One Tiny Problem

Well, it was no doubt that I was in trouble. Having problems like this is not my forte, but it can happen to anyone.

I steadily pace outside the office they sent me to. I hear slight murmurs from within the room as they talk about the incident. It appears that they don’t know the real problem at hand. He had came into physical contact with the poison joke and it will change his appearance. What will it change, I do not know. Maybe he was serious with the whole awesomeness, but it was his tone of voice that seemed off.

Through all of my thoughts and possibilities, I did not notice the bell ring and the rush of students in the hallway. I press up against the wall to let the ongoing kids pass by. As the crowd starts to thin, I am yet again left in the empty hallway. Before I started to pace again, I heard a voice at one end of the hallway. I was able to tell who it was by the voice.

“Hey Valiant,” I say.

“Hey. How are you holding up?”

“I’m actually fine at the moment. They did not tell me anything yet.”

“Oh. Well I hope it isn't bad. And what you did back in class was a brave feat. I don’t think I would have been able to do that myself.”

Now I am standing here thinking about what he just said. I had sensed the irony in the sentence, with his name included, but I couldn't let that ruin our friendship.

       "Well I still can't believe I was able to do it myself," I jokingly said. "Because you know I'm not that aggressive since you knew me for years."

        There was a brief moment of silence. And within that moment, the office door swung open and the two teachers that escorted me here, left the room.

     "You best head on to class Mr. Sprint. You don't want to be late," a voice says. I turn around and I was face to face with the head of the school standing in the doorway.

     "Well I guess I'll go now. I will see you later Azure."

     "Okay maybe after school."

      "Sure after school is fine."

       As I wave off Valiant, I am pushed into the room. Upon entering, I see the head's assistant, sitting at the desk.

      "Please take a seat," the headmaster said. I proceed to walk towards the seat and rest my flank upon it. " I'm pretty sure you already know why you were brought here, Azure. Don't you?"

     "Yeah I do. But sir if you just let me explain I-"

      "I don't want to hear what you have to say. In a new school year and you want to cause havoc early."

      "Sure I was the one that retaliated, but I was also the one who was being provoked. Can I just explain to you what happened?"

       "I'm sorry Azure, but I can't believe you. You have done some questionable things in this school over the years. Maybe some of the other teachers would believe you, but I can't."

       Just as I was getting ready to speak again, another teacher walks through the door. It was IQ Ivan.

       "What's the problem Ivan?"

       "Well just as the boy was gaining conscience, I noticed something that's bad on your part Mr.Blaze. It appears that Thunder Dart came into contact with the poison joke. And another thing that's bad is that we are out of stock of some of the ingredients for the cure. I must ask when do we get our next shipment of supplies?"

        "That doesn't come in for another few weeks" he said as he slowly turned his head my way. "Do you see why I can't believe you Azure? What is going to be told to this kids parents?"

     I was speechless. I did not know what to say to that.  A teacher that does not trust me, but that is okay for they are only that.

     "Okay," I sighed deeply, clapping hooves together. “What type of trouble or punishment am I getting?”

“Oh believe me Azure, we already thought of that.”

I have to believe you, but you won't believe me.” I muttered under my breath.

“Because of your previous actions, plus this one, you will receive a suspension for the rest of the week and a cut from every club in the school.”

“Wait a minute now,” I said, with anger rising. “Why the hell would you penalize me for things that happened in the past? Do you know how unfair that is?”

I don’t care how unfair it is. It was-”

“NO! Now you're going to listen to me.” I shouted. “Anypony else could do these things, and they have in the past, and wouldn't get this treatment, but I do one thing, ONE THING, and I get suspension and cuts from clubs. Sure these things happened years ago, but don’t you think something should have happened then?”

There was a long pause within the room. I was now standing on my feet. The anger was built up so much inside of me that I could have been fuming from the nose.

The headmaster leaned in close and said, “You know I have been in this school for just as long you was. We have seen multiple headmasters come and go. I was not the head. That is why they got away. You and all the other ponies in this school may have gotten away with things, but now I am headmaster, and I will take one action the others failed to do, and that is making sure you all stay in your place."

“You know what, F-” and I caught myself there. As I was looking at him, he conspicuously raised an eyebrow. As I did not want to get into anymore trouble that I was already in, I quickly switched up my wordplay. “ Fine whatever,” I said exasperated as I stormed out of the room.

Word eventually got out that I attacked Thunder Dart. Everybody was coming up to me, like some kind of hero of some sort, asking how was I able to hurt him. Some believed me when I said “anger,” some didn’t. Learning a few new things, some even told me that they were also being picked on by Thunder Dart. So it turned out to be that I wasn't the only one who was being bullied by him. Other than that, I was praised throughout the whole school, which was a weird feeling.

The rest of the day happen to fly by. At one moment Math, the next it was lunch and finally it was time to go. I had told the crowd that continued to follow me that I will not be at school since the headmaster suspended me for the rest of the week, and they said that they will await my arrival the following week.

I was actually able to catch the bus home. It was a good thing because it was much quicker than the train. While on the bus, my mind kept replaying the scene from within the office.

“You will receive a suspension for the rest of the week and a cut from every club in the school.” the voice echoed. I tried to shake it away from my mind, but it was no use.

A few minutes had passed and the bus is a few blocks away from my house. I depart from the bus and I walk the rest of the way home. As I near my place of residence, I can see my mother standing in the threshold. That could usually mean one thing other than her going to work to manage my father’s business: trouble. As soon as I got in front of the house, I was hit with a mouthful of words from her.

