You’re going to do great things someday, Streaks. That’s what my momma always told me. Sometimes I wonder if it’s true or not, I sure don’t feel like it most days. Shoot, I don’t even think she means it when she tells me that. I think she’s just trying to cheer me up, but I don’t mind, she means well I suppose. It’s hard being different, you know? I mean, if you’re a pegasus or a unicorn you’re different, but your still close enough than other ponies wont poke fun at you, but being a zebra, now that’s just too different.
My momma always said that her mother came to Equestria because it was a safe place to raise a family. She said that her homeland was full of dangers and crime and stuff, and when she got to Equestria it was like entering heaven, but I think she was full of it. Wherever she went it wasn’t the same Equestria, because this place is horrible, everypony calling me names and whatnot. I hate walking to school because ponies always pick on me. Sometimes they just ignore me, but most of the time they call me names. I can get used to that, but there’s this one bully named Emerald.
Now, momma says it’s rude to judge people by their appearance, but I can’t help but feel that Emerald is the ugliest pony to walk this side of the world. He’s got teeth the size of bricks, and the smallest wings you’ve ever seen. I don’t even think he can fly. Not to mention he’s dumber then a bag of apples. I’d never say that to his big toothed face though, both because it’s rude and because he’s about as big as a house and twice as heavy. He hangs out with these two other ponies. There’s Gleam, he’s real thin earth pony, and probably smarter than a village full of Emeralds, he usually just laughs when Emerald is around, but when he’s alone he knows I could take him, so he says quiet. There’s also Sparks, who always looks like he’d rather eat a box of nails then hang around the other two. I thing he just stays at Emerald’s side because he’s afraid of what would happen if he left.
I’m not quite sure why Emerald and his friends do what they do. My momma says to ignore them, but I can’t see any reason to, that won’t make things better. I tried talking to the school councilor Mr. Sunnyday, and he said he would talk to them, but so far I haven’t heard anything. So every day when I walk to school I have Emerald to look forward to. Ponies used to gather around him so they could watch and laugh when Emerald was picking on me, but I think Emerald only knows about fifty words, and that can only get you so many laughs. I suppose that’s a good thing, but it doesn’t seem to affect him; I don’t think he’s smart enough to know that everypony stopped caring about his jokes a while ago. He just goes rambling on saying things like, “You are the bucking stupidest looking pony I have ever seen, why don’t you just go home to wherever you’re from? “We don’t need ponies like you around here” Which is usually followed by about two minutes of him and Gleam rolling around laughing, and Sparks doing something that looks like half nervous laugh half figuring out how far he’d get if he darted for it.
I figure Emerald gets picked on by somepony else, so he picks on me to feel better, but I can’t see the sense in that. For one thing it’s wrong, and for another thing, you’d need to weigh about twenty tons to take on Emerald. Maybe my special talent is being a punching bag. I know that’s not true, but it sure feels like it. I already got my cutie mark, but momma says zebra’s don’t get cutie marks like other ponies, and they say more about our heritage and less about our talent, and I think that’s the stupidest thing ever. I already know my family heritage, and tribe and whatnot but that doesn’t tell me where I fit in. How am I supposed to figure out what I’m good at, unlike other ponies that can just look at their rears to see what they’re good at, I’ve got to do trial and error. Emerald doesn’t have anything on his flank, so I got him there, but that doesn’t seem to faze him.
Emerald doesn’t hit me or nothing and it’s a good thing, too. I heard he once beat up a dragon just because he felt like it. He threatens me a bunch though, and I think he’s just waiting for me to snap so he’ll have an excuse for the pony that’ll have to scoop me off the street with a shovel.
No matter what he does I am not going to let it get to me, my momma says violence is never the answer to anything, and she might be right…. but she might be wrong.
*****
“Streaks! Get up child; it’s nearly time for school!”
Friday, the best day of the whole darn week if you ask me, soon I’d get two whole days away from anypony who’d make fun of me. I got up as soon as I could and rushed to the kitchen. It didn’t take long, we don’t have a real big house, my momma and me, but it’s what we need and we should be happy. That’s what my momma tells me at least, but I would give my right hoof to have one of those big old mansions that go on for miles and have like, a million rooms and stuff. I read this article in the paper about some rich old pony that had a swimming pool full of bits for each of the ponies in his family, and when he died he left it all too his dog. I think having that much money drives you nuts or something because I don’t think a dog can even use money. I still want it even if I do end up leaving it all to my shrubs or something.
“Streaks, be sure to eat your breakfast!” said momma.
“Okay momma.”
