“Fun Hugs, please get up. Miss Cheerilee will be incredibly angry if you miss another day of school.”
My mother prodded me with her hoof. But I refused to get out of my bed. I couldn’t.
“No.” I replied simply.
“Your grades will really start to suffer if you don’t go to school. And then your whole future will be ruined.”
“Don’t care. I’m not going.”
My mother sat on my bed at my hooves. Great, I thought to myself, I cannot wait to see how this turns out. Her horn glowed the same orange as her coat and she lifted the duvet from my bed, revealing the absolute embarrassment on my flank.
“Hugs, do you remember when you first got it? Your mark, I mean.”
I nodded - how could I forget? There I was, helping my father with my baby brother, like I always would when I wasn’t busy doing homework, and all of a sudden I felt a sudden burn on my flank. That, following a strange, pins and needles type feeling, and a chuckle from my father, alerted me to my cutie mark.
“And do you remember how you felt when you got it?” she continued.
“Yeah, of course I do.” I replied. “I was happy at first, even dancing at the joys of having finally found my special talent, but a quick look in the mirror told me otherwise. All of a sudden I was marked with possibly the most embarrassing thing I’d ever seen on anypony.“
“Oh,” my mother said, clearly upset that she couldn’t use the whole ‘you were happy when you got it so don’t let other ponies get you down about it’ thing she’d tried a few times in the past, namely when I’d gotten a super cool Hearth’s Warming Eve present and I was worried somepony else may find it childish or whatever. “Well, I’ll write a note for you to give to Miss Cheerilee about the situation, why you haven’t been in school for the past two days, and to contact me if anything bad happens between you and any of the other girls at school. You really can’t afford to miss another day of school, especially something as petty as this.”
I groaned and gestured to my flank. “Can you see this, mom? I can’t go to school like this! This isn’t petty, this is an actual problem!”
My mother simply sighed. “No, it isn’t. You can’t be so sure that anypony will laugh at you. I’d think they’d be more happy for you than anything else, if getting your cutie mark now is anything like how it was when I got mine.” She pointed towards her own flank. It was a set of four overlapping red tulips. It made me envious looking at it now. Hers was actually pretty, not like mine. “If you have any problems, tell Miss Cheerilee and she’ll tell me. Now, go downstairs, get some breakfast, grab your saddlebags and go to school.”
***
I left my home, making extra sure to slam the door as loudly as I could on my way out. I was not in a good mood, as you might imagine.
I’d adjusted my tail in such a way that one side of my flank was covered in blue and white streaks of hair. Sure, it made me walk kind of funny, but it sure beat having other ponies staring at me. I walked as close to a wall as possible to cover the other half as best I could.
On my way to school, I heard a pair of unicorns laughing about something. I panicked, thinking I’d accidentally exposed myself, until I realised that one of them was laughing about a joke the other had told. “Phew,” I said to myself in a voice quiet enough nopony else could hear.
Aside from that incident, everything was going fine, and nopony else seemed to give any indication that they had seen it. That was, of course, until I heard a voice say the words ‘cutie mark”.
I tried listening in, hoping to Celestia that it was just a coincidence that what I was trying to hide and the topic of their conversation were related.
“I don’t know, Scoots. That sounds kinda dangerous, even by our standards.”
“But it’ll be fun! Cutie Mark Crusader Tomb Explorers go!”
“Oh, thank Celestia for…”
“Oh, heya Hugs! You feeling any better today?” the orange pegasus that went by the name of Scootaloo asked me.
Damn. “I’m good!” I said, forcing a smile. “How about you?”
“Well, Sweetie Belle has also been off sick so we haven’t been able to do any cutie mark crusading, and Apple Bloom here is objecting to my idea of exploring the tomb of the founders of Ponyville. Hey, why is your tail like that? And why are you walking so close to the wall?”
“Oh, uh,” I chuckled nervously, “there’s, uh, something on my flank and I haven’t had chance to wash it off yet!” Yeah, I wish.
Apple Bloom looked at me suspiciously, clearly catching on to my lie. “Well,” she said, a touch of distrust in her voice but nothing too major, “you wanna walk to school with us? More company is always-”
“No, I’m good.” I interrupted. “I, have, uh, other things that I need to do before I get there, and I wouldn’t want to hold you up!”
The look of suspicion didn’t leave Apple Bloom’s face. “Okay then,” she said, the distrust in her voice becoming more obvious, “well, I’ll see you in school, I guess.”
“See you in school!” I yelled as I galloped away, hoping they wouldn’t follow me.
Fortunately the rest of my trip to school was uneventful, and nopony else made me feel uncomfortable. There I stood, at the gates of the building, and was instantly greeted by Miss Cheerilee.
“Oh, hello, Fun Hugs! It’s good to see you feeling better.” she said to me.
“Hello, Miss Cheerilee! It’s good to see you too.” I mirrored her genuine smile with my own false one. “Oh, by the way, my mother wanted me to give you this.” I leaned into my saddlebag and took out the letter my mother had written. Without another word, I gave it to Miss Cheerilee.
Her eyes scrolled across the paper quickly and nodded. “I understand. Although, skipping school is not acceptable behaviour. You understand you will be punished for this, yes?”
I nodded. How could this day possibly get any worse?, I thought to myself.
Walking through the school gates, I gave a nervous sigh. I was no longer close to a wall, so anypony could see the left side of flank with no problem. I flicked my tail away from the other side, silently hoping that my mother was right and I would be congratulated and not belittled.
Unfortunately, she was wrong.
All around me, ponies were laughing at me. Pointing their hooves to my flank. Calling me names. I walked to the front doors of the school, trying my absolute hardest to drown out the sounds of laughing children. Even those younger than me, who had not yet discovered their talents, joined in with the nastiness.
I opened the door, a chorus of the words “poopy butt” repeating over and over behind me. I selected the desk on the far right corner of the room, close to a wall and also where nopony else would see it as long as the didn’t deliberately try to look at it. just hoping that nopony else would see it.
I looked down at the full diaper, green stink marks emanating from it, on my flank one more time. This is gonna be a long day.