I slept okay that night, but only because Rainbow was there to comfort me.. The next morning, I woke up feeling groggy, hoping that the previous day had all just been a very vivid bad dream… hoping that my parents were still around… Sadly, this wasn’t the case. I opened my eyes slowly and found myself in a strange bedroom. Nothing at all like the one I had gotten so accustomed to over the five happy years that I lived with my parents. No, this large bedroom with light blue walls belonged to Rainbow Dash. I rubbed my eyes a bit, but the troubling scene around me did not change.

I looked over at her and discovered that she was still sleeping soundly. This is when my current situation hit me at full, painful force… It hadn't just been a dream... It was all real… My parents were GONE… and I would probably NEVER see them again… I sat up in the bed slowly, covered my face with my front hooves, and sobbed as quietly as I could manage, trying my best not to wake up my sleeping friend. But alas, that was to no avail.

She must have heard me and woken up because I felt her arms wrap me in a tight hug. “Star… it’ll be okay…” she said softly. I cried on her shoulder and she rubbed my back soothingly until I calmed down and stopped crying. She then wiped away the tears that now blurred my vision. Now I know some of you might think I was a total crybaby back then… but COME ON! I had just lost my parents less than 24 hours ago! I was a scared little colt with no idea what my future held.

Anyway, after Rainbow Dash had calmed my tears, we went downstairs to have breakfast. I sat next to her at the table and we feasted on some yummy strawberry muffins. After we finished our delicious muffin breakfast, her parents gave us our book bags. I was surprised that they had a spare but I was very thankful, none the less. Rainbow’s book bag was bright green and mine was dark blue.

I was pretty frightened to go to flight school due to my lack of a cutie mark, but I hid this fear from Rainbow and her parents. Dash and I headed for the front door and her parents called after us “Have a good day at school, you two!” she grinned at them and I flashed them a fake smile as well. If there was one thing that I had a distaste for, it was most other foals. They were mean and ruthlessly teased blank flanks. Plus, I was also a weak flier. So I dreaded what was to come.

We flew to our flight school and once we landed in the wide field of large puffy clouds directly in front of the school, I couldn't help but notice that most of the other ponies had their cutie marks already and many were already pretty decent at flying. My parents hadn’t planned to enroll me at the flight school until I was 6 years old. They wanted to give me a bit of an edge. But now they were gone, so I guess their plans for me didn’t really matter too much at this point. I walked very close behind Rainbow, trying to keep from being noticed, but my efforts were pointless..

Two colts saw me and immediately started berating me. “Hey! Look everypony,” one of them shouted loud enough for all the other foals to hear “That pony doesn’t have his cutie mark yet!” My face burned with deep embarrassment as loud chants of “Blank flank” invaded my ears. I put my head down shamefully and kept walking. This was worse than I had imagined. As I tried to ignore the harsh words being shouted at me by the other foals, some of the bullies just came closer, chanting louder.

One of the two colts who first noticed me flew at my side quickly and pushed me down; hard. As I laid on the ground, trying to hold back the tears that were beginning to weld in my chocolate colored eyes, the other colt, the one who drew attention to me in the first place, ran up and kicked me really hard in the stomach. He kicked me so hard that a loud crack was heard. “Blank flanks aren’t welcome here!” he yelled. I covered my face and sobbed in terrible pain. Rainbow Dash had heard enough. She aggressively grabbed one of the bullies by his shoulders and slammed him into a wall with incredible force. She looked absolutely furious.

“Listen to me, you worthless, good for nothing punk!” she growled at him menacingly. “If you EVER touch him again,” she gestured to me “There will be some VERY painful consequences! He’s gone through enough recently! He’s just lost his parents and the last thing that he needs is cruel JERKS like you guys picking on him!” She glared at him for a few seconds, then let this bullies’ shoulders go as he slumped to the ground against the wall. She walked over to the other bully, the one who kicked me in the stomach, reared back, and punched him right in the snout, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. If I remember correctly, a small trickle of crimson liquid was dripping from his snout after that brutal strike. Rainbow Dash then ran over to me, helped me up carefully, and hugged me tightly. “You okay, Star…?” she asked me, sounding rather worried.

“My stomach is hurting really bad now... and It's a little hard to breathe” I told her in a soft, pained voice.

“Come on, we’ll let the nurse take a look at you.” she said as she pushed the grey door to the school open and helped me slowly walk inside.
Right before the door to the school closed behind us, I’m almost certain that I heard somepony yell out “Orphan blank flank!” in a loud, obnoxious voice. I still can’t believe just how cruel foals can be. Even after all these years, it completely boggles my mind. Some of them couldn’t care less about what you’ve been through. They couldn’t care less if you had just lost your loving parents, like I did. All they cared about was being mean and making your life as miserable as they possibly could.

“I hate those guys” Rainbow said in a disgusted tone as we walked through the halls. “They’re so cruel to ponies that are timid or can’t stand up for themselves for some reason.” She glanced over at me. “Ponies like Fluttershy… Ponies like you….”

“Are you saying that I’m weak…?” I asked Rainbow in an upset tone. Rainbow Dash shook her head quickly.

“No, not at all,” she assured me. “You’re actually very strong… emotionally wise, that is.” she said in a soft voice.

“What do you mean?” I questioned. Rainbow looked at me; she seemed to have a small glint of admiration in her eyes.
“What I mean…” she said “Is that you’re handling this situation quite well.”

“I am?” I asked, surprised. “But I’ve been such a timid, scared crybaby.”

She shook her head. “No Star… this reaction is pretty normal... Think about it, you’ve just lost your parents and instead of bottling up your emotions and hiding how you feel, you’re being open about it… If I was going through a similar situation, I would more than likely hide it from everypony else. I’d be afraid if I cried and stuff like you have, I would be perceived as weak... But you don’t seem to be afraid of that…” She smiled at me softly and we reached the nurse’s office.

Author's Note

Trying to add some more details :P