Six years ago
Fillydelphia High School
Fillydelphia
A lot of ponies would say that senior high school is one of the best moments in one's life, and that's actually true. But for a select few, it can also be the worst moments in their life at the same time. For now, Blue Streak still thinks positively. He may only have a couple of friends, but their bond is very tight together, and they never fail to cheer or help each other.
Blue Streak is often seen with Clear Flask, a white female earth pony that's known to be smart and still rather outgoing. She's the pony that everypony else run to everytime there would be a test. Although she's always happy to help, sometimes she got rather annoyed by the fact that almost the entire class wants her to teach them. A hang out with her close friends always washes that negative thought, though.
The other member of the group is Ace Baret, a green male pegasus. Known to be rather rowdy, probably because he's a son of a soldier, he has a rather odd relation with the group. Sometimes he's the source of internal conflicts because of his jokes and a bit of his sexist attitude (Which often annoys Clear Flask), but it's never serious enough to permanently severe their bond.
The three had been classmates for a few years. But alas, as they're entering high school, they got separated in different classes. Worse, Blue Streak noted that some of his classmates are ponies that he didn't really want to bother with, something his friends were also concerned with. Bullies are known to still exist in high school, after all. And, although Blue Streak is not exactly a punching bag, he's still prone to some verbal abuse.
Blue Streak had endured his class for around four months now. He had took note of his classmates behavior towards him. There are some who deliberately target him, but most of them just gives in to peer pressure, like laughing at some of the 'jokes' given to him. Those kinds of ponies he can tolerate, because they're not really evil, and can be nice to him at times, but...
There's a test today, and it's a classic scene in a high school. Some students just don't give a crap, some just talk about it with their friends, some just realized this very second that there's a test, and so on. A few ponies study hard for the test, though, and Blue Streak is one of them. He's not exactly a genius, but studying is what you should do in school. Sitting on his desk with a book, Blue Streak scratches his already heated head. The course with Clear Flask helps, but not enough. There's just so many things to remember.....
"Hey, Blue bangs, what are you doing?"
Blue Streak mentally exhales. That voice only belongs to Lily Dew, the so-called head honcho of the class. Most of the class follows her lead, but to the blue pegasus, she's a devil incarnate. There's literally no reason for her to mess with him, but she still does all the time anyway.
It doesn't help that beside that white mare, there's always a red female unicorn accompanying her. Rose Thorn is just as annoying, and Blue Streak always hated spoiled, attention seeking ponies. She's the kind of pony that will go into tantrum if she doesn't get what she wants. Blue Streak simply glares at them briefly, before pretending that they don't exist.
"My, aren't you such a try hard at life? No wonder you got so few friends." Lily smirked. Well, it's better then having the entire class as your sheep instead of real friends.
"Yeah, why try so hard? Studying doesn't help!" Rose added. Well, that's because you kept failing tests left, right, and center. Not gonna happen to me, I'm going to keep studying.
"...Say, are you listening to us?" Nope. "Maybe we need to do something to grab his attention, Rose!"
A red hoof covers most of the page Blue is reading. For once, Blue is rather thankful that he needs to read another book to study all the materials for the test. Completely ignoring the harassment, the pegasus opens the other book he needs to study from. But this time, green colored magic from Rose's horn took grab of it. Try as he might, he can't open the book. The standoff lasted a few more seconds before the book got flipped through the air from the force it's receiving. Out of impulse, Blue Streak stood up and looks the red unicorn in the eyes, hitting his own desk in the process.
"I mean, if you didn't pull that hard, that book would've been okay right now." Rose giggled, giving an obviously fake apologetic look.
"You're happy now? Will you go away now?" Blue Streak growled, trying his best to control himself from punching the mare right there and then.
"Maybe, maybe not. What if we don't want to go? What are you going to do, blue bangs? Hit a mare?" Lily taunted.
"...My parents told me not to, but you two know better that rules are made to be broken, right?" Blue countered, trying to sound threatening. But deep inside, he doesn't want this. He's a