//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 The Early Years // Story: Remember Me // by ripjump12 //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Early Years 40 years before the disappearance of Star Sparkle: It was late morning, but the pegasi were still clearing the sky of unwanted clouds. The night before consisted of heavy rains, and loud booms of thunder that shook the small city of Ponyville. Earth ponies and unicorns assisted with the clean-up. Tree branches were quickly gathered up. Life returned to normal. Every pony went about its daily business. Star Sparkle was tardy. Assisting her mother with the branches delayed her 5 minutes. She could not get to school on time. Her little filly legs did not have the energy to move at a faster pace. Other ponies at school would surely make fun of her… She continued to gallop towards the distant school house. She didn’t even care about the ridicule she would receive from her peers. Other ponies already made fun of her for being 11 years of age without a cutie mark. Some doctors also question why someone of her age has yet to receive a cutie mark. Star finally arrived at the main entrance of the school house. He heard voices inside of the school. It sounded like the teacher’s voice. Oh no… The class has already begun its studies. She walked up to the class door and knocked slowly and quietly. Star preferred to not be noticed by the entire class. The teacher noticed the filly at the door. She was disappointed. Star Sparkle, her best student, was tardy to class. “Well look who decided to show up. It is our good friend Star Sparkle. I hope you have prepared a good excuse for being 15 minutes late” The teacher opened the door and allowed Star Sparkle to enter the class room. “Hey four eyes, did you forget when school started? Maybe those big glasses of yours are making you stupid...er. Ha Ha!” The entire class erupted with laughter. Ponies were pointing at her and laughing hysterically. It was true, Star Sparkle did wear glasses. Without her trusty glasses she would be unable to notice anything that was 4 ft away from her. One little filly snatched her glasses and tossed them across the room. Star Sparkle struggled to try and see where the glasses had landed. Her perception was awful. She did not notice that a group of fillies were tossing the glasses over her head. They threw her glasses back and forth. The teacher than used her magic to capture Star’s glasses. They were frozen in mid-air. She then levitated it towards Star. Star grabbed her glasses and placed them on her head. Something wasn’t right… Star noticed that the right frame was bent. She tried to bend it back to its original form. The frame then developed a large crack. She decided not to mess with the glasses. Her uncle made them for her when she turned 8. Her glasses were special, and she didn’t want to break them. “I don’t want to see any more bullying in this class! Do you understand me?!” The teacher frightened the three bullies and they immediately started working on warm ups for math. "You three all have 4 hour detention after school tomorrow! GOT THAT!" The teacher yelled at the 3 bullies. All they did was continue with their homework. Star Sparkle wanted to thank her teacher for standing up for her. She only wished that she could do something with her glasses. If she perfected magic she might have been able to warp the metal. “Hey Star, you feeling ok? Did those three bullies hurt you?” Cheerilee, Star’s best friend, was trying her best to grab Star’s attention. Cheerilee always helped Star, but at times even Cheerilee was made fun of. She was a teacher’s pet. She even said she wanted to teach as a future profession. “I don’t know if I feel so good. The bullies at this school always make fun of me. I hope that they will not touch my glasses again. Without my glasses everything is frizzy and it makes me dizzy” Star Sparkle rolled her eyes in random positions to resemble her confusion. This made Cheerilee laugh a little bit. She was glad that Star Sparkle was able to recover quickly from the insults. Star Sparkle smiled at Cheerilee and looked down at her desk. She grabbed the closest pencil and set a piece of paper on the table. The class chalk board was already full of doodles, problems, examples, and notes. Star marked down every last word that was visible. Star looked up from her notes to see the next example her teacher had written. She then noticed the bullies staring at her. They were obviously mad that the teacher punished them. They were blaming it on her! One of the bullies then punched two forehoofs together. Star was worried. They were threatening her. If she told the teacher, then the bullies would want to beat her up more. Star wanted class to end. Home was pretty far away, so she would have to sprint to evaid the fight. After a long day of class, the bell finally rang. It was time. Star Sparkle already set her book on it’s shelve. She galloped to the door and opened it quickly. Star Sparkle tried her best to get as far away from school as possible. After 5 minutes of galloping she arrived at the center of Ponyville. She slowed down to a trot and continued on through the town. Her house was on the opposite side of town. It would be easy to get home now, but then Star heard ponies running up from behind her. She looked behind herself and noticed the bullies chasing her! Star Sparkle quickly started galloping towards the alleys. She could lose them there, but they kept up with her pace. Slam! One of the ponies had thrown her onto the ground behind a large building. She could not comprehend what just happened. Blood emerged from her nose and right eye. Star Sparkle was frighten at the ponies actions towards her. The pony held her forehoofs down while the large bully started throwing punches at her face. Every punch hurt her more and more. On top of the excruciating pain, she felt one of her teeth come loose. The pony kept on hitting her while the others laughed at her. Star Sparkle started screaming. Tears were pouring from her eyes. This had to be a bad dream. It couldn’t be happening. The large bully covered her mouth and punched Star right in the eye. She felt extreme pain emerge from the left side of her face. Blood now was oozing out of her eye socket. Tears and blood covered her horrified face. “STOP! PLEASE STOP! I WILL GIVE YOU ANYTHI-“The bully leader then smacked her cheek, but Star kept on trying to scream. “SHUT UP! IT IS YOUR FAULT WE ARE IN TROUBLE! YOU ARE GOING TO PAY!” The punches from the bullies grew stronger. The two other bullies started wailing on her. Then suddenly, they stopped. The leader was lifted off of his hooves and then thrown straight at the brick wall of the building. The bully fell to the ground, unconscious. Blood started pouring out of his mouth. The two other bullies were then both tackled by a single small colt. The young colt started hitting them with rocks. The bullies started shrieking. The faces were bruised and covered in blood. Another colt then lifted up Star Sparkle. Star could barely see anything. All she could make out was that the pony who lifted her up had a blue coat. He ran as fast as he could from the ally. The other colt followed right behind him. All of the bullies were on the ground, unconscious. