bitter night air was whipping across my back, and my cheek felt damp and frigid, but my hooves kept playing. I couldn’t hear her song anymore, I only heard mine, from the music box.
“W-why can’t we?! We’ve known each other so long! I-I know you have to feel this way too!” My throat was on fire, and I felt like I was choking on the words as I spat them out. My hooves had stopped playing, and everyone was bowing. Petal looked down and smiled at me. I smiled back.
“We’re friends, Sonata. We’ve been friends since we were foals. I just don’t feel that way about you.” My eyes were getting watery. I couldn’t see her anymore, at least for a moment. When I could again, we were on the roof, with the moon hanging behind her over the city. She looked wonderful in the moonlight, and I hated it.
“That’s not true! You’re lying!” My hooves reached out, trying to grab her. She backed away, with fear on her face.
“Sonata, stop this!” I had gotten a hold of her, and I could feel the heat in my body, battling the cold outside. The cold from her.
“I know you feel the same. W-we can be happy, Petal.” That... music was still playing! Why wouldn’t it shut up?! And that’s when I pushed her, just as she pulled away.
I was still in front of the candle, and the music box was playing sour notes that dared to try and pretend to be her voice. It was cracked and dirty, like some ancient trinket that had been tossed in the attic for an eternity. That figurine barely looked like her anymore, the one I’d spent hours making to match her perfectly. It was all broken and lost, just like her. I shut it and opened it, shut it and opened it, shut it and opened it, but she never came back. Home never came back. The sunshine never came back, because it was all gone now.
The music was starting to slow down, and I could see the candle flickering and fading. I kept trying to make it work, but it was no use. I could feel the tears coming back, because I’d sent myself here to this prison. It was a penance for my fall. I held the box close to my chest, listening to the music, and I started to sing.
“You are my sunshine
My only sunshine”
The hoofsteps were coming back. They were louder than ever. I could hear my name called in that deep, groaning roar.
“You make me happy
When skies are grey”
Each step was like the heavy beat of a drum, played with anger instead of care. I just wanted it to end.
“You'll never know dear
How much I love you”
It was so hard to sing those words, but it was the only thing that made it bearable. Maybe I thought it could bring her back. That was stupid to think.
“Please don't take
My sunshine...”
The candle went dark. The hoofsteps stopped. The last thing I heard was that roar, finishing my song.
The lights flickered on as two colts walked into the room, coming to a stop in front of a two-way mirror that peered out into the adjacent room. Inside was a colt, sitting calmly on the floor, with his eyes focused on a tattered music box in front of him. One of them, wearing a white coat, spoke up. “Thank you so much for bringing him back safely, officer.”
“It’s not a problem, doctor. We’re just glad he didn’t do any damage.”
“Oh, I doubt he would have done any harm. Silver Sonata’s been rather... docile since the incident that brought him here.” The doctor looked out at the colt attentively, taking a few notes on a clipboard.
“That’s why he went back to the school, I assume?”
The doctor nodded, putting the clipboard back down. “He suffered a lot of trauma there, after accidentally pushing a classmate off the roof. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt too bad, just a few sprains, but when they found him, he was just... shut down. About the only thing he does is play that music box. We can barely get him to do anything except that and eat.”
“Well, I’m glad we could help. Is there anything else you need?”
“No, no. That will be all for today. Let me show you out.” The two left the observation room, leaving Sonata alone in the dark.
He stared blankly at the music box, cranking it up slowly, and watched the .
“You were my sunshine
My only sunshine
You made me happy
When skies were grey
Then I told you
How much I loved you
But you made me throw
My sunshine away...”
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are grey
You'll never know dear
How much I love you
Please don't take
My sunshine away
I can only ever hear her voice when that box plays, and I watch her twirling in place like the perfect porcelain performer she is. Petal, the light of my life, and the song she always sang with me are together in that box; they’re like two notes in perfect harmony, but they seem empty without each other. She had— has the most beautiful voice, like silk and velvet for the ears. I miss it every time I close the box, and come back to this nightmare.
I run without direction in the twisted, suffocating darkness that keeps everything from me except the next step ahead, and the only thing my mind can seem to conjure: the music box I carry with me. It’s my only key back to reality, out of this prison. The light from my horn is barely enough to spot a doorway ahead, and I duck inside without a second thought, closing the door behind me in an attempt to stay hidden. My heart is pounding in my chest as I hear the hoofsteps down the hallway, trying to find me again. At least, I hope they’re hoofsteps. Something is out there, maybe everywhere with how often I hear them shuffling about.
Taking deep, jagged breaths, I sit down and try to calm myself. The sounds are getting closer, but I keep my eyes focused on the music box. I trace a hoof across the gem-encrusted surface before turning it upside down and winding it tight. The hoofsteps are almost there, and I can feel the fear trying to overcome and ensnare me. I push it aside, and open the box once again.
With the first clear note, and the sight of her again, I’m home.
It’s morning, just when classes are supposed to be starting at the academy. Fillies and colts are scurrying about in the courtyard, trying to make their way to classes, but I’m more content with where I am, beside her. The view of Fillydelphia was always amazing from the music academy, perched on a hill overlooking the city. It gave more than enough inspiration for the some of the student’s pieces, I’m sure, but mine always came from Petal.
She’s looking out over the city, taking bites of her breakfast. She seems younger in the morning light, almost as if I’ve seen the exact same thing years before. Then again, our routines aren’t very spontaneous. I take a moment to look down in front of me, at the music box still playing. I can’t hear her voice as she tugs me away from my seat, but I must have lost track of the time, because when I look up we’re in the practice room, with the sun going down out the window.
My hooves trace across the grand piano’s keys, mimicking the notes of the music box without a second thought. Her voice is even more perfect in— than my memory can recall. She’s dressed up, just like in the box, with an eagle’s feather pinned in her hair. It’s the smallest change, but she seems so different with it. She twirls, spins, and floats around the room, making the sunlight seem like her shadow’s partner across the floor. Before I even notice, she’s finished, and my hooves stop when she’s beside me.
But the music box isn’t playing. I only see her smile for a moment and say “Thank you, Sonata” before the box shuts tight.
I gasp for air as I wake up. It’s odd, because I know I’m in a dream, a nightmare, instead of reality. It’s not the same place I was before, I think, but the music box is still with me, and that’s all I care about. I hear a door click, just across from me, and the heavy breath of something. I try to scurry backwards, but I’m already pinned against the wall. I can hear it creeping closer with heavy steps.
It utters my name, with heavy, emotionless groans. I slide across the wall, hoping it keeps walking towards where I was. After making to another wall, I feel a door knob press against my back. I can feels eyes watching me, and I hear something muffled coming from the darkness, coupled with my name, a threat maybe. I don’t waste any time getting through the door, careful to take the box with me.
I start running again, searching for a way out, despite that the only way is clutched next to my side with magic. I hear the door slam open, and the pounding of hoofsteps getting louder and more hurried behind me. I take a corner and find another door, quickly shutting myself inside. I wait, lump caught in my throat as the hoofsteps pound against the floor. I can barely breathe as a clutch the music box to my chest, and hope that it’ll miraculously end.
The steps fade away after what seems like hours. I take slow breaths to stay calm, careful to make sure it’s really gone before I wind up the box again.
I was in my room at the academy, looking through notes I had been making about a personal project. It was cold, even though the sun was shining brightly through the window, but I paid no mind to it. A knock came from the door, and I quickly stuffed the notes away before answering it. It was Petal, and I couldn’t have been happier to see her.
“Sonata, do you mind if I come in?” she asks, and I’m more than willing to oblige. I shut the door behind her, and sit down with her, trying to focus as I hear the music box still playing.
“Do you need something? I’m still practicing for the concert, if you’re worried.” I’m speaking, but it feels like I’m just hearing them. The music box gets quieter as I try to push the thought away.
“No, of course not. I just wanted to see how you were doing. You spend a lot of time locked up in here.” She sounds sincere, and she probably is, knowing her. I do spend a lot of time alone, working or thinking about her. It’s only natural though, that I spend all my time honing my talents, or thinking about someone so perfect.
“I’m fine, really. You know how I usually am.” I can feel the chuckle forced through my throat, and the fake smile on my face. The box gets even softer, like a whimper now. Something is caught in my throat, I think words that I’ve wanted to speak, but can never find the strength.
“Of course, but you should see more sunlight than what peeks through the window.” Her smile is more sincere than her words, that does more justice than them too.
“I’ll... try to find the time. Maybe after practice, sometime?”
“It sounds fine,” she says, and with that it seemed sealed. We say a short goodbye, and she’s gone. The room was warmer now, like a season had passed during that conversation: winter giving way to spring. The music is louder, but it’s slowing down, just about finished. I try to grab it and wind it again, but then it slams shut in my face, defiantly.
There’s a crash, like a boom of thunder in the distance. I can’t tell if that’s what it is, because I couldn’t see any spark of lightning. Maybe there was, but the darkness was just strong enough to keep it hidden. I’m sprawled out on the floor, and there’s pain shooting through my body. I assume I fell, but when I see the box in front of me, still intact, I feel relief that I was injured instead of it. I get to my hooves and walk forward, bumping into something a few steps ahead.
I light my horn, and see a dust-covered piano. It seems pristine, otherwise, but I wonder what it’s doing in such a prison as this place surely is. I reach out to touch it, but I’m stopped when I hear her, for the first time without the music box. It’s Petal, singing in the distance, but it’s not our song. It’s the one she san— that she’s supposed to sing at the concert. Why... why am I so confused about it?
The melody echoes through the halls, and I’m drawn towards it. I can almost hear the notes that support it, holding her higher than she can fly alone. They get louder as I get closer, but... they grow sour. The notes are low and long, blaring and cutting into my ears, drowning out her dulcet tones. Despite that, I’m still drawn to it, hoping she’s there to take me away, but then her voice changes too.
It’s deep and harsh, like the nothing in the dark that called my name before. I try to turn away, but it keeps drawing me, like there’s something there I have to see. Just when I think it’s around the corner, when it’s growing louder and louder by the inch as I approach a door, it vanishes. The room it led me to is empty, except for a candle. I feel cold, seeing light here for the first time, and I crawl over to it in hopes to stay warm, but it barely seems to do anything.
I sit there, and wonder why this keeps happening, and why I can’t seem to think straight. If everything keeps skipping at home, but not here, is it real? Are they both dreams? I don’t remember anything that happens there, but it doesn’t seem new when it happens. It’s like watching a film, but it can’t be that.
I pull out the music box again. There are a few gems missing from it, but I never saw them fall off. It’s chipped and dirty too, but I always clean it. I wind it up, carefully, but it creaks from wear and tear. I flip it open, and try to hold it there, hoping it will never close.
It’s the concert. I’m on the stage, hooves gliding across the keys as I play my part. It’s halfway through the performance, but I know what’s coming soon: Petal’s solo. We’d practiced it for months, at least, if not more. She’d written it all, and I pretended to do something more than just help her along. It was hers to own, and I knew everyone was going to love it, and they did.
The music stopped for a moment and the lights went down. When they came back, they were all on her as she sat perched on a cloud just above the stage. I started playing, but I never took my eyes off of her. Her voice was even better in the concert hall than a practice room, or my head, or that asylum that twisted and broke her beauteous notes into cacophonous noise.
She floated around like a feather in the wind, caught on the own melodious breeze of her voice. The lights followed her around, but she was alone up there. The lights were so bright and glaring, and so there was no shadow of her on the stage and no partner to dance with her. Nothing except my notes, and they started to soften and quiet, along with her voice. I could hear something else, the words I longed to say, but never could.
“I... love you, Petal. I always have!” I sounded so sad, like I’d been rejected, but I hadn’t done that ye—
“Sonata. This... this isn’t the time to talk about this.” I could hear her talking, with that same sincerity she always had, but she was still dancing above me. My body felt cold, like the bitter night air was whipping across my back, and my cheek felt damp and frigid, but my hooves kept playing. I couldn’t hear her song anymore, I only heard mine, from the music box.
“W-why can’t we?! We’ve known each other so long! I-I know you have to feel this way too!” My throat was on fire, and I felt like I was choking on the words as I spat them out. My hooves had stopped playing, and everyone was bowing. Petal looked down and smiled at me. I smiled back.
“We’re friends, Sonata. We’ve been friends since we were foals. I just don’t feel that way about you.” My eyes were getting watery. I couldn’t see her anymore, at least for a moment. When I could again, we were on the roof, with the moon hanging behind her over the city. She looked wonderful in the moonlight, and I hated it.
“That’s not true! You’re lying!” My hooves reached out, trying to grab her. She backed away, with fear on her face.
“Sonata, stop this!” I had gotten a hold of her, and I could feel the heat in my body, battling the cold outside. The cold from her.
“I know you feel the same. W-we can be happy, Petal.” That... music was still playing! Why wouldn’t it shut up?! And that’s when I pushed her, just as she pulled away.
I was still in front of the candle, and the music box was playing sour notes that dared to try and pretend to be her voice. It was cracked and dirty, like some ancient trinket that had been tossed in the attic for an eternity. That figurine barely looked like her anymore, the one I’d spent hours making to match her perfectly. It was all broken and lost, just like her. I shut it and opened it, shut it and opened it, shut it and opened it, but she never came back. Home never came back. The sunshine never came back, because it was all gone now.
The music was starting to slow down, and I could see the candle flickering and fading. I kept trying to make it work, but it was no use. I could feel the tears coming back, because I’d sent myself here to this prison. It was a penance for my fall. I held the box close to my chest, listening to the music, and I started to sing.
“You are my sunshine
My only sunshine”
The hoofsteps were coming back. They were louder than ever. I could hear my name called in that deep, groaning roar.
“You make me happy
When skies are grey”
Each step was like the heavy beat of a drum, played with anger instead of care. I just wanted it to end.
“You'll never know dear
How much I love you”
It was so hard to sing those words, but it was the only thing that made it bearable. Maybe I thought it could bring her back. That was stupid to think.
“Please don't take
My sunshine...”
The candle went dark. The hoofsteps stopped. The last thing I heard was that roar, finishing my song.
The lights flickered on as two colts walked into the room, coming to a stop in front of a two-way mirror that peered out into the adjacent room. Inside was a colt, sitting calmly on the floor, with his eyes focused on a tattered music box in front of him. One of them, wearing a white coat, spoke up. “Thank you so much for bringing him back safely, officer.”
“It’s not a problem, doctor. We’re just glad he didn’t do any damage.”
“Oh, I doubt he would have done any harm. Silver Sonata’s been rather... docile since the incident that brought him here.” The doctor looked out at the colt attentively, taking a few notes on a clipboard.
“That’s why he went back to the school, I assume?”
The doctor nodded, putting the clipboard back down. “He suffered a lot of trauma there, after accidentally pushing a classmate off the roof. Luckily, she wasn’t hurt too bad, just a few sprains, but when they found him, he was just... shut down. About the only thing he does is play that music box. We can barely get him to do anything except that and eat.”
“Well, I’m glad we could help. Is there anything else you need?”
“No, no. That will be all for today. Let me show you out.” The two left the observation room, leaving Sonata alone in the dark.
He stared blankly at the music box, cranking it up slowly, and watched the .
“You were my sunshine
My only sunshine
You made me happy
When skies were grey
Then I told you
How much I loved you
But you made me throw
My sunshine away...”
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