Unbreakable

Starlight closed the curtains and walked to the front of the stage, with everypony else, bowing in front of the crowd. She followed as her class walked backstage, hoping that no one noticed her bandage-wrapped leg and her limping.

“That was perfect!” Ms. Bloom cheered. “We’re having a celebration tonight, but if you’re a bit exhausted, then it’s fine by me if you go home.” Starlight limped off stage, looking for her father. He was sitting in the first row, right next to the stage.

“Congratulations, sweetheart! That was a beautiful play, and the special effects were great! Are you staying for the party, cutie?”

Starlight looked at the fillies motioning for her to come over. She nodded and walked over to them. As she drew nearer, she was embarrassed to realize that she barely knew anypony’s names. All she’d ever focused on was spending time with Sunburst, or talking with Ms. Bloom. She never bothered to learn about anypony else. “Hey, Starlight!” a green and blue earth pony called. She nervously waved back, biting her lip so hard it started bleeding.

A yellow and white pegasus flew up to her, offering her a cupcake. Starlight reluctantly took it, taking a bite out of it. “So, I heard you were managing the effects, lighting, movements, all the boring stuff, right?” Starlight nodded, looking down. “Gotta say, it was really impressive. And all by yourself, too?”

Starlight had forgotten about that. She had been so busy trying not to mess up, she’d forgotten that Sunburst was supposed to help her with it. She felt a sharp pang in her heart, but quickly pushed it away and replaced it with bitter anger. “I didn’t really… want to… backstage is… I mean…” she dismissed, trying to be rude, but failing. She was usually a sweet girl, kind and helpful. But being mean was what she needed to do, all she needed to do to push anypony away from her. Because if she made friends with them, and they abandoned her, then sadness would come quickly upon her like it once had.

The pegasus, called Sunshine, was really confused. “Uhh, but you were so excited when you found out you were getting a behind-the-scenes part. Now you’re saying you didn’t-”

“Well, too bad. Ponies can change, you know,” she snapped, interrupting Sunshine and walking away. She almost smiled, and she probably would have if she wasn’t incredibly angry. Her anger took advantage of her, and for whatever weird reason, she liked it.

Starlight put an ice pack on her hoof and laid down in bed, taking a book from her shelf and flipping through the pages. But, quickly losing interest, she closed the book and set it aside. And her eyes closed as well. And she drifted off to sleep with a memory as her lullaby.

Starlight paced back and forth. She hoped she wasn’t in trouble. All she saw was her dad going into the schoolhouse while she and her classmates went to recess, and after that she went to investigate. The door opened, and Starlight’s ears perked up. Out walked Ms. Bloom and her dad, and they didn’t notice her, not until they bumped into her.

“Starlight! Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?” Ms. Bloom asked. Starlight nervously nodded, following Ms. Bloom into the classroom. Starlight sat down on a chair next to Firelight, and Ms. Bloom started to interrogate her. “What happened to you that caused your leg…”

Starlight didn’t want to tell Ms. Bloom the truth, because without Sunburst she didn’t have enough courage. So instead, she thought up a little fib. “I was practicing a spell, and I accidentally hit my leg.”

Ms. Bloom still wasn’t convinced. “Your wounds looked like more than just magic beam hits, and they were all over you, not just on your leg. You know you can tell me the honest truth,” she responded.

Starlight’s ears sank. She now knew Ms. Bloom had seen the whole thing, by the way she was acting patient and clueless, and at the same time not. So she took a deep breath and got ready to answer. The honest truth.

Starlight went home early that day. The other ponies were watching her every move, and it was even worse now that she had to walk. “You want to ride on my back, instead?” Firelight asked.

Starlight considered it for a moment, but then shook her head vigorously. If her classmates saw her acting like a baby, riding on her father’s back, well, then that was that. So she impressively limped all the way home. And when she got home, what did she do? Sit down on her bed and fall asleep right away.

Starlight’s ears dropped as she watched Ms. Bloom talked to the fillies that had bullied her. She saw the girl glaring at her, and the others were too embarrassed to look at her. They kept their heads down and avoided eye contact with anybody. She thought she even saw the unicorn crying. When Starlight couldn’t take the negative energy anymore, she cried tears of her own and hid behind the schoolhouse. Even when the bell rang, she stayed away from anypony else, hidden.

“Starlight?” she heard a voice call out. She covered her eyes, tears somehow still flowing. She lifted her hooves of her eyes and peeked to see who it was, though she was pretty sure she knew.

She groaned, “Yes?”

“Starlight, we’ve been worried about you,” the voice said.

Another voice joined in with Firelight’s. “If you need the time, you can take a break from school today. But I expect to see you back tomorrow,” Ms. Bloom added.

Starlight shook her head. She’d already skipped enough of school; she needed to be tougher, like she used to be when Sunburst was here.

Sunburst. The name brought back fond memories of her friend, her best friend, who had helped her with so much. Without Sunburst, she was just the lonely introvert she had been in Canterlot. She was the shy girl who didn’t know how to speak up for herself, or even how to speak in general. She was Starlight Glimmer, the most awkward filly in all of Sire’s Hollow. Again.

She stood up and shook her feelings off. If she wanted to live a life, she would have to get up time after time. She would have to stand up for herself, and not let other ponies interfere with anything she dreamed of. Anything. And right now, all she was dreaming of was not getting a cutie mark.

But when she walked into the classroom, she was oblivious to the fact that today was the day, the life-changing moment, the chance that most fillies wanted, the moment that she despised. She would finally learn her destiny. On the day her class was learning about destinies.

“Today we’re going to be learning about cutie marks,” Ms. Bloom started. Starlight slightly jumped. Normally, she would’ve been eager to learn about cutie marks, maybe even how to earn one, but ever since last week, she hated cutie marks.

Ms. Bloom pointed to a picture of a little pink filly with a curly green mane. More specifically, she pointed to the filly’s flank. “See this?” she asked, getting a nod from the class. “This was me before I got my cutie mark. Nopony is born with a cutie mark, these things come naturally. When you find out what makes your sparkle shine, a cutie mark appears on your flank, showing the world just who you are meant to be.”

Starlight’s frown got bigger by the moment. Who cared about cutie marks? And just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, it, of course, did. “Who doesn’t have their cutie mark yet?” Ms. Bloom asked. Starlight, along with two other ponies, raised their hoof. She motioned for the three to step forward. Starlight noticed that one of the two others was Sunshine, and that she was trying her best to distance from Starlight as much as possible.

Ms. Bloom welcomed them and introduced them to the class, since she knew all three were quiet. “Starlight,” she asked, “what do you really like to do? What do you think your destiny will be?”

Starlight tilted her head. She’d never thought about her hobby as her destiny. To her, they were two separate things. Was it normal for fillies to plan out destinies for themselves? Was she just weird? “Well,” she thought, “I guess I like… magic?”

“That’s great!” Ms. Bloom said.

“Can you do blasting spells?” a foal called out from the class.

Starlight shrugged as Ms. Bloom placed an apple on her desk. Starlight knew the whole class was watching, and she knew she had to focus and concentrate to make sure she didn’t mess up in front of them. Her brain shaking from the effort, her magic turned into thin strands. They surrounded her horn and turned into an orb, which shot at the apple, blasting it open. The other ponies winced, covering their eyes, and Starlight sat down, exhausted from the work.

“Um… Starlight?” Sunshine asked, her hoof trembling, pointing to Starlight’s body. Starlight looked back and gaped at what she saw. Her cutie mark. The thing she had been avoiding, the thing she had been hating, right on her flank. Why? she thought. Why?