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Star Sparkle emerged from a long sleep to find herself in an unknown bedroom. A blanket was placed on top of her. Photos of rock bands, Wonderbolts, and comic book dragons covered the walls. This was definitely a colt’s room. Star was sure of it. The pain then set in. Her left eye was killing her. She felt extreme pain in her mouth and on her cheeks. Something cool was on her bruised horn. It was an ice pack. Star Sparkle noticed the door to the room open slowly. She tried to get out of the bed, but the pain was holding her back. A blue unicorn colt walked into the room. He had two moons as a cutie mark. It looked like the colt that carried her out of the alley. “Hello, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Night Light. Me and my little brother hurt those bullies pretty bad, didn’t we?” Night Light was smiling at Star. He looked attracted to her, but Star was not sure of it. “It… it is nice to…ow… meet you” Pain hit Star Sparkle in waves. It seemed as if she was just punched only a few minutes ago. She tried to move her forelegs, but apparently they were hurting too. “Don’t move. It will hurt even more” Night Light then trotted over to the bedside. “Where… where am I? What time is… it?” It even hurt Star Sparkle to move her mouth. She felt one of her teeth missing. “You are at my house. It is 8:00 pm, but don’t worry about time. You won’t be moving for a little while” Night Light’s horn then began to glow. He lifted up a new icepack and replaced Star’s current one on her horn. When the first icepack was removed Star saw a large scrape on it. It was bright red, probably from when she fell on the ground… “Here… Does that feel better?” The cold ice pack on Star’s horn sent chills through her body. It didn’t bother Star. She sat there and tried to adjust to the freezing icepack. “I would’ve done that myself… but my magic, I have yet to perfect it.” Star Sparkle tried to make her horn glow, but all that appeared were a few sparks. This sent excruciating pain throughout her head. “AHH! My horn… my face… and my entire… GAH…body… hurts so much! Make the pain go away!” Star Sparkle could not take the intense pain anymore. She wanted to be in her own bed with her mom. She didn’t want to be sleeping in a stranger’s bed covered in bruises and cuts. “I can’t do anything about it! Please! I am trying my best!” Night Light then used magic to grab a pill bottle. He placed a tablet on the nightstand next to Star. “I don’t want pills! They are gross, and… hard to swallow! Can’t your magic heal me?!” Star was now yelling with anxiety. She was worried, and was about to have a mental breakdown. “Magic can’t do that sort of stuff! It takes time to heal. I have been trying to find out were your mother lives so we can tell her!” Night Light lifted up a large book with all the names of ponies in Ponyville. “We are right here! How did you not find us?” Star Sparkle pointed her hurting foreleg at the address. “Ohhh. There you are! My little brother must have spelled your name wrong. I will go get your mom right away!” Night Light then placed the book on the ground and galloped out of the bedroom door. “Hello? He-Hello?! Is anyone there?” Star Sparkle was alone again in the bedroom. The pain was getting stronger. She had no choice but to swallow the pill. She fumbled around with her hooves to get a grip of it. She then placed it in her mouth. She then set her head back on the pillow and swallowed. It hurt, but she able to swallow the entire pill. All she could do was hope that the pain would go away. She then heard something approaching the door. A small colt entered the room. Star recognized him. “Hi... You look familiar, but... I can’t put my hoof... on it” Star Sparkle was trying her best to see the colt out of her good eye. She then focused in and noticed that the colt was a small red unicorn. He must have been the little brother of Night Light. Then it hit her. Star remembered who the colt was. It was the shy kid that sat in the corner of class! “Hey I recognize you. Aren’t you the small colt that keeps to himself during class?” Star tried to smile at the colt so she wouldn’t scare him. He did not respond. He just looked down at his hooves. “Not much of a talker are ya’. Is this why you don’t answer questions in class?” The colt looked up at Star. He looked aggravated. She almost forgot that he had perfect grades, and he knocked 2 bullies out with one strike. “Hey… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I really should be thanking you” Star Sparkle pulled the covers up to hide her embarrassment. “Those bullies had it coming. No one hurts a filly in my class” For such a little shy colt, he had a good voice. It was direct and to the point. Star was amazed. She had never heard him speak the entire year. “So you DO talk! How did you manage to knock... out the two bullies with one hit? That was… ow… amazing!” Star then lowered the volume of her voice. Talking added to the pain. “I learned some moves from the Sweet Apple Acres family. Mrs. Smith is really good at putting up a fight! I visit her after school for tips!” The little colt’s facial expression rose from aggravated to happy in only a few seconds. He was proud of his fighting skills. A couple of minutes passed as they talked. Star discovered many interesting facts about Night Light’s family. They were one of the founders of Ponyville. Their ancestors fought in the civil war for peace 1000 years ago. Most of their family actually lived in the high class city of Canterlot. Suddenly, the bedroom door then flung open. It almost hit the little colt. Luckily he jumped out the way. Standing at the entrance of the room was Star Sparkle’s mom. She was panicking, and was covered in sweat. “MY BABY! SWEETIE! What did they do to you?!” Star Sparkle’s mom was at her bedside immediately. Her mom looked at her in horror. Nothing like this ever happened in their family. “Why did this happen?! Please tell me!” Star Sparkle’s mom was lightly touching Star’s wounds. Each one scared her mother even more. It would take a long time to explain this…