Author's Note
Any critique is encouraged. 
blog: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/567943/my-second-story-has-been-completed
Equals
I stood in the lunch line at Celestia's School for gifted unicorns. It was difficult to stop myself from grinning like an idiot while I was so elated with adventure and excitement from my first day! The atmosphere was so remarkably different from the school in my town. The teachers seemed much nicer and enthusiastic about their job, and the students looked like they actually wanted to be there. This was the school I was meant to be at.
What had particularly interested me when I applied was the vast amount of resources at my disposal. The library was massive. I would have no trouble finding all of the information I needed for my classes — and my own personal pursuits, of course. I was a fair student in all of my classes, but what really intrigued me was cutie marks. Ever since I had received mine, I had been intrigued. A star thing with squiggles coming from the top? I had expected something, well, more concrete to say the least. I had no idea what my cutie mark was supposed to represent, and I honestly wasn't even sure how I got it.
I payed for my meal with a few bits, and began to look for a seat. I had been near the end of the line, so most seats were filled. I spotted a nearly empty table in the corner. At it sat a lone filly with an orange-ish coat and a vibrant red and yellow mane. She was hunched over a book, and her lunch was pushed off to one side, untouched aside from a few bites of a daisy sandwich.
I decided to be nice and say hi. I should probably make some friends before all of the new students began to form cliques. I found cliques very annoying and wished everypony could just be friends with everypony else. It would save a lot of trouble.
I put down my tray on the table next to her. She didn't even glance up. Okay then, I thought. I guess I'll have to make the first move.
"What are you reading?" I asked, hoping to start a conversation.
"A book." The filly didn't take her eyes off her page.
Well, no duh, I thought. She obviously wasn't trying to encourage the conversation. I could have left it at that, but maybe she didn't have any friends. It certainly didn't look like it.
"What kind of book?" I tried again.
"Textbook."
So, she wanted to be adamant. Time to try a different approach. I noticed there were already a great deal of pages on the left side of her book. She seemed like the kind who would read straight through a textbook. I mean, it didn't seem like she did anything else with her time by the look of it.
"You must be a pretty fast reader," I ventured, hoping to get her to start talking about her reading skills or something along those lines.
"Not particularly."
An awkward silence.
"What's your favorite subject?"
The filly looked away from the book and glared directly at me. I was finally able to see that her eyes were a brilliant teal. It was interesting that they didn't match her coat and mane at all, but it didn't look bad.
"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?" she resigned.
"You look lonely," I replied.
Her eyes hardened even more, if that was possible, and she became defensive. "I'm not lonely! I like being alone." She turned back to her book, making sure to face her back to me.
That confused me. Who would want to be alone when you can have fun with friends? And why was she being so sensitive about it?
I worked up the courage to ask. "Why would you want to be alone?"
No answer. She was obviously very irritated. With every action, I was becoming more sure she needed a friend.
"Please?" I pushed.
She was done talking. If she refused to say anything, I should probably leave her alone. It was weird that she snapped so quickly, though. She must have something going on I don't know about. It might not be my place to do so, but I aimed to find out. She didn't look happy, and I would certainly want somepony to help me if I were her. She needed my help, even if she didn't know it yet. I was determined to make her my friend.
-=+=-
The next day as I entered the cafeteria, I rehearsed my intro. Hi again, it's me. I sat with you yesterday. I didn't catch your name. I'm Starlight Glimmer. I made my way over to the table. The filly was in the same spot. I set down my tray, took a seat, and started my intro.
"Hi, it's me from yesterday. I—"
"I remember who you are," she shut down the conversation without even looking up.
She's good at creating awkward silences, I thought. I wasn't sure what to say now. I had kind of had a discussion planned based off that intro. Maybe I could still save this conversation.
"I didn't catch your name yesterday."
She looked up at me with that unnerving death glare again. "Why do you want to know my name?"
