What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me.

“Cutie marks are the ultimate expression of a pony’s true self, and place in life,” lectured Princess Twilight Sparkle. She looked around the classroom, trying to gauge the students interest. The usual culprits in the back were off in their won little world, but at least the front few rows seemed interested.

“As you know, once a pony has discovered their cutie mark, it is permanently marked on their flank for all to see so that society can better understand that pony’s favorite activities, goals, and specialties. Take my childhood friend Rainbow Dash, for example," Twilight continued, hoping to stir a little interest by bringing up "The coolest and fastest stunt flyer in Equestria."

A few pegasi ears perked up.

Her cutie mark includes many different elements. First, the ever famous lightning bolt: this symbolizes her love for speed and her goal to join the prestigious stunt flying group, the Wonderbolts. Second, we have the rainbow coloring of said lightning bolt: this is representative of her wild rainbow colored mane and tail, and her job as a weather control pegasus for Ponyville. And finally we have the cloud, which once again represents her job as a weather Pegasus, as well as her personality, which anypony who knows her can tell you, definitely resembles the wild thunderstorm,”

“That explains all the trouble Hide gets in huh?” snickered Sapphire Tiara, hoof-bumping Golden Sheen. Sapphire Tiara's family had ahistory of being one of the richest, and snobbiest, in ponyville. Sheen was one of Sapphire’s cronies, who followed her around. She almost a mirror of her mother Silver Spoon who had played accomplice Sapphire's mother's similarly snide comments.

Hide, a small blue and green earth pony colt, looked down ashamed. It was true that he had an uncommon amount of bad luck, which went hand in hand with his cutie mark, a broken horseshoe.

“Oh, shut up Sapphire, Hide is a better pony than you will ever be” replied Lucky Chance.

Chance was the daughter of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, a stunning white unicorn with a golden mane. Members of the Nobility had made remarks about how she ought-not be associating with somepony as far below her station as Hide, but she just stuck out her tongue and told them to mind their own business.

Chance tossed her eraser, grinning as it sailed through the air, expertly, hitting the offending filly directly on the snout.

“HOW DARE YOU!” shouted the irate filly, her horn glowing with a hint of unicorn magic.

“Children please! Classmates shouldn’t fight like this!” Twilight pleaded. It took every bit of her own willpower not to blow up at Sapphire Tiara, however. "A teacher should never let her own experiences or emotions affect how she deals with her class," she had read in one of the manuals on teaching she had studied before taking the position as Ponyville's sole educator.

Sapphire Tiara wasn’t listening however and furrowed her brow in concentration as she lifted the eraser in an attempt to shoot it back. Her horn began to spark however and she was thrown out of her seat in a flash of failed spellcraft. The ceiling groaned, attempting to hold itself up, but the stress was too great, and a section of ceiling broke off, plummeting down towards Hide, who could only look on, frozen in fear.

“NO!” shouted the teacher, her horn pulsing with power. The falling chunk of ceiling stopped in place, suspended by a purple aura. In a small flash, the piece vaporized and the ceiling stabilized itself.

A brief sigh of relief rose from the classroom, but it was drowned out by the roar of thunder from the storm that had brewing all morning. Rain started pouring through the hole in the ceiling. The unlucky colt was drenched by the time Twilight had sealed the leak. Once rain stopped, the stunned silence was broken by one of the ponies in the back row.

“Bad Luck Hide got soaked!” they taunted, causing the whole class to erupt in laughter. “Bad luck! Bad luck!” jeered the class in chorus.

“Shut up! Why can’t y’all leave me alone?” cried Hide, getting up so quickly that he threw his desk to the floor. Hide blushed a bright purple and galloped out of the classroom, knocking a few more tables over in the process.

“Children! For Celestia’s sake, what has gotten into you?” berated Twilight, barely holding back her temper. “Why would you ever treat somepony like that?”

Twilight made a mental note to seek out Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and give them a stern lecture on how they should not let their children behave in the same fashion they had as foals.

“He’s asking for it, always messing things up like that,” replied Sapphire Tiara, still trying to stifle a giggle.

“You all should be ashamed, that colt goes through things that would give you nightmares, and he goes through them every day!" Twilight ranted. "And speaking of nightmares, I'm going to have a word with your mothers, let them decide your punishment!"

At this, both ponies paled and curled defensively in their seats, swallowing audibly.

“Miss Sparkle, may I be excused?” asked Lucky Chance, with a concerned look on her face.

“Yes my little filly, go find your friend.” Twilight replied with a look of understanding.

Lucky Chance got out of her seat, galloping after her friend, her horn glowing as she righted all of the tables that Hide had knocked over.

“Hide!” Chance gasped, “Wait up!” Chance came galloping up, barely fazed by the entrance to the, still menacing, Everfree forest.

“Don’t follow me!” sulked the Earth Pony. “Ah'm gunna run away!”

“Why?” replied Chance, concerned, as she fell in step next to her closest friend.

“Ah'm tired'a bein' made fun of by everypony else.” Hide replied.

“But what about the Apple family? They love you, and they need your help with the harvest!” countered Chance. "Are you really going to leave Applebloom just like that?

Hide was an adopted pony. He had never met or seen his parents, and indeed, the only pony around with a similar pattern was the old zebra shaman, Zecora. Besides the stripes, however, he displayed no other zebra characteristics. He had been abandoned in the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres when he was very young. Applebloom found him trying to reach a relatively low lying apple, which promptly fell on him, hitting him in the forehead and causing a bout of tears. She took him back to the house and, after weeks of trying to find his parents, decided to adopt him as her own child.

Life with the Apple family was full of hard work,which would have been no trouble if it had not been compounded by Hide’s penchant for accidents. The colt’s bad luck caused many accidents, but he was rarely seriously hurt. Aunt Applejack named him Hide because nothing ever seemed to get through his thick skin.

The two friends walked for a little while in silence. Chance couldn’t think of any way to break the mood, so she resigned herself to watching for dangerous beasts. Even after Princess Twilight and her friends banished most of the darkness in the Everfree forest, some of the violent creatures were still spotted every so often.

“Ah jus' cause problems for them too! Yesterday Ah bucked a tree, and instead'a apples, a beehive fell down… “ Hide finally replied, breaking the silence. “Ah'm tired'a bein' made fun of, Ah'm tired'a bein' avoided all the time, and most of all, Ah'm sick-n-tired of all of this bad-”

As if predicting what he would say next, the forest floor collapsed under him, sending him tumbling into the darkness.