Photo Finish's Beginnings

Chapter 2

Inspiration

It was a nice warm summer day when the six year old filly Photo Finish went to school for the first time in her life. "Mama, what should I Photo Finish expect at school?" the filly said to her mother as she put her saddle pack on her back with all of her school supplies.

"Well Photo Finish my dear, you should expect to say your name to the other students when you arrive in the class room where you'll study with other students. And if everything goes alright I'm sure you'll make friends at school" Photo Lenses said to her daughter as the exited their apartment.

"Friends? What are friends?" Photo Finish asked, the poor filly didn't have any friends in her home country of Germaney, she spent most of her time with her family and since not to many children lived in her neighborhood she never got to meet and other children and make friends.

"Friends are people who are friendly and close to you" Photo Lenses said.

"Is family considered a lot of friends?" Photo Finish asked.

"In a way yes, but in general friends are other ponies who aren't related to you, like for example Cookie Crumbles is a friend of mine but we aren't related" Photo Lenses said.

"But isn't Cookie Crumbles one of your customers?" Photo Finish asked her mother as they walked down to the streets of Manehattan.

"Yes...but that's the fun thing about friends, they can be just about anypony else in the world and they may live far away from you. But a true friend cares for you no matter what, I'm sure when you meet somepony at your new school you'll be able to tell if she or he is a friend" Photo Lenses explained to her curious daughter.

Within an hour long walk Photo Finish and her mother arrived at the school, Photo Finish was very nervous when her mother told her that Photo Finish would have to be at school without her mother. Photo Lenses assured her daughter that everything would be alright and the reason she picked out this school is because its only a ten minute trot from the orange stand Photo Lenses works at. "I'll come and pick you up at 3:00 PM" Photo Lenses said to her daughter as she walked her into the school.

Photo Lenses was sure her daughter would be able to take care of herself at school, she made sure one of the teachers would guide Photo Finish to the class room. Photo Finish took calm deep breathes as she walked into the classroom as she heard the teacher say "class we have a new student from Germaney today, please welcome Photo Finish" the teacher said as she pointed to the cerulean earth-pony. "I Photo Finish........have arrived!" Photo Finish said with a bit of excitement in her voice, she wasn't sure what to say and she wanted to make a good first impression on her class especially since she hoped she'd become friends with some of them.

"Ahahahahahaha" the class laughed and giggled as Photo Finish introduced herself the way she did. This puzzled Photo Finish, she wasn't sure why they were laughing or what was so funny.

"Now class, remember she's from Germaney and I expect you all to treat her like any other pony" the teacher said to her class, they calmed down and stopped laughing after that. Please find a seat Photo Finish" the teacher said as she pointed to empty seats. Shortly after this Photo Finish walked with a blank look on her face because she wasn't sure if she should smile or not.

Some of the students looked at her weirdly and others were curious, after all getting a new student from Germaney wasn't common at all and many of the children had no clue where Germaney was. The school went on as the colts and fillies were busy learning what all they could, recess came at it's normal hour which was new to Photo Finish. She had a question for the teacher before she went out to spend time playing "I Photo Finish have a question.....what is recess?" she asked her teacher.

"Oh I forgot you this is all new to you Photo Finish, recess is where you go outside and play. It lasts for about an hour but you need it in order to exercise" the teacher explained.

And so Photo Finish got to go outside and play, the playground was enclosed and fenced like a regular school playground. It had all kinds of things to expect like a swing set, monkey bars, slides and etc.... Photo Finish saw so many wonderful things around the place, she also saw many kinds of ponies but most of them were Earth-Ponies like her. Many of the colts and fillies had their Cutie Marks while others like her didn't have one yet, Photo Finish was so absorbed in looking at everything that she didn't notice a brown colored unicorn filly trip her on purpose until it was to late.

"Ow......." Photo Finish said.

"Ehehehe you should watch where you're going blank flank" the filly said as she looked down at Photo Finish.

"I Photo Finish don't understand......what's going on?" Photo Finish said as she got up with her mane all ruined.

"Ahahaha brown suits you, you must think you're a big shot since you're from Germaney blank flank" the brown filly said.

"I Photo Finish just think I'm like anypony...and I Photo Finish don't understand why you're calling me a blank flank?" she said as she was confused.

"A blank flank is a pony like you, you don't have a Cutie Mark which means you're lame big time. And what's with the way you talk" the filly said.

Photo Finish took a moment to think of why she talk's the way she does, and she remembered it was because her father talks that way. By addressing himself as 'I Mobius Lenses' rather then just I, or me which wasn't a common way of addressing one's self. She also remembered now what kind of a pony one is if they trip somepony on purpose or call you names without reason....that kind of pony is a bully!!! And Photo Finish was scared and fell to the ground when she realized this. "Ha! Dirt really is fitting for an earth-pony like you" the unicorn said as she was getting ready to kick dirt in Photo Finish's face but then a filly stepped in front of Photo Finish and said to the unicorn.

"Step off!".

"Gasp!!!" everypony gasped when they saw the pony who was standing up to the bully, the filly had light brilliant amber eyes, a pale, light grayish gold coat of fur, and as Photo Finish looked up she saw the most beautiful mane she had ever seen. The mane and tail were light brilliant cobalt blue with light brilliant azure stripes. This was the most popular student of them all next to Hoity Toity, this was......Sapphire Shores!!!! "Sapphire Shores?!! What are you doing here?" the unicorn asked.

"Diamond Bits you've got a bad attitude girl, it an't cool bullying the new kid around especially because she talks differently then most of you" Sapphire Shores said to the rude unicorn.

"I Photo Finish don't understand what is happening" Photo Finish said.