I see all these weird cereals when I go to the market, full of like, marshmallows and stuff, but I think that just sounds gross, soggy marshmallows in a bowl of milk. I’m fine with the grown up pony cereal, even if the box is real dull to look at, and there aren’t any cartoon animals saying how good it is.
I ate my breakfast and grabbed my old saddlebag and got ready to head to school.
“Have fun streaks!” yelled momma on my way out the door.
I don’t know why she says that, she knows I hate school, but I guess it’s just something all mommas say, like it’s in their manual or something.
My neighborhood ain’t the prettiest place ever, but it’s better then some dumpster I guess. The sidewalk is all broken up, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many weeds like the ones that grow in the cracks in the ground. I doubt anypony tries to clean it up; they probably figure it’s too far gone, and I agree. At least the air is clean, and there aren’t any robbers or nothing.
It had rained yesterday, and the sidewalk was covered in worms. I guess the stupid things were thirsty, but they forgot where their holes were so they just kind of gave up and waited for the birds. Sometimes I wonder if the realize that if they stay in their holes they won’t get eaten, but I don’t think worms think real hard about anything; kind of like Emerald, if he thought anything through his head would probably just up and explode.
Just then this big old bird swooped down and grabbed a real fat worm off the ground. I don’t know anything about birds so all I could tell you was that it was big and blue, which narrows things down as much as saying the pony I’m thinking of has hooves. It flew up to the top of a building near me and started eating. I don’t know why birds eat worms, it seems nasty to me, like it’d make you puke, but I guess it’s like candy to them or something. After it finished eating it just sort of sat there for a while looking at me, like it had no idea what I was.
“What’re you looking at?”
I didn’t think that one through; I was talking to a bird for crying out loud. It answered by staring at me more and turning its head to the side.
“You’re too stupid to understand me aren’t you?”
It wasn’t flying away, so maybe it understood something, or maybe it was just too dumb to figure out I was talking to it.
“You know, I wish I was like you; able to just fly away from things that bother me, and not having to listen to anypony.”
I don’t know what I was thinking, talking to a bird. It still just sat there looking at me; maybe it was choking on that big worm and couldn’t figure out how to puke it up. It wasn’t my problem, but how it was just sitting there bothered me, like it was ignoring me on purpose. I knew it wasn’t smart enough to do that, but how little it was moving bugged me. It wasn’t doing anything wrong or anything, but that didn’t stop me from lobbing a big rock at it to see what would happen. I guess it was paying some attention, because it flew away before the rock could hit it.
It was shrieking and flapping its wings all angry and stuff like it’d get me if it was the last thing it did, but I just kept on walking. What would it do, poop on me? Actually, that’d be pretty bad if it did, so I figured it’d be safer to get out of there then stick around.
A little while later, after I made sure the bird was gone I passed the old market closest to my house. It was a rundown little building owned by this little old mare named Mrs. Lilly. She was sweet, but her eyesight wasn’t very good, and her memory was pretty bad too. I used to work at her store during the summer, but she told me I had to leave because I was “scaring off the customers” as she put it. I wasn’t particularly bothered by having to leave; the whole building smelled like a wet dog, and she paid me about a bit an hour, which is practically nothing. That was about two years ago, and the building seemed in worse shape now then it had then, which is saying something.
“Hello Stripes! Lovely day isn’t it?” she called from the porch of the old shop.
She never got my name right, no matter how many times I told her, I think it’s a lost cause now, I doubt she’d remember her own name if you asked her. It’s rude to ignore ponies though so I answered.
“Yeah, it’s nice.”
“Why don’t you come here Deary? I haven’t seen you in such a long while, sit down and talk to me.”
“Er, I’d love to, but I’ve got school.”
“School? But it’s Saturday.” she said
Poor old Mrs. Lilly, she really was out of it.
“It’s Friday Ma’am.”
“Is it now? That’s nice.”
She’s really lost it, can’t even remember what she just said. She probably doesn’t know her store is falling apart right behind her. It could probably catch fire and you’d have to tell her before she realized it. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Sympathy or not, I had to keep moving, I’d already wasted time with that bird, and I didn’t want to repeat myself with an old lady. So I said my goodbyes and kept moving.
Why do all old ladies have the ability to talk forever about absolutely nothing? It’s like some sort of bad superpower or something, like they could just bore the bad guy into turning himself in. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad superpower.
I kept walking. The sidewalks were a little better by now, more taken care of, with less weeds growing in the cracks, and less cracks for them to grow out of. The trouble is the better the sidewalk, the worse the ponies on the sidewalk. I was getting closer to the old playground, and that’s where Emerald and his friends hang out. The playground was probably usable at one point, but now all that was there were a rusty jungle gym and a few broken swings. Nopony ever went there, so a lot of fights and stuff happen around that place.
