Through Time

“Alright, alright everypony. Settle down now. Before starting the race today, I want to announce something important,” the mayor said. “The new bakery, Sugarcube Corner, will be open for business starting soon after the race, being run by the Cake family’s own son, Carrot Cake!” The crowd applauds, cheering on about the announcement. “Now for the race,” the mayor says.

“3, 2, 1, GO!” the announcer says to the race ponies. The ponies run off when I notice something. All the hard work I did, he didn’t give me any credit for building Sugarcube Corner with him. Oh well. I sit back, eat some popcorn and watch the race. Soon after I rush over there, Carrot’s waiting for me.

“What took you so long?” the freckled pony asked. “We open for the first time in 45 minutes!”

“Alright, alright,” I say. I take out some of the recipes from my mom’s cookbook. They were good to me, so I hoped other ponies would like them. Big Mac let me have some apples to make apple fritter and apple pies to sell on the first few days. We rack up a bit of money on the first day, but we make enough to reach the quota.

“We need more employees,” says Carrot.

“Like who?” I ask.

“I don’t know. A good cook obviously,” he says back. I’ll have some job interviews throughout the week. I go back home and go to sleep. A bit better now that Sugarcube Corner was finished. I wake up early to go to school. I stop by the bakery to say hello to Carrot before leaving, seeing he posted a “Help Wanted: Baker” poster on the door. I assume he will keep the sign up for a bit before deciding on a baker.

I go to school without any troubles. That is, until I walk into the classroom. I get shot by what seems like hundreds of spitballs as I walk in, while most of the class chants. “Blank flank! Blank flank! Blank flank!” they all chant. I remember the chant echoing in my head all too well. And what happens next.

I stop my hoof down and yell, “ENOUGH!” I said. “I’m sick and tired of this bullcrap about me not having a cutie mark. It will be there when it comes. Now just shut the hay up about it,” I tell them all.

“Well Sparkfart, what else can you do you blank-flanked piece of crap? Huh? Cry to your mom? Oh wait. You don’t have a mom, do you? You live with that crazy-arse pony that runs the bakery. And even he abandoned you to live back at the bakery. You’re a worthless piece of crap,” Thunderlane says. He then punches me straight up in the face. “It’s not like you look any worse than you already do,” he says with a smirk. These thoughts make me furious

I punch him right back in the face. He runs up to me to try to punch back, but I block the hits then bop him in the stomach. He then punches me across the face. My nose started to bleed. I punch him back in the stomach, followed up by a punch to the face, sending him flying across the room. His cheek is cut and bleeding, so he sends Snowflake and Graphite to pin me to the wall. They are successful in this. Thunderlane hits me in the stomach and face repeatedly faster than a Wonderbolt. Then, in a moment where hope seems lost in this fight, Carrot rushes in where he was going to give me some new cake to sample, but he sees my trouble. He punches Thunderlane in to the table, knocking him out. I see this for a split second before I pass out.

~~~

When I wake up, I am at the hospital. “Hey,” I ask Carrot. “How long have I been out?”

“A couple of hours,” I tell him. “You got into a real bad fight earlier. How’d it start anyways?”

“Trying to stand up for myself. You know, that doesn’t always work,” I tell him. I laugh at the thought.

“Why are you laughing?” the freckled pony says.

“That I thought it would work,” I tell him.

“You should’ve told an adult before things got this serious,” he tells me. “You wouldn’t be here in the hospital, you wouldn’t have had to deal with Thunderlane, and most of all you wouldn’t get spit-balled and made fun of in school all the time.”

“Says the pony who said you’d be there for me all the time. Were you there last year when I was thrown into the bitter cold after school? Were you there when they stuffed me into a locker? And did you stand up for me last year when I had got excluded from all the clubs because of not having a cutie mark? No, you were in those dammed fields,” I said. The room went silent. A doctor comes in with results.

“Alright. Let’s see here,” he says. He looks at the results of the current testing. “Okay, you should be out of here in about a day. No surgery required, but you should stay over-night for more testing,” he tells me. “Also, visitor hours are over,” he tells Carrot. “So come with me,” he says. The doctor and Carrot leaves. I feel that something happened that day that never got repaired in our friendship.