"What's happening is Sapphire Shores is blocking me from zapping you" the bully said, but then one of the teachers came and saw what Diamond Bits was trying to do and then Diamond Bits was taken from the playground by the teachers and put on a time out for bad behavior.

"Oh yeah girl, your bad attitude was bound to get you into trouble, you deserved it big time" Sapphire Shores said to Diamond Bits as she was taken away for her time out.

"Now that, that's over...would you like a helping hoof" Sapphire Shores said to Photo Finish as she offered to help her up.

Photo Finish's sad look on her face vanished as she saw Sapphire Shores offer her help, the filly took Sapphire's hoof and was helped up "man that was something, are you alright girl?" Sapphire Shores asked Photo Finish.

"I Photo Finish......am alright now......who are you?" Photo Finish asked.

"I am the young pony of pop in the making, I am Sapphire Shores!" the earth-pony said as she made a striking pose.

"And who are you?" she asked Photo Finish in a kind manner.

"I...am....Photo Finish!" Photo Finish said.

"Photo Finish? That's quite a name, are you into taking photos?" Sapphire Shores asked the filly.

"Well......I Photo Finish don't know..." Photo Finish said as she thought for a moment.

"Well girl from this day forth you can stick with me while trying to figure out who you are" Sapphire Shores said as she turned and Photo Finish noticed a seashell Cutie Mark. She wasn't sure yet.......but she had a feeling that maybe Sapphire Shores is her first friend.

After recess and school was over Photo Finish's mother picked her up and Photo Finish explained everything that happened. The next day at school the colts and fillies were careful not to be mean to Photo Finish, especially when Sapphire Shores met up with Photo Finish "hey girl! I've been looking for you" Sapphire kindly said to Photo Finish.

"I Photo Finish didn't know somepony was looking for me" she said with a look that showed interest.

"Well after the way Diamond Bit was taken care of yesterday in the playground word spread like a weed, everypony in school knows we're friends and not to mess with you anymore" Sapphire Shores said.

"Spread like weeds? How could the word spread like weeds?" Photo Finish asked, she didn't completely understand figures of speech yet. After Sapphire Shores explained what she meant, she took Photo Finish to meet a good friend known as Hoity Toity, Hoity Toity and Sapphire Shores were the two most popular kids in the school and they were well respected especially since they got their Cutie Marks before anyone else in their class did. After Photo Finish met Hoity Toity she went to class and another school day went by.

Later on Photo Lenses had a talk with Diamond Bits parents about what happened and they made sure she was grounded for her behavior and would do there best to teach her better manners. As the months went by Photo Finish and Sapphire Shores became very good friends, Photo Finish was amazed at how good Sapphire was at singing pop music and she had a feeling her friend would become a pop star and Hoity Toity went to Canterlot because he was an exchange student who temporarily lived in Manehattan but he soon went back to his rightful home and assured his friends they'd meet again.

Photo Finish got more and more interested in photos as time went by and one day Video Feed her grandfather decided to give to Photo Finish an early birthday present, the present was a pair of dark sunglasses that were a bit to big on the little filly "take good care of those sunglasses, they belonged to your dear grandmother......if only she could see what a fine filly you've turned out to be Photo Finish" Video Feed said with a tear coming from his left eye, it was painful for him to remember what happened to his sweet wife in the last great war.

Photo Finish treasured the sunglasses because of how much they meant to her grandfather and how much they meant to her, Photo Finish got into the habit of wearing her grandmother's on a daily basis because of how much the glasses meant to hear. One day while walking she spotted a pony taking photos of animals and sceneries in the areas including the orange stand her mother worked at. This interested Photo Finish, but she wouldn't truly get interested in taking photos until her seventh birthday when her grandfather got out an old family camera and gave it to Photo Finish. "It's time we make a magical moment last forever with this camera Photo Finish" Video Feed said.

"Make magicks?" Photo Finish asked.

"Yes make magick" Video Feed said.

"You see sweetie whenever we take a picture it captures the exact moment in time of what was seen, a moment that although can be remembered...is a moment that gets captured by the camera lenses and lasts forever. That my dear Photo Finish is the magic of cameras and taking photos" Photo Lenses explained to her daughter.

Shortly after that a knock was heard on the door and much to everyponies surprise Mobius Lenses arrived "I Mobius Lenses.....have arrived!!!" he said to everypony as he got hugged by his daughter Photo Finish.

"I don't understand...why and how...." before Photo Lenses could answer her husband.

He said "it's because I was able to get a break to come to my little girl's birthday party, I missed a couple but I decided to come and thought it would be a nice surprise to come without letting you all know" Mobius Lenses explained. The Lenses family was very happy that day and Mobius Lenses gave to Photo Finish for her birthday a lovely dress from the last movie that Mobius Lenses got to be a camera pony for.

The dress was a beautiful black dress with white stripes and what looked like gems, it was adorable and indeed a very nice birthday gift. Mobius Lenses explained that the dress was made by the daughter of the actor who was in the last movie Mobius Lenses was a camera pony for, and she wasn't sure what to do with the dress so Mobius Lenses bought the dress after the daughter of the actor decided to sell it. The dress was very beautiful and if the Lenses never moved then Photo Finish never would've gotten such a wonderful and lovely dress.

"Now it's time to capture the magicks of this moment" Mobius Lenses said as he took photos of everypony and he got to be in the big picture with his daughter thanks to the timer on the camera. Photo Finish was inspired by this moment, she kind of modeled while in her dress while photos were taken, and the idea of capturing a magical moment with a camera seemed like a very worthy and honorable thing to do. Photo Finish talked with her mother the next day about cameras and after being explained everything she didn't know about cameras, Photo Finish decided with the camera given to her by her grandfather that she'd try and take pictures and see if that was her special talent....and even more importantly.....her destiny!!!