I knew what was coming. I could see Emerald and his friends by the broken swing set, waiting for me. Gleam and Emerald were standing around laughing at something, and Sparks was looking twitchy as ever. I hoped that maybe I could sneak past them, but it was too late. Emerald looked in my direction and was staring right at me. He started walking towards me and I knew running would only make things worse, so I stood, watching a big green mountain with hooves and his friends close in on me.
“Well, If it isn’t little Pipstreak.” Emerald said.
That wasn’t bad; he must have been working on that for months. I didn’t say anything; I knew that’d make things worse. Emerald was circling me like a shark.
“Come on little colt, say something.” He said.
“My momma says if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything.”
“What the buck did you just say?” he was angry.
Celestia, what did I just do? I am beyond bucked. Even Sparks and Gleam were bug-eyed, they had no idea what would happen. I can’t go up, so I might as well keep digging.
“I said, ‘my momma says if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything.’”
“That tears it twerp. You are gonna wish you’d never said that.”
I did. He rose up a massive hoof and brought it down. My face was burning; it felt like a brick wall smashed into my nose, I could feel blood running down my broken face. I knew fighting back was hopeless, but I raised my hoof anyway. Tears streaming from my eyes I swung.
As I made contact with his massive body I felt like my leg was broken, but I didn’t have time to think about that, Emerald just kept swinging and swinging, hitting every inch of my frame he could reach. He was going to kill me, I was sure of it; he wasn’t going to stop swinging until I was a stain on the sidewalk. I could feel my ribs cracking, my head was pounding I was helpless. He raised his hoof for the last time. This was it, I was done for. Bringing down the massive hoof the pain I expected didn’t come. I could barely see, my eyes were almost swollen shut, but what I saw was amazing. Sparks, wimpy twitchy Sparks was standing between me and Emerald. His eyes were different, though, like he was somepony else.
“Emerald what are you doing?” he said.
“Teaching this runt a lesson!” Emerald said
He was defiantly startled by what was happening, and his whole body was locked by magic.
“A lesson? Emerald you were about to kill him!”
“He insulted me, He got what he deserved.”
“How did he deserve that? Emerald I have stayed at your side through all of your crap, and I have tolerated the insults and the threats, but never would I expect you to try something like that.”
I’d never seen Sparks act anything like that; he usually just stayed in the back and kept his head down.
“So what are you going to do about it?” Emerald said
Emerald was definitely unaware of the position he was in.
“I don’t know, I won’t let you keep this up, that’s for sure.” Said Sparks
“So tell my parents. What’ll they care? They hate that little freak too.”
“No, you need to be taught a lesson. You need something to guaranty that you won’t do this again.”
Emerald lit up like a light, whatever Sparks was doing it was hurting him… a lot. I almost felt bad hearing him scream though, like he was some kind of bug, unable to fight back.
“H-help m-me Gleam!” he screamed
Gleam wasn’t about to start moving, He was really focused on Emerald. He probably thought that if he tried doing anything Sparks would do that to him, and I bet he would.
Laying there on the ground hurting all over I had time to think. Think about how I shouldn’t have thrown the rock at that bird, thinking about how I should have made time and talked to Lilly for a while. And thinking about what momma had said, how violence is never the answer to anything. Maybe she had a point. Sparks torturing Emerald wasn’t helping me. I had to do something, so I sat up, which was harder then you’d think.
“Stop…Sparks stop”
“What, Why? He tried to kill you; he needs to be taught a lesson.” Sparks said
“Hurting him isn’t fixing me, now stop.”
The light around emerald died, and he collapsed in a heap. That must have been Gleam’s cue to run, because he took off as fast as he could, not looking back for a second.
Sparks walked over to Emerald, still twitching and bent down.
“Streaks is the only reason you’re alive. You’d better thank him.”
Sparks walked over to me next. He was the best pony in Equestria in my book. He might not have stood up for me before, but better late than never I suppose.
“Are you okay?” he asked
“Never better”
I had to spit out a lot of blood and a tooth to say that. Sparks just smiled. I don’t know why, but I smiled too. His horn lit up, and I don’t know what he did, but whatever it was it felt good, like he was fixing all my broken parts, which was all of my parts. When he’d finished doing his healing thing I stood up. I really never had felt better. Sparks was still smiling. Emerald whimpered like a sick puppy behind him.
“Come on Streaks,” Sparks said “I think I owe you a few apologies.”