Pale, ashen light filtered through her slate grey curtains as Twilight woke up. She was being gently shaken by large, strong hooves. She slowly rolled over, burying her face into her pillow. "Mmm....Five more minutes..." She murmured, bringing a hoof over her eyes.
She heard a faint laugh. "Twily, wake up. Its graduation day." Immediately she was sitting up, scrambling to get her blankets off and nearly falling out of bed. Shining Armour took a step back, chuckling. He smiled, but it quickly faded into a nervous expression. Twilight noticed that he always looked nervous when they talked about graduation day, ever since his own. He would never tell he what happened that day - beyond mumbled words about a presentation, that is - because it was forbidden to be known by ponies younger than graduating age.
It is a bit frightening, Twilight thought as she quickly ran a brush through her mane, With all the mystery surrounding it and all. She made sure that she looked a little bit better than presentable before trotting down the stairs. Her father, who was preparing to leave for work, tossed her a toast and sunflower sandwich in a small bag. She easily caught it between her teeth, before craning her neck around to put it in her saddlebag. "Thanks Dad." She said, as he came over to give her a kiss on the cheek. He gave her an almost sad looking smile, told her he loved her very much, and went on his way.
Twilight was confused. Was the graduation ceremony really that bad...? She gasped. What if there's some sort of blood rite and they're going to cut me open?!? She quickly chided herself. Of course it wasn't a blood rite, that was dangerous.
Shaking her head, she began her regular walk to school, a hint of hesitation in her steps. The nervous feeling only grew as she headed towards the large, uniform school building. When she arrived, she was relived to find that she wasn't the only one - Other students were dragging their hooves, twitching their tails and glancing over their shoulders.
There was a set of guards at the door to the school, allowing students to walk inside in a single-file line. Twilight caught a glimpse of the inside as she stepped into line, seeing students being directed into rows in front of a large screen. Twilight herself was near the back of the line, and was directed into the last row in the room. It had a theater-like set up, lines getting taller the farther back they went. The head teacher, Professor Cheerilee, was waiting in the back to turn on a projector. Several moments after the last student had walked into place, she flipped the switch, and walked out of the room.
The students waited in baited silence as the video began to play.
"Hello, faithful students." A strong, loud voice began to play as Queen Celestia appeared on the screen. "Today, you will learn about war. Terrible, terrible war - The scourge of ponykind. I'm sure that you have learned about many wars in your history class - The Great Kelpie Attack, the Pony-Dragon war, The Gryphon-Pony war..." She paused and let out a sigh. "But you have not been taught about our many, many civil wars. Wars among pony kind, brother killing brother in a pointless display of violence."
A collective gasp rippled through the students. Civil wars? Among ponies? Twilight, for all her studying, had never heard of such things. They sounded...terrible. So that's what this is about, then? How the Queen and the Princesses stopped the civil wars? Twilight thought, eyes fixed on the screen where Queen Celestia was looking down sadly.
"These wars were common," She continued, "And pointless. They solved nothing. Each side wanted nothing more than superiority - not food, not land, just power. They killed their own kin for it, just to prove that their differences were better than the other sides'."
Murmuring passed through the room. Differences? What differences? Weren't these civil wars, between pony's? Twilight was confused, a horrible sense of dread welling up in her chest.
"These wars were hate crimes, heinous acts of violence based on race." She paused for a moment, shifting a wing."I'm sure you're all confused. You should be. What I am about to say will come as a shock to you. It will change your world. But heed my words, students, because you are the next generation in a peaceful land.
"When we started out, Ponies came in four races. Earth ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, and Alicorns - like myself. You know that we Alicorns were born with horns and wings, but you do not know that some of you were born with a horn, or two wings. Some of you were not. But this does not matter - You are all equal now.
"At birth, should a foal be born with horns or wings, they undergo a medical procedure designed to remove them. These wars - these heinous, terrible wars - were raged because of inequality. Ponies all believed that their race was the better one, the stronger one. But they were wrong. All of you, students, are equal. This equality is what me and my sister, along with our niece, fight so hard to protect. Your children, and your children's children, will grow up equal, never having to see war or crime, because of the decisions we have made.
"Understanding this, you are ready to go out - to live in a world you no longer have to fear. You have graduated, my little ponies. I am so proud of you all." She bowed her head, and the video shut off.
The room sat in stunned silence. Mutely, Twilight raised a hoof to her head, gently pushing her mane aside. Under it she felt a small, almost imperceptible bump - a vague leftover from a long lost horn.
A horn. She had...A horn.
She was a unicorn.
She saw others doing what she had done. Some merely twitched around, who she guessed to be natural 'earth ponies'. Others rolled their shoulders and sniffed at their backs - had they been Pegasi? Others still rubbed at their foreheads, seeming deep in thought. They were the unicorns. The...unicorns...
Twilight walked slowly out of the building along with the rest of the.graduates in single-file. They all split off, heading towards their respect homes. Twilight, too, began to head home.
But she walked past her house when she came to it.
Deep in thought, she moved on to park, sitting down under a tree and staring up at the noon sky. The world felt different. In the span of just one hour, she had been alienated from the world she once new, by one simple speech. She was...A unicorn. She was born with a horn. Did that mean her parents, too, used to have horns? What about Shining? Remembering back to his graduation day, she did notice him scratching his head more than usual. She stared quietly toward the still-lightening sky, her fast-running thoughts fading down to...Nothing. For the first time in forever, her mind was blank of thoughts and emotions. She...did not know how to feel about this.
Twilight sat very, very still for an exceedingly long time, too long for her to count. It was getting dark by the time she stood up and began to head home. She tried to make sense of her confusion - why did she feel so oddly about this? Her brother hadn't taken very long to get home, maybe an extra thirty minutes. And her parents were obiously okay with it. So was...well, just about every other adult she had met. So why was she so freaked out?
Maybe they all felt this way, she thought, as she walked into her house. Her parents said nothing, only giving her a concerned look as she walked up the stairs, head down.
Shining opened up his door. "Hey, Twily, how was -" He stopped mid-sentence as she walked by. He bit his bottom lip slightly, as if wondering whether or not he should follow her, but eventually went back inside his room. Twilight was glad for it.
As she climbed into bed, she couldn't shake the feeling she had. Not the confusion, not the sensation of something missing found.
No. As she drifted off to sleep, she was quite certain she knew what this feeling was.
Anger.
Author's Note
I'm sorry if it seems a bit rushed or predictable, I'm shabby at beginnings.