“Now what were you thinking when you decided to do what you did Azure?” she yelled.

I ignored her. Mainly because I had already knew what she was going to say, which was what the headmaster had said. That was where her voice got stern.

“I know you hear me talking to you Azure. Answer me!” as we both entered the house.

“Do you want to why I did what I did?” I said almost shouting. “ because that pony has been messing with me for years now, in fact ever since we were colts. You would think something should have been done by now, but no, no type of consequences have been set for this kid.” My voice started to crack like on the verge of tears. A long silence had followed the outburst of mine. My mom happened to break this silence.

“I understand, but that still doesn’t give you any reason to beat up on anypony.”

“But mom, I said, tears now rolling down my face, “he talked…...he talked about dad.” Another silence had occurred, but this one shorter than the last. My mom broke the silence yet again. She looked to the ground and repeated “that still doesn’t give you any reason to beat up on anypony.”

After she finished speaking, I noticed what looked like a tear roll down her cheek and fall to the floor.

Realizing that she too started crying, I walked off to my room and shut the door. I go over to my bed, and bury my face in the pillow. There is then faint, muffled sobs as I weep. The memories of my father before his death had really took a toll on me. He had always always told me that I should stay strong for there will be a day that he will no longer be here with me. And he was right.

I can see myself as a young colt, walking alongside my father. He had the same face as me, with his coat a brighter blue than mine. As I look at him, I notice his cutie mark, which consisted of two bits and a dollar sign.

“Dad, what is your special talent supposed to be?”

“Well Azure, i’m a salespony. So I sell certain items to the other ponies. Why do you ask?”

“Because I don’t have a special talent,” I said sadly looking at my flank to see nothing there. “Most of the ponies at school laugh and make fun of me for not having my cutie mark yet.”

“That says that you still got time to discover who you are,” my father says. “Tell me Azure, what do you think your special talent is.”

Being hesitant at first, I eventually answered. “Uh, well I am pretty resourceful with working with what I got in front of me, but what would a cutie mark like that look like?”

“So what you’re saying is that you can use substitutes as tools when they are not present? That’s great! But since you are still young, who knows, you might find something else you’re better at.”

I go in closer to my dad and hug him. He had this way of cheering me up in my deepest of depression.

“Hey.” he said. “How would you like to go to the Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot?”

“Yes,” I said with enthusiasm. “I would love to go.”

“That’s great he said, but you have to promise me that you will not sleep, ok?”

“I promise.”

“I don’t know why mom didn’t want to come,” I said. “It’s going to be awesome!”

“Yeah I don’t know why she didn’t come, but maybe she’ll come with us another time.”

As we neared Canterlot, the castle could be seen in the distance. I have never been to Canterlot before, so everything about it was a new experience to me. The beautiful structures of the place in the night environment fascinated me the most.

I was excited during the entire train ride.  Bouncing from seat to seat, I asked "so what happens during the summer sun celebration?"

"Well it is pretty much like a carnival where the main event will be when Princess Celestia raises the sun."

"Ooo. I can't wait! When will she raise the sun?"

"That won't be until dawn Azure.”

“Oh. Well I still can’t wait to get there.”

“Me neither. It is going to be a great father-son experience.”

We finally arrive at the Canterlot train station. Once I laid one hoof into the station platform, I became overzealous and ran off. My dad after me because he knew I couldn’t hold in my joy.

“So what would you like to do first,” he said.

I’m feeling brave, so lets go on the Ferris Wheel.”

But just like that, my bravery changed to cowardice. Because I was afraid of heights, I never liked Ferris Wheels.

“Next time i’ll choose the roller coaster,” I implied, covering my eyes with my hooves. My dad laughed and pulled me closer to him.

After that frightful experience, I decided to get some funnel cake. I ended up splitting it with my dad because there was too much. We later played some of the carnival-like games there. I had liked all the rides, food, and games, but nothing grabbed my attention more than the castle. As I stood there admiring it, I didn’t  hear my dad calling out to me.

“Come on, Azure the princess is getting ready to raise the sun.

My concentration upon the castle had broke and I see my dad running towards a large crowd of gathering ponies. As I caught up to him, I realize why he wanted me to come faster: all of the spots up close were taken, but we were still pretty close. While we were standing there waiting, he said “thanks for not breaking our promise Azure.”

“I was never going to break it dad.”

We then hugged for a second, before horns started blaring throughout the area. I was excited to see the sun rise, but within that moment, a pony bumped into me.

“Sorry,” she said. I turn my head to notice that it was a purple unicorn. Her mane was what seemed like a sapphire blue with violet and rose streaks. And believe it or not, she too did not have a cutie mark. I was tempted to talk to her, but my excitement of seeing Princess Celestia appear took it away. With her horn lit with a magical aura, she flew up and quick fast the area was flooded with light as it flushed out the darkness. This sight mesmerized me and it became the most cherished moment in my life.

The sound of my alarm clock woke me up. As I gained conscience from my slumber, I notice that it was morning. “I guess I cried myself to sleep,” I thought. Some elements of my dream started to recur, which made me happy and sad. I then look at my flank and notice the cutie mark of a cog with a screwdriver and wrench. My special talent didn’t change like my dad said, but I am glad for this one since he also thought it was great. What I not thought of is what do I do with my suspension from school. I thought long and hard, then it came to me.

“Although he is a bully, and sorta an enemy, of mine, I will find a way to help out Thunder Dart the best way I can. I guess it is best since I am the one who caused this problem, so I am going to fix it!”