Well that's a weird reaction, I thought. But what was interesting was that she had sounded slightly confused. Like nopony ever asked her name or wanted to be her friend. Despite what she had said about liking being alone — and I figured she did value her solitude — I knew she probably sometimes wished there was somepony who understood her. The tricky part would be saying the right things so I didn't accidentally offend her. She seemed very sensitive.
"You seem like an interesting pony," I answered cautiously.
She snorted and began to turn back to her book. "Nice try."
"No, really," I assured her, readying myself to take a leap of faith. "You seem a lot smarter than most of the other students."
I saw her ears perked up just the slightest bit from the mountain of mane that was facing me once again. I had piqued her curiosity, but she was trying hard not to show it.
"How do you manage to stay ahead in such a competitive school?" I pressed.
She casually turned to face me again. "Most of the students here claim they're smart, but they really can't be when they spend so much more time socializing than studying."
My hope soared. She had sounded hesitant, but that was the longest sentence I'd heard from her so far. I was finally making progress!
"What's your favorite area of study?" I struggled to keep my voice level, and hoped she didn't recognize this as one of the questions she was annoyed by yesterday.
She shrugged. "Personally, I enjoy the sciences. I received first place at the science fair last year."
Wait, was that a smile I saw on her face?
"Ancient Equestrian history is a close second, though. There are a lot of interesting magical artifacts from the Paleopony Epoch."
It seemed like she was finally starting to let down her guard. I was anxious to keep the conversation going.
"I'm more of an anatomy pony myself." I showed her my cutie mark. "I have no idea how I got it, or what it represents, and that made me really interested in how cutie marks work."
"Wow. That really is abstract. And I thought mine was confusing." She showed me her flank. On it was the Sun, not unlike Celestia's. Hers, though, was half red and half yellow in a yin-yang design. "I think I might be destined to become Celestia's student or something, but I'm not sure."
"That's so cool!" I encouraged her.
I could see the faintest shade of blush on her face.
"What did you say your name was?" I asked. Hopefully I would get an answer.
"Sunset Shimmer."
-=+=-
I sat in my room, doing my homework. A new book on cutie mark magic sat next to me, waiting for me to finish. My quill absentmindedly scratched across a parchment. I stopped and looked at the near blank page. No, this just wasn't working. I was too troubled to focus on schoolwork. I gazed out of the window to the courtyard below. The last of the early spring snow was almost gone, and ponies were beginning to spend more time outside after classes. I watched the bright coat colors below as I lost myself in thought.
I remembered back to the first month of school, where friendship had been so easy. Sunset had come out of her shell by the end of the first week, and even though she had avoided other students whenever possible, she could be a really great filly whenever we were alone. That had been a great month. We worked really well together on anything school related, and had eventually managed to get a room together. Princess Celestia had actually seemed excited about that idea when we brought it up. That seemed to make Sunset really uncomfortable for some reason. I knew by then not to press her when she didn't want to be pressed, though.
Things started changing after a while. From the bits and pieces Sunset told me, it sounded like she had actually been bullied at her old school, and her academic performance plummeted because of it. It had taken me a while to figure out that was probably why she avoided society like the cutie-pox plague. Over the months, she had become more confident in her skills, but she had also retrogressed.
As she had predicted on that second day of school, she had become Celestia's personal student by December. She had actually broken a record, having achieved that status in only her second year at the school. Although I found it great how she was excelling, her newfound confidence had led to her to become cold, hostile even, towards other students. Her new way of getting students not to bother her was to use her advanced studies as a reason why she shouldn't hang out with other students. It had really been bothering me lately. I knew this kind of behavior was unhealthy, but I wasn't sure how to confront Sunset about it. What I really wanted was to show Sunset how the others could be nice.
I spotted Sunset's unique mane enter the courtyard. I quickly made up my mind that I wanted to speak with her when she got here. As Sunset made her way across the courtyard, a greenish filly, Lyra I think, accidentally walked into her and dropped her books. I watched Sunset jump back, startled.
"I'm sorry," Lyra apologized as she started to pick up her books with her magic again. "I didn't see you there."
"You should be," Sunset snapped. "Watch where you're walking!"
Lyra looked stunned. I was stunned too. She'd never snapped like that before.
"I didn't mean—"
"Why can't you focus on where you're going instead of reading some dumb anthropology book?" Sunset cut her off. "Humans don't exist!"
Even from here I could see glistening drops form at the corner of Lyra's eyes.
"Go focus on something useful." Sunset roughly shouldered her way past Lyra and continued across the courtyard.
Lyra turned and stalked off in the opposite direction, trying to hide the tears beginning to stream from her face. I realized everypony in the courtyard had been just as shocked as me. They had all been staring, and now glared after Sunset's confidently retreating form. A few ran after Lyra once they recovered from the shock.
I sat back on my chair, dumbfounded. How could this have gotten so bad? How had Sunset become a... a bully?
About a minute later, I heard angry hoof steps followed by the slamming of our door behind me. It was now or never. I stood, turned around, and looked Sunset straight in the eye.
"Sunset, we need to talk."
"Make it quick." she glared at me. "I don't feel like dealing with society right now."
She wanted to get right to the point? I'll give her right to the point. "Your behavior. I don't like what you've become."
"What's wrong with my behavior?" Sunset took on an aggressive tone.
"I think you know very well what's wrong with your behavior," I said, irritated. "This bullying needs to stop."
"Why are you so involved in my business?" Sunset snapped. "It's my choice who I choose to be friends with."
I knew not to be phased by how quickly she became accusing. Although she was a year older than me, almost a horn taller than me, and the most intimidating filly at the school, I did not break eye contact.
"You don't have to be mean about it!" I countered.
"Why shouldn't I? I don't want to be friends with them, why should I go out of my way to be nice to them?"
"Why should you go out of your way to be mean to them?"
"Why can't you mind your own business?"
This was ridiculous. Now it was my turn to snap. "It isn't just your business anymore, Sunset! Lyra cried because of you."
"I don't think anypony asked you to get involved!"
"Well, it does involve me!" I took a deep breath, about to say what I'd been feeling for the past few months. "If you're going to become a bully, I don't want to be your friend!"
We both stood there glaring daggers. I anxiously awaited Sunset's reply for what felt like an entire minute. Hopefully she would finally see how she was hurting those around her. There was no way she would risk losing her only friend. Sure, she needed her alone time more often than most, but we all had our quirks.
"Fine, I don't need you." Sunset stated nonchalantly, giving a shrug.
I stepped back, stung, as my eyes began to water. We had always gotten along so well. "I thought you valued me!" I yelled, "I see now that I was wrong!"
I pushed my way past her as she fired her parting shot.
"I always knew friendship was a waste of time. I was foalish to let my guard down."
-=+=-
I sat in the Canterlot Gardens under some deciduous tree I didn't know the name of. Tears were silently falling from my face, like screams never heard. I glanced upwards. Celestia's stars were beautiful that night, like they hadn't a care in the world. Just slowly twinkling, working together to form a portrait of the universe at its best.
My thoughts turned from the carefree sky to my earthly struggle. Why do relationships have to be so complex? Why can't we all just get along? I thought for what could have been a moment. Or maybe it was a millennium. However long it was, my brain was slowly putting together the pieces.
Bullies targeted based on weakness. They picked on those who were weaker than them in some way. They put others down to lift themselves up. But how could that be prevented? If everypony had the same skills, there would be nothing to pick on. No differences to cause rifts. Nopony would have a problem with anypony If only there was a place like that.
Wait, I could make that utopia a reality. I dried my eyes. I remembered an experimental spell in Cutie Marks and Magic I had read about the other day. A spell that could, in theory, allow certain characteristics to exist that would merit the altering of a cutie mark. If nopony had any special talents, there would be no differences to pick on. No cliques or social castes based on skills.
I stood and made a mental list of the things I would need. I would sneak into the dorm, pack my saddle bags, and take the train to the very last stop. That would put me on the edge of the badlands. There I could slowly begin to build from the ground up a new way of life. An epic civilization where everypony would truly be equals.
