10 Years Later
Harmony quickly zipped from cloud to cloud, trying not to break from cover too often. She glanced down every now and then, making sure she was still unseen as she sped for the schoolhouse. Her mornings were always like this, with her trying to hide from everypony. They always just... stared at her. Some looked on with fear, disgust, or concern. Others saw her as a young goddess, to be worshiped and adored. Still others saw a mystery to be exploited.
She hated it so much.
Finally reaching her destination, Harmony landed softly next to the door and went inside, trotting quickly to her desk in the back of the room. Upon placing her saddlebags under her desk, she levitated a piece of paper and a pencil from them, sitting down and beginning yet another drawing.
A few minutes later, the bell rang for class to begin. Quickly stowing away her drawing, she shrunk down in her seat as far as she could, seemingly trying to melt into the desk. Her classmates poured in, each one sneaking a nervous glance at her when taking their seat. When everyone was seated, Miss Cheerilee began to take roll, reading through the seating chart and looking to see if everypony was there.
"Glimmer Wink, Starbeam, Echo Song, Bubble Pond..." Going through the list, she finally made it to the seat in the back corner. "...aaaand, Harmony. Okay, that's everyone! Class, today you're going to be nice and polite for your fellow classmates' relatives for Family Appreciation Day, as they share a little bit about themselves and what they do for a living."
If it was possible for Harmony to sink any lower, she would've. She remembered telling her mom about Family Appreciation Day, and her mom marking it on her calender and (somehow) fit it into her schedule, but she had completely forgotten that it was today. She also knew that the list of students whose parents were coming in was alphabetized, meaning that she was in the first half to have their parents come in. She shuffled her wings nervously and tried to forget about the incredibly long and boring lecture that was to come.
She silently waited through five different presentations, and she had to admit that they were pretty interesting. Bubble Pond's mom was a musician. Echo Song's aunt was a rodeo clown. Glimmer Wink's dad was a really rich antiques dealer. But alas, she knew that none of them could compare to...
"And our next guest is going to be Harmony's mother, Princess Twilight Sparkle!" Harmony jumped in her seat as Miss Cheerilee proudly announced Twilight. The class bowed as well as they could from their seats, and Harmony faceplanted into the table and groaned.
Twilight nodded to Cheerilee and began her story. "Today, I am going to tell all of you how I became who I am today. It wouldn't have been possible without my friends, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack. It all started back in Canterlot, thirteen years ago, when I was sent to Ponyville to oversee the organization for the Summer Sun Celebration and make some friends..." There was no stopping her now. Twilight had launched into the epic take of how she became princess.
Harmony rolled her eyes at the class, who were all completely engrossed with the story. It was only natural, of course. She had heard this story a thousand times, while these fillies and colts were hearing from Twilight herself for the first time. This time, though, Harmony noticed something a little different. It seemed to be going by much quick than usual, as if Twilight was... leaving out details to make the story shorter? Harmony shrugged the thought away, clapping with the rest of the class as Twilight finished up her story and left.
The rest of the relatives went by in a blur, although she paid rapt attention to the fathers. When the day was over and the school bell rang for the day to be over, Harmony tried to get out of there as fast as she could. Unfortunately, she was trapped in the corner as usual. Glimmer Wink and her lackey, Starbeam, were already there, blocking her path. Being pegasai, they were able to keep her trapped there. Harmony sighed in resignation, wishing she had mastered that teleportation spell, and waited for the verbal abuse to begin.
"Well, well, well, Starbeam," began Glimmer in a nasal, stuck-up-brat type of voice. "Looks like another blank-flank to me."
Starbeam replied in the same annoying tone, "Wait, that's not all! Why, she's an alicorn blank flank! What kind of high and mighty alicorn doesn't have a special talent?"
"Well, this one, obviously. What kind of name is 'Harmony,' anyway? Do we need to bow down to our youngest princess? Should we bask in your royal glory?" They were really starting to grind on Harmony's nerves now. Just because I'm an alicorn doesn't make me a princess, she thought. She was just about to push them away with a magical force field when she heard Starbeam's comment.
"She doesn't even have a dad! He probably left when he realized what geeky, lonely whores she and her mom are."
Too far.
That was too far.
Harmony yelled in defiant rage, blasting the two bullies to the floor with her magic. Then, once casting a wing-and-leg- wobbling spell, she flew out, tears streaming down her face and clouding her vision. She didn't even care which route she took, only that it took her home. She almost rammed head-on with several ponies, swerving to avoid an oddly-placed blue box, not even bothering to apologize as she raced back to the library.
Just as she was about to slam into the front door, she yanked it open with her silvery magic, zipping upstairs to her bedroom. Unfortunately, she was caught in a field of magenta magic as she was halfway up the stairs. Breaking a sweat and straining with the effort of trying to escape, she gave up and fell limp. Turning to meet Twilight's gaze, she sniffed rather pathetically.
"If I let you go, will you stay and tell me what happened?" Harmony nodded to Twilight's request. When she set the filly down, she immediately started sobbing, pouring out her explanation with her tears.
"I'M NOT A WORTHLESS TALENTLESS BLANK FLANK AND I DO HAVE A DADDY SOMEWHERE AND I'M NOT A GEEKY LONELY WHORE AND NEITHER ARE YOU MUMMY!!!" Harmony looked up at Twilight's flabbergasted expression with her pitiful gray eyes, and tried to slow her breathing down. "Glimmer -hic- Wink and Starbeam -hic- called me a worthless alicorn blank flank, -hic- and they said that my daddy left because we were both geeky -hic- lonely whores. But it can't be true mummy, can it? I know that you're not a whore, and I bloody well know that I'm not, so why would they -hic- say these horrible things to me?"
Twilight's eyes were now filled with rage at the young bullies. She soothed Harmony, sitting diwn with her and gently hugging her, saying "It's okay, you're okay. They're just jealous because you're different, and they want to be different, too. You can't let them get to you, got it? Now, I'm going to have a serious talk with these fillies' parents and Miss Cheerilee so they can't bully you anymore, okay?" Harmony nodded sadly.
"There's also this... one thing, that I've been wanting to ask about for a long time," Harmony began.
"Oh? And what would that be?"
"Do I have a daddy?"