Daughter of Spike

  Now, Esmeralda was very unusual, but this didn't mean she didn't have a group of best friends. When she realized she had a hard time fitting in, she wondered if other ponies had the same problem. She created a group for ponies who didn't seem to think they fit in. Fortunately, 6 others joined and they became best friends! Esmeralda decided to call their group "The Oddballs".

Her first friend was Princess Flurry Heart who had been born an alicorn. Her family believed her title would cause her respect and popularity. Unfortunately, ponies took a fear to her uncontrollable magic and wouldn't even offer her as much as a bow. Two bullies, Jeweled Diamond and Shining Emerald, worked up the courage to call her Princess Dork and it had been getting worse. Fortunately, she was now a friend of other ponies who didn't fit in.

  Her second friends were the Cake twins, Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. They were fraternal twins, but close as can be. Pound Cake was a male pegasus and Pumpkin was just the opposite: a female unicorn. But, they were both very smart and majored in all their school subjects. This caused Jeweled Diamond and Shining Emerald to call them the nerd twins. At first, this didn't bother them too much. But, when they found making friends difficult, the bullies words became more hurtful. So, they joined the Oddballs.

  The last of her friends called themselves the Junior Cutie Mark Crusaders. Their names were Apple Daisy, Scooter, and Sweet Note. They were ridiculed for not having their cutie marks yet like most of the class. Being called blank flanks endlessly, they joined the Oddballs with no hesitation.

  "Esmeralda, come join us!" Pound Cake invited.

  "I was about to!" Esmeralda giggled, joining them on the playground.

  Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake had a huge surprise for them. "Look! Pumpkin Cake and I earned our cutie marks!"

  Esmeralda was shocked. They indeed had. They were, of course, pound cake dough with a rolling pin and pumpkin cake with a pumpkin next to it.

  "Wow, Pound Cake! That's amazing!" Esmeralda exclaimed.

  Apple Daisy couldn't help but feel jealous. "See?! That proves it!" she cried. "My friends and I will be blank flanks forever!"

  Pound Cake was a mite surprised.

  "Aww, no you won't, Apple Daisy," Pound Cake assured. "I'm sure you and your friends will discover your destiny someday!"

  "Of course they will!" Pumpkin Cake agreed. "They're a mark of one''s destiny, after all."

The three Crusaders smiled, feeling much better.

  "Aw, thanks Pumpkin Cake," Scooter said. "You're sweet."

  Esmeralda was confused for a minute. Someone felt missing.

  "Wait... up!" called an out of breath voice.

  "Flurry Heart!" Esmeralda squealed. She ran to her and gave her a hug. "You're here! Why don't you ever think to fly? My mother tells me you were the strongest flyer she's ever seen besides Rainbow Dash when she was a foal."

  "I can't fly..." the alicorn said, sadly.

  Esmeralda was shocked. "Why not? How did you lose the ability?"

  "Well, after I had so much trouble learning to control my magic, I just had no time to practice flying anymore," Flurry Heart sighed.

  "That's terrible," Esmeralda said.

  "Anyway, you're lucky you can fly," Flurry Heart said.

  "I know! It's so fun!" Esmeralda cheered. She did a loop in the air and landed.

  "Hey, guys! Look!" Pound Cake exclaimed.

  They turned their attention to what Pound Cake was looking at. It was a kickball game on the field. Two spoiled looking brats were picking the teams.

  "Kickball," Pound Cake said. "Who wants to play?"

  "I do!" Apple Daisy replied.

  "Cutie Mark Crusaders Junior Kickball! Yay!" the three Crusaders squealed.

  "Maybe, this will help us earn our cutie marks," Scooter wondered.

  "A Kickball Cutie Mark!" Sweet Note exclaimed. "Just imagine that!"

  All, but Flurry Heart ran towards the field, eagerly. Esmeralda turned back when she noticed Flurry Heart wasn't coming.

  "Are you coming, Flurry Heart?" Esmeralda asked.

  "I don't know about this, Esmeralda," worried Flurry Heart. "Jeweled Diamond and Shining Emerald are picking the teams."

  "Don't worry!" Esmeralda assured. "What's the worst that can happen?"

  Flurry Heart sighed and reluctantly followed Esmeralda to the field.

                                                                                  ****

  They all reached the field, hopefully.

  "There! Teams all picked!" Shining Emerald said.

  Jeweled Diamond turned to see Esmeralda and her friends waiting there, hope in their eyes.

  "The Oddballs want to join? Huh, they might as well," Jeweled Diamond snarked.

