1. Rainbowshine, the troubled teen
Those who have been to Saddle Arabia would've heard of the town beside it. The town of Ashvanagar. The ponies there are very magical. They can turn into .exe ponies. The town of Ashvanagar is run by an even magical family. Now you'd say, all ponies are magical. What's so special about this family? Well, it's a family of alicorns!
Mint Heart's unicorn great-great-grandfather founded the town, which earned him the ponies' light and love, thus transforming him into an alicorn. Since then, the magic has been passed on to each new generation. The ponies, who were joined to the family by marriage, also became alicorns.
Mint Heart married Cloudy Star when he had just become the mayor. Cloudy star gained shiny glowing wings after she married Mint. Two years later, they welcomed a little filly. She was named Petal Sunsmile. Petal was born an alicorn, like her father. The couple looked after the town and their dear daughter. Eight years later, they had another foal but....
...she was not born an alicorn, but a pegasus!
Mint and Cloudy tried to be happy for their different daughter, though deep down, they wanted her to be just like her. Petal was disappointed because she was expecting a colt, not a filly. The filly, who was named Rainbowshine, had a difficult foalhood. She wasn't liked by the townsponies, or her parents. She found solace only in her older sister, who later became supportive of her. It was only later when she made more friends, who love and support her very much. Creamy Pants, Aurora Dazzle, Windstream, Drumroll and Fire Rider took in the filly as their friend as those teenagers had experienced first hoof what being friendless feels like.
Being a normal pony, she had .exe powers, which her alicorn relatives lacked. Her .exe powers were what lead her to explore creepy games, and after learning programming, she made one such, and earned her cutie mark when she was nine.
She knew her sister wanted a colt, so she behaves like one. At first, she did it for her sister, but she started feeling truer to herself this way as she grew up. She experienced a growth spurt when she was six, and now when she's 13, she looks like a mare already.
It’s another normal day in Ashvanagar, and Rainbowshine is flying over the town. She calls out to all of them, saying, ‘Heads high ponies, Rainbowshine is coming through!’ As always, ponies made frowny faces and grumbled at her.
Her best friend Creamy Pants, who was sitting on the carpet below, heard her call, and looked around. There she was in the sky, doing flying tricks the same way her Ponyville friend Rainbow Dash taught her.
Creamy looked at her and said, “No offense Rainbow, but when ponies know you’re coming, nopony will have their heads up!”
Rainbowshine replied to her, “I don’t care Creamy! I don’t care if they like me or not, I’m still gonna ask them to keep their heads up!” And she kept flying. Doing all sorts of tricks. Until...
Her mom called out to her.
“Rainbowshine! Come here!” she called out, in her usual way. According to Rainbowshine, she called her out only when she was having fun. She was a mother who loved her children partially. Or to be precise, loved only one child and completely ignored the other.
Rainbowshine grunted, and flew to the ground. She landed, and felt the of grass with her hooves. She wanted to enjoy the grass some more, but if she didn't respond, her mom would yell at her. S she just said “Coming Mom!” and grumpily made her way towards home.
Creamy Pants looked at her, and thought to herself, “Poor pony. Now her mom will talk about the gala tonight, and all the reasons she can’t attend it. I can only imagine how bad she will feel...”
Cloudy Star looked at the door as her daughter trotted in, She asked her in the most lovable voice possible to her, “Rainbowshine! Did you help your dad with the arrangements for the gala?”
Rainbowshine was surprised when she heard her lovable tone, and excitedly replied, “Yeah!” Then she bashfully looked down, and said, “And mom um, can I come to the gala with y’all? I even have a dress made! My Ponyville friend Rarity made it.”
Cloudy Stars’s eyes were filled with rage when she heard that. She then yelled at her daughter, “You simply cannot come to the gala! Do you know how much humiliation do we have to face because f you?You will ruin the gala for everyone! Just stay in your room! And it’s not like attending one gala can fix you!”
Rainbowshine just turned back and said “Fine”, and left for her room in tears. Her sister saw everything. She wanted to go after her, but she knew her sister. If she were to go now, then Rainbowshine would just lock herself in her room and won’t talk to anypony for days. She waited till evening.
Two hours before the gala, Petal softly knocked on the door of Rainbowshine’s room, and the filly grunted “Come in..”
Petal came in to see Rainbowshine, who was still sobbing. Her eyes were black and her tears were of blood. This was normal, since she was an ordinary pony, and had .exe magic. .exe magic would kick in whenever the pony experienced intense negative emotions.
Petal said in a soft and calming voice, “Rainbow, I’m your big sis. I know when something hurts you and when it doesn’t. I know what mom said broke your heart. You can talk to me about it. You'll feel better. Trust me.”
Rainbowshine looked at her sister and sighed. Taking a deep breath, she said, “No amount of talking can fill that hole in my heart, Petal. I just wanna come to the gala with y’all. I wanna be seen as part of the family, I just wanna be loved. Talking isn’t gonna help.”
Author's Note
The story is just a novelization of my comic, I’ll Shine. The above chapter is based on pages 1 and 2, and part of page 3
