All of my friends had helped me put my class together, actually most credit goes to Twilight for her amazing organization skills, but all in all everypony helped out! Applejack was just applying the finishing touches to the class sign which read, “DISABLED PEGASI, YOU DO HAVE A PURPOSE”. I smiled at the genius of the words, them being mine of course! I watched in amazement as pegasi from across Equestria filed in to my class, including Fluttershy’s daughter, Perfect. She glanced over at me and beamed from ear to ear at how many ponies had shown up and I returned the smile. Applejack raised a hoof in the air and I gave it a whole-hearted slap with my hoof. She smiled and then trotted over to help Rarity and Pinkie Pie hook up the audio system. It was funny to watch the poor ponies fumble around with the equipment, but Vinyl Scratch was late, so we would have to do with what we had.
Then a young colt approached me. I noticed that one wing was missing two of the main feathers and that the other was just a little stump on the side of his body. He didn’t say a single word to me, but he looked deep into my eyes as if he wanted to say something. Then I saw his eyes tear up and he gave me a half of a smile. Then he sat back down where he was before. At first, I was confused by this sudden display of emotion. I gazed around at all of the other young fillies and colts who had assembled and all of them were hugging one another and allowing only a few tears to slide down their faces. Each one of them glanced over at me and gave me a smile which I soon returned.
“Am I doing the right thing?” I had asked myself earlier that day. Turns out that every foal in the audience had answered my question right then and there.
Suddenly, feedback blared over the speakers and everypony covered up their ears and exclaimed in surprise. I looked over at Applejack who solved the problem by unplugging almost every wire that was possible to unplug and apologetically waving her hoof in the air. I groaned and trotted over.
“What happened?” I asked the three ponies who were all breathing heavily. Rarity had to straighten up her tangled mane before she could answer.
“Well, the microphone won’t work,” she bluntly stated.
“No! Really?” She rolled her eyes at my sarcasm, but then Pinkie Pie blocked my view of her by shoving herself into my face.
“If only Vinyl Scratch was here! We’d have this done in a jiffy!” She said enthusiastically.
“Yeah, but she’s not here, Pinkie! We’re going to have to make do for now!” I stomped my hoof on the ground in frustration.
“Then I guess you’re just going to have to yell, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said. I growled under my breath and approached the podium, kicking the microphone out of the way and clearing my throat. I took in a deep breath.
“DISABLED PEGASI, YOU DO HAVE A PURPOSE!” I screamed. The crowd responded by cheering loudly and several foals prancing about in place. I rubbed my throat and coughed slightly at the attempt that I just made to shout out loud. Rarity grinned playfully and then stepped aside to show me that Vinyl Scratch had been there the whole time! I muttered something that I shouldn’t have under my breath and allowed Vinyl to hook up the audio system. With a slight nod of her head, she placed a microphone in front of me and gave me a slap on the back with her hoof. I nodded my appreciation and then began to speak once more.
“A few weeks ago, I was about to become a Wonderbolt,” the audience fell into a silent stare, all of the foals gazing up at me with awestruck eyes. “But then somepony came, attacked me, and left me unable to fly any longer,” I looked down at my cutie mark. “When I got my cutie mark, I was flying. It appeared because I was flying and because I was flying fast!” Some foals were starting to tear up and look at their own cutie marks. One filly even cried out when she looked at hers: a lightning bolt entwined with leaves. Her mother tried to hush her, but to no avail. “But I’M not worthless!”
“Amen!” shouted Applejack. She waved her hat in the air and gave a country whoop of approval which made the foals in the audience smile.
“I still have a purpose in this world! And even though I don’t know what it is yet, I knew that THIS was the right thing to do!” I paused to take a breath, but a young colt raised his hoof. “Yes?”
“What is the right thing you’re doing?”
“I’m here to encourage you! Prove to you that you aren’t a waste of space! You can do something to help your fellow ponies!”
“But what?” He asked again.
“It’s different for everypony. You, for example,” I pointed to a filly with a pale grey coat and two broken wings. “You could become a doctor!” The filly smiled. I then pointed back to the questioning colt. “And you could even become mayor of Ponyville!”
He looked confused, but he smiled all the same. The foals all began to dry their tears and smile up at me. Applejack even shed a tear and gave another whoop of joy. I cleared my throat to continue, but I took one more look around me at all of the foals I was inspiring. That’s when I realized… that I actually WAS worth something!