  The Oddballs faces fell, in unison. That tone wasn't a good sign.

  "I'll take the three blank flanks," Jeweled Diamond giggled.

  The three Crusaders sighed and joined Jeweled Diamond.

  "I'll take the nerd twins," Shining Emerald said, a very rude tone.

  Pumpkin and Pound Cake looked at each other and reluctantly joined Shining Emerald.

  "I bet she doesn't know the square root of Pi," Pumpkin Cake muttered.

  Jeweled Diamond turned to see the Princess and the hybrid. She just shook her head and laughed. "What about you, Shining Emerald? Do you want them?"

  Esmeralda's heart burned, hurt.

  "Sorry, Jeweled Diamond," Shining Emerald replied. "I don't want Princess Dork to kick the ball with her freakshow magic."

  "Hey..." began Flurry Heart, but she trailed off.

  "Oh no. Mutant," Jeweled Diamond groaned. "Nopony wants to play with you."

  "I'm not a mutant... I'm a hybrid..." Esmeralda said, sadly.

  This insult to her friend angered Flurry Heart. "Esmeralda's just very lucoy to be better than you!" she shouted.

  Shining Emerald only rolled her emerald green eyes. "Princess Dork, get lost. We don't care if you're a  princess. We'll never bow to a princess like you!"

  They laughed and Flurry Heart and Esmeralda sighed. It was no use. The rest of the friends rejoined them.

  "We quit," Pumpkin Cake said. "We don't want to play if you're going to be mean to our friends."

  "Whatever," said Jeweled Diamond. "We didn't want to play with the Oddballs anyway."

  "I'm telling my father," Esmeralda claimed.

  "Your father? I don't care about your father. I bet he's not even powerful anyway," Jeweled Diamond replied.

  Esmeralda stopped in her tracks, shocked. That had done it. Jeweled Diamond had insulted her friends, didn't allow them to play with the rest of the school, and much worse in the past. But, now she had insulted her father and she was outraged.

  "You. Take. That. Back," Esmeralda warned.

  Jeweled Diamond just smiled. "No," she said, defiantly.

  "That's it," Esmeralda said, whirling around to face the pink unicorn.

  Jeweled Diamond backed away. "Ew, don't touch me, mutant."

  "I'm not. A. Mutant!" she shouted, clearly done with the bully's cruel nicknames.

  Esmeralda spread her broad wings and flapped with force, causing some clouds to zap lightning and thunder to crash.

  Everyone was afraid of Esmeralda now. She wasn't that innocent little filly who believed in everyone anymore. In fact, in the sky, she looked more menacing than Chrysalis.

  "You really want to insult like that?" Esmeralda asked, in a threatening voice. "Think again before bullying my friends!!"

  Before she saw what she was doing, Esmeralda had breathed green fire across the entire playground, causing everyone to scatter in terror. But, she didn't care. The terror on Jeweled Diamond and Shining Emerald's face felt like sweet revenge.

  "Hurry! Let's get out of here!" Pumpkin Cake cried.

  "Come on, Junior Crusaders!" Sweet Note exclaimed, terrified. "Run!"

  All her friends, but Flurry Heart had been scared off. Flurry Heart was determined to talk some sense into Esmeralda.

  "Um... Esmeralda? Don't you're taking this too far?" Flurry Heart asked, trying to keep her composure.

  "Too far? There's no such thing as too far, Flurry Heart!" Esmeralda claimed, angrily. "This playground and these ponies are going to perish!"

  Flurry Heart's face said it all. This didn't sound anything like her sweet, kind, loving friend. She was getting very scared now.

  "Please stop... you're scaring me..." Flurry Heart begged.

  Esmeralda accidentally breathed another blast of fire and it surrounded Flurry Heart in tall green flames.

  Flurry Heart screamed. "Help!"

  Esmeralda laughed, finally feeling like she had stood up for herself. "Today, everypony will..."

  Cheerilee stepped out onto the playground, an angry look on her face. Fire ponies arrived and helped Flurry Heart to safety, as Flurry Heart burst into terrified tears. Esmeralda finally realized what she was doing. Though she didn't remember doing any of it herself, she knew she had accidentally gotten out of control. But, she thought she could maybe soften her teacher a bit.

  "Oh, hi, Miss Cheerilee," Esmeralda said, as innocently as she could. "What's up? Are the students behaving? How's your daughter, huh? She doing well? How are you doing with your diet? Losing weight?" She trailed off. Miss Cheerilee's expression hadn't changed a bit. "I'm in trouble."