It was 10 years ago since Twilight and Spike arrived in Ponyville to meet their friends. The first day they came, Spike had seen a beautiful unicorn named Rarity. He had known he wanted to be with her when he saw her. At first, Rarity hadn't noticed Spike as much as he wished she would. She'd been more focused on her fashion and her best friends.
But, as time passed, Rarity noticed the growing dragon more each day. He was becoming quite majestic and handsome. Before Spike knew it, they fell in love and got married.
Now, Rarity was doing quick breathing as she sat on the couch. She was pregnant and the baby was about to come now. Spike was helping her.
"Okay Rarity," Spike said. "So, when you say the baby's coming, you mean like right now?!"
"Yes!" Rarity exclaimed, trying to control her breathing. "Please hurry!"
"Okay, I'll get you there right now!" Spike replied. "Just... give me a second!"
Spike rushed outside to find a method of transportation. He saw a few ponies running with a chariot.
"Excuse me, sirs!" Spike said.
The ponies stopped in their tracks when they heard Spike's frantic tone.
"Can you please get me and my wife to the hospital?" asked a frantic Spike.
The ponies looked at each other and nodded, gravely. Spike helped Rarity get into the chariot, cautiously.
"Hurry!" Spike urged.
The ponies began to gallop as quickly as they could to the hospital. Rarity kept breathing as deeply as she could.
"I don't know how much longer the foal is going to wait," Rarity worried.
As the chariot arrived at the hospital, Spike breathed a sigh of relief. They both jumped out of the chariot and rushed inside.
"Doc! Help!" Spike exclaimed. "The baby's coming!"
"Right now? This is a month before we expected her," the Doctor said, trailing off.
Spike shot the Doctor an upset glance.
"No matter, she's coming now," the Doctor said. "Nurse Coldheart, get this mare into a delivery room!"
Nurse Coldheart followed his instructions and got Rarity to a delivery room as fast as she possibly could.
The hospital doors swung open again. This time, it was the rest of Rarity's friends: Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash.
"Doc? We heard the news," Twilight said. "Is the baby really coming today?"
"That's a month before we expected her," said a surprised Fluttershy.
"Yes," the Doctor replied. "Take a seat in the waiting room, please."
"Oh, boy!" Pinkie Pie squealed, in excitement. "I bet it's so cute!"
A half hour later, Rarity came out holding a foal concealed in a pink blanket. Rarity's friends immediately got excited and rushed over to her.
"Rarity, can we see the baby?!" Twilight exclaimed.
Rarity showed the baby to Twilight. "Isn't she a gem? She's one of a kind!"
Twilight had to suppress a yelp of surprise. "I mean... she's beautiful."
The rest of Rarity's friends smiled, nervously and nodded.
"Isn't she?" Rarity smiled. "What name should she have?"
"I don't know," claimed a nervous Twilight. "It has to be a good name for a.... precious little baby like her." She let out another nervous laugh.
Rarity furrowed her brow, confused. "I feel like you're all hiding something."
"Oh no, Rarity," Fluttershy said. "We'd never hide anything from you."
Rarity looked at them with a disappointed glance.
"You don't like the baby, do you?" Rarity inquired.
"No, Rarity!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's not that. It's just.... um..."
"She's kind of freaking us out," Rainbow Dash admitted.
Rarity's friends slowly nodded in agreement. Spike watched, surprised at how their friends were acting.
"Girls, I know she is different," Rarity said.
Rarity removed the blanket from her daughter, revealing her looks. She had a purple mane like her mother's and blue dragon eyes. She had dragon wings and a dragon tail. She had a white coat and a unicorn horn.
"But, that's because of who her parents are," Rarity claimed. "We can't control what we look like or what we have."
Rarity's friends only hesitated. They didn't know what to say to their shocked friend.
"You girls never judged before," Rarity added. "You were all so welcoming in the past, even to Discord and Starlight Glimmer. This baby is innocent."
Rarity was right. They knew they had been more accepting of more evil ponies in the past. Discord and Starlight Glimmer had made big mistakes and the baby hadn't made any yet. They hesitated as they thought it over.
"You know what? Fine!" Rarity exclaimed, angrily. "I expected more from you girls!"
Rarity stalked out of the door, cradling her daughter in her arms. Spike sighed, unhappily and followed her home.
"Spike, wait!" Twilight called after him.
The door swung shut with a sorrowful silence.
"Oh no," said Fluttershy. "We were being bad friends."
"I know Spike has gotten mad before, but I never thought he'd be mad at me," Twilight said, sadly. "Or all of us at once. Especially since his temper is usually so well organized."
"Well, Spike had a good reason to be mad at us all," Fluttershy claimed. "Rarity's mad at us, too. She was right. We've never done this to anypony."
