The Rise of Starlight Glimmer

Starlight trotted off with her new friend to the classrooms.

"Wow!" she exclaimed once they arrived, "we're not a lot!"

"I know right? I think it's so that it's easier to make friends and listen to the teacher," Leafgray supposed.

"We're not gonna make many friends in this class for sure" Starlight frowned, pointing at the desks. There where four ponies there and two of them were Orangeleaf and Orangelime. The other two (colts) seemed to be worshipping them and all seemed close friends already. Orangelime turned to them and nudged her sister who whispered something into the colts ears. They all glared at each other. Starlight started to feel uncomfortable and murmured "let's sit down" before making her way to the two desks left, Leafgray behind her. They where in the front row and each row had two desks. Starlight wasn't sure she liked the idea of her enemies behind her. The whispers started again.

"So, how did you get your cutie mark?" asked Starlight, while they where waiting for the teacher to arrive.

"When I had my first magic surge, the whole school turned around and started to shake us all out. A...A few foals where hurt and ponies even started calling me... Discord." His voice broke and Starlight gasped. Comparing some pony to discord was so cruel! " Then at three years old, when I tried my first levitation spell on a book, it lifted a flower pot outside instead and my cutie mark appeared." He sighted "It means that my magic will never obey me. An upside down horn is bad luck..."

Starlight put a hoof on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, look at the bright side! At least you got your cutie mark!" she said, staring sadly at her blank flank.

"Yeah..." he smiled  "thanks".

She smiled back and saw the teacher come in.

"Alright claaaass. Good to know that you're all heeeeere! Now I am sorryyyyyy for my voiiiiiice but some pony (her eyes narrowed as she looked at one of the colts at the back of the class) thought it would be funnyyyyy to cast a speeeeeell on meeeeee."

"Ugh Celestia this is going to be a lonnnnng hour" moaned one of the sisters behind Starlight, mimicking the teacher.

" Nowwww, open your boooooks at page forty threeeeee", she chirped.

"Ummm excuse me miss but WHAT IS your name" asked Orangeleaf, "you like totally forgot to tell us."

Starlight's mind was blown. No pony in Celestia's school was allowed to speak like that to their teacher! Even the teacher herself looked a little startled by the disdain in Orangeleaf's voice. If she acted so mean with an adult, what was it going to be like with her?

"Welllll uh my name is Mrs. Trinityyyyy. Nowwww as I was sayiiiing, open your boooooks page for-

"Miss! We didn't introduce ourselves! You simply CAN'T forget about THAT" interrupted Orangelime.

Mrs. Trinity gritted her teeth, obviously already having enough of these pesky sisters.

"Of couuuurse if you want" she turned to Starlight"You! Go firssssst".

A little nervous, Starlight stood up and said " uh... my name is Starlight and I am really happy to uh... be here".

She quickly sat back down, embarrassed as she heard the colts at the back snicker.

Leafgray was next and he too was nervous. Orangelime and Orangeleaf came after him, assuring that they will be the best and proudly talking about their good grades in everything. The two colts where the last ones to speak :

"I'm Clearwater!" said the light blue and white colt with crazy hair.

"And I'm Darklick" the other red and black colt said proudly.

"That's a weird name", whispered Leafgray. He was apparently heard by Orangeleaf who turned her head and smirked.

"It's no better than yours!"

"Hey!" exclaimed Starlight.

"Ooops sorry! I forgot you had a guard dog Lamegray!" Orangeleaf said and every pony laughed.

"Now girls please stop..."

"Don't you speak to me like that!" Starlight interrupted, not even hearing the teacher speak over her anger.

"It won't happen again your highness". Orangeleaf bowed and every pony was laughing.

"Stop!"

"Does the blank flank object to what I am saying?" Every pony was still laughing... laughing... LAUGHING.

"SHUT UP!" Starlight screamed as some light started flashing from her horn. A huge magic blast was sent right to Orangeleaf who yelped. She fell to the floor as Mrs.Trinity rushed pass them, checking if the filly was okay. Her eyes seemed to be unfocused because she kept moving them around. Finally she stood up on wobbly legs.

"OMC Orangeleaf are you okay??" her sister squealed, terrified.

"My... my flank hurts! Really bad too! I think... I think" she looked at it and screamed, tears coming out of her eyes" NO! OH CELESTIA WHY?"

"What is it?" Mrs.Trinity asked, worried.

Then Orangeleaf walked right up to Starlight, now fully crying.

"You... You MONSTER!! MY CUTIE MARK! YOU TOOK IT OFF OF ME!"

Every pony started panicking, backing away from Starlight or screaming. Starlight, on the other hoof, was quite confused. She couldn't have TAKEN a cutie mark from some pony right??

"STOP! NOW ALL OF YOU SIT... DOWN!!" yelled Mrs.Trinity" Starlight has not taken Orangeleaf's cutie mark, look! It's still there!"

All the classroom fell silent. Orangeleaf's cutie mark was on her flank, where it was supposed to be. She looked at it and stopped sobbing.

"B...But it wasn't there a minute ago and... and the... she... my flank hurts really bad!"

"Darling" Mrs.Trinity explained patiently, "your flank hurts probably because of that magic blast Miss. Glimmer sent to you and with all the magic dust everywhere, you surely had a few hallucinations. Now, you go to the washrooms and put some cold water on your face okay? Darklick, go with her please. "

They both walked out of the door and the teacher turned to them.

"No pony will be punished because I don't want to punish my whole class on the first hour of the first day."

"But why WOULD you punish us all miss? Just punish Starlight for almost killing my sister and Leafgray for saying something mean" squealed Orangelime, still under shock.

"First of all, Starlight didn't almost kill your sister, she only sent a little blast of magic at her, she doesn't have her cutie mark so she can't be blamed too seriously".

"Blank flank!" muttered Clearwater.

"And also, she could have never gotten carried away if you all weren't laughing at them. Finally I have a good reason to punish Darklick for the little prank he pulled at me and can be very thankful that it wore off soon".

Orangeleaf and Darklick returned and sat back down as Mrs. Trinity asked all of them to say sorry to each other. The two sisters did it through gritted teeth and Clearwater said "Sorry blank flank!". Darklick said it quickly and without looking at her. On the contrary, Leafgray kept looking at her intensely and... was it fear in his eyes?

During all that time, Starlight had remained in a sort of world of her own. Everything was fuzzy. She could still see the blast she sent to Orangeleaf. But... She also clearly remembered the fact that Orangeleaf's cutie mark HAD disappeared. At least for a short moment and she couldn't explain that. A grey patch of fur had appeared then disappeared on her flank in a matter of micro seconds, too fast for Starlight to see what it was. She still didn't have her cutie mark though and wondered why.

But most importantly of all, she wondered why didn't she feel bad about stealing Orangeleaf's cutie mark for a moment?

In the classroom, two pairs of eyes were watching her, for they had seen Orangeleaf's cutie mark disappear too...