What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
"Shut up, stupid foal.” “Loser.” “Worthless.” “Dumb.” “Blank flank.” All these terms were what young ten-year-old Lyra Heartstrings heard while growing up in a household where her parents put their jobs before their young filly. Lyra lived her life one day at a time, going to school where she was bullied for being depressed and quiet. Her parents didn’t necessarily hate her; they just did not pay much attention to her when she needed them most. They would come home stressed from work and take out their anger on the young and helpless green filly.
Lyra did have two friends, though. One of them was Bonbon, another filly from the school. Bonbon was the only other foal who paid any attention to her. The two fillies would play together at lunch, and they would always treat each other with love and respect. Another friend was a certain pink pony who smelled like cotton candy. That pony was named Pinkie Pie, but she was also everypony’s friend. Pinkie was a year older than Bonbon and Lyra.
One day, however, Lyra reached her boiling point. She was sent to school with no breakfast and no jacket in the pouring rain. As she walked slowly to school while looking down on the ground, with her mane completely soaked, some of the older foals ran by, splashing her with mud. The mud went all over her face, mane, and body. She looked ahead to see that the older foals who did this just ran ahead, not even caring. Lyra didn't know if they even noticed her. In fact, she was rarely noticed at all, and the only times she got attention from others was when they were insulting her.
When Lyra got to class late, her teacher, Mister Trotter, said, “Miss Heartstrings, late again I see. Have a seat. You can make up the time after school.” Mister Trotter was often rude and seemed to get joy out of making his students feel like failures. He was a grey unicorn who lived with his mother and had short black hair.
All of the fillies and colts in her classed laughed and chuckled at her as she slowly walked over to her seat beside Bonbon, leaving behind a trail of mud and water. As Lyra sat down, she looked over to the left to see that even Bonbon was snickering at the poor unicorn’s misfortune.
Lyra looked at her friend and asked sadly, “Bonbon, how could you laugh at me? Everypony is laughing at me! I thought you were my best friend!”
Bonbon replied, “I am your best friend, but you have to admit that you look really silly right now!”
“Lyra! First you come in late, then you get my floors all dirty, and now you're talking while I'm trying to teach,” Mister Trotter yelled from the front of the classroom.
“But, Mister Trotter, I-“
“That's enough, little filly. You’ll have to stay extra long after class and make sure that the floors are clean before you go home,” he yelled back to her before she could even defend herself.
Everypony in the room, except for Bonbon this time, laughed at Lyra, who became smaller and smaller in her chair as the foals made a bad day for her even worse.
After school, all of the other fillies and colts got to go home. Bonbon would have probably stayed to help Lyra clean up, but Bonbon’s parents were her to pick her up from school and take her to Sugar Cube Corner. Lyra looked out the window to see the love shown by the family of three. As Bonbon hugged her parents, Lyra could only imagine what a hug like that felt like. She had been hugged by Pinkie and Bonbon before, but she could not remember ever being hugged by her parents.
After a while, Mister Trotter came in to see that Lyra had done an outstanding job cleaning up the mess that she had made. “Well done, you can go home now. But, I don’t want to see you ever make a scene in my classroom again,” he scolded her.
“Yes, Mister Trotter,” Lyra said while looking down to the ground.
Lyra now had to walk home in the rain once again, but this time she was hungry and tired due to staying a few extra hours after school. As she got home, her parents did not even notice. They were too busy arguing with each other to even care.
Lyra just went upstairs to her bedroom and laid down on her bed, putting her head on her front hooves. Staring at the wall was a much better distraction than listening to her parents argue over bits, work, and other things that didn’t matter to the little filly.
“I just want somepony to love me,” the young unicorn said while covering her face with her hooves.
Suddenly, she heard a noise in her room. She perked her head up to see two floating creatures, one male and one female. They had light coloured skin and held black wands with a golden star on the end of them. They were creatures that she has never seen before, but she could not deny that they were right there in her room.
“Hi, I'm Cosmo,” said the male creature with green hair and eyes.
“And I’m Wanda,” said the female with pink hair and eyes.
“And we’re,” both of them said in unison while floating backwards. A stage popped out of nowhere and they continued, “Your fairy godparents!”
“My what?” Lyra yelled out in confusion.
“Sweetheart, we’re fairies from Fairy World sent down here to help grant you wishes. We help the saddest young creatures live much happier lives,” Wanda said lovingly.
“Cool!” Lyra shouted out. "I can’t wait to tell Bonbon I have my own fairies!”
“Hold on just a minute," Cosmo said.
Wanda added, “You have to follow Da Rules in order to keep us. One of the rules is that you can't tell anybody or anypony about our existence, or we'll go away forever and you will have no memory of us.”
“Aww, that's no fun,” Lyra said.
“But think of the bright side,” Cosmo said, trying to reassure her, “we are here to grant any wish that you please. We can turn your whole life around!”
“But my parents will probably figure out that you're here,” Lyra stated.
“We will always try to stay away from their sight,” Wanda reassured. “We will transform ourselves into fish and live in our own fishbowl. That way your parents will just think you bought yourself a few new pets.”
Her life was about to begin anew, with the help of her very own godparents. She had a huge grin on her face. A day that initially started as one of her worst ever had actually become possibly one of her best days ever.
Cosmo told her, “Just think of the possibilities.” And that she did. In fact, the possibilities were endless.
“What could possibly go wrong?” Lyra asked confidently.