"And now I'm not so sure if they're in the mood to forgive," Twilight said.
Rarity's friends looked at the ground, sadly. They knew they'd hurt their friends feelings.
Six months later, Rarity was still having a hard time taking care of her daughter. They had named her Esmeralda. Of course, she was a difficult child due to being a hybrid.
"Spike, darling, come here!" Rarity called.
Spike came into the living room. Esmeralda's broad wings were spread wide. They were bigger than they seemed folded.
"She's... bigger than I thought she'd be," said a worried Rarity.
"Esmeralda, no! Don't eat that ruby! That was my lunch!" Spike exclaimed.
Esmeralda popped the ruby into her mouth and swallowed it, surprisingly as easy as her Dad could. Spike groaned, disappointed.
Spike walked over to the living room to write a grocery list.
"Esmeralda sure is a..." Rarity felt herself being lifted into the air by Esmeralda. She was flying!
"Oh, dear," Rarity said.
Esmeralda began to fly back and forth across the room. Rarity held onto her for dear life, as she was zipped from side to side. Spike was distracted as Rarity was being flown in the background.
"Grocery list," Spike said, talking to himself.
He got the buckets where the jewels should be and shook them to see which new jewels he would need.
"Rubies, emeralds," Spike said, listing the jewels he needed. He sighed. "Amethysts..."
He moved onto the food items for Rarity.
"For Rarity, there is milk, eggs, chocolate cake for her cravings. Hey, Rarity! Do you want confetti cake too or just the chocolate?"
"Get the confetti, too!" Rarity called out, as she was zipped back and forth. "Esmeralda might like it!"
Spike wrote down confetti cake on his list, too.
Esmeralda landed and Rarity dizzily sat down on the couch next to Spike.
"Is it just me or is there a giant singing cat behind the coffee table?" Rarity asked, in a daze.
Spike whirled around to see behind the coffee table. There was nothing there.
"Are you okay?" Spike asked. He put his claw to Rarity's forehead to check on her. "Do you have something?"
Rarity came out of the daze, gradually. "Oh, the cat is gone. No, I'm fine. Just a dizzy spell."
"What from?" Spike inquired.
"I think you should see this," Rarity said.
Rarity lifted Esmeralda and tossed her into the air. Almost by instinct, Esmeralda's wings spread to catch herself. Esmeralda huffed and landed, clearly done with flying for the day.
Spike was in awe. "Esmeralda can fly and do magic?! She's an alicorn!"
Rarity giggled and shook her head. "No, darling. Esmeralda isn't an alicorn. The dragon wings came through you and the horn was through me. She's just a hybrid."
"I'm going to get the groceries," Spike said, veering off the topic. He hated to admit he was wrong about his daughter. "Keep an eye on Esmeralda!"
Spike left Rarity with Esmeralda. Esmeralda smiled up at her mother. Rarity smiled back at her. "Well, I'll be fine for a few hours," Rarity said.
Later that night, it was time for Esmeralda to go to bed.
"Mama?" Esmeralda asked, as if she was curious if she said it right.
Rarity gasped, excitedly. "That's right!"
Esmeralda giggled, proud of herself.
"You're going to have a lot of confidence in yourself, Esmeralda! Even when others don't see you as a beauty," Rarity told her. "Remember me and your father see you as a gift. The best gift we've had! I love you, Esmeralda. And if you love you, others will too. I know that as a fact."
Rarity sang Esmeralda a lullaby, telling her they'd always be there for her and she was special no matter what others thought.
Esmeralda fell asleep to the soothing lullaby and Rarity put her quietly in bed.
It was now 8 years later and Esmeralda was about to start second grade. Of course, Esmeralda was still sleeping soundly in her bed. Rarity came up to wake her.
"Rise and shine, Esmeralda," Rarity said, softly. "Time for your first day of second grade!"
Esmeralda's eyes fluttered open. She let out an excited gasp and hopped out of her bed.
"It's the first day of school!" Esmeralda exclaimed.
She ran down the stairs and Rarity followed with a tired smile. Spike was already downstairs as Esmeralda arrived. Spike smiled as he saw his wife and his daughter.
Unlike many ponies, Esmeralda loved school. "Oh, first grade was so much fun last year! I can't wait to see my friends again!"
"Have fun today," Rarity encouraged.
"I will," said Esmeralda, confidently. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! See you after class!"
"Have a good day!" Rarity called out.
"Remember how special you are!" Spike encouraged.
Esmeralda took off into the air, flying to school. Esmeralda loved that she could fly! She loved feeling the wind rush in her mane and the air swoop past her wings.
As she arrived at school, Esmeralda took a deep breath. "Today is a new day," she told herself. Without further hesitation, she walked into the schoolyard.
Chapter 2: Esmeralda's Powers
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."