school of friendship Laying the Seeds (Open, School of Friendship, Nightmare Night)

[StrongCopper]

Urban Legends didn't just come out of nowhere. There is always a seed; A triggering event that was usually either tragic or shocking in nature from which stories grew, the shape changing with the telling and whatever message the story teller was trying to convey.  For his part, Scarecrow considered himself something of a farmer. After all, one could let nature take its course and wait for a suitable event to come around on its own accord (and in fairness he tended to be quick to seize the opportunity when it arrived), but much like the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper, if one wanted to have a comfortable winter one had to put in the work earlier. 

 

As such, Scarecrow the Changeling had arrived at the School of Friendship three weeks in advance in the form of a young colt named 'Spring Fresh' who had earned a cutie mark in cleaning things and a letter saying from his school in Manehatten that he was on a work experience assignment and had requested working at the School of Friendship, since having such a prestigious place of work on his resume would be a major boon, even if it was only for a month. The letter also stressed that payment was optional; Wonderful if the School desired to reward him for his work, but not required due to the experience and opportunity to pad out ones resume being payment enough.

 

So Spring Fresh spent the three weeks leading up to Nightmare Night working around the School of Friendship, cleaning and maintaining the grounds as the job required and on occasion getting to have some small conversations with the actual students. Not enough to really get to know them or be friends with them because they were busy being students and he was working, but enough to be at least a known figure around campus.

 

On Nightmare Night itself, Spring Fresh was working late around the student dorms. Some prankster (It was him. He had set it up) had gone all out with a rather messy prank that included magic, paint, glitter and what appeared to be bread crumbs alongside something that caused it to smell pretty badly that no one had been able to recognize yet that was proving... difficult to clean up. And it needed to be cleaned up as soon as possible because it wasn't the kind of mess you could just leave for tomorrow. Of course, with it being Nightmare Night and all, it was just an additional excuse for students to head out and enjoy the festivities the town provided... through a few hadn't finished getting ready and left yet.

 

The night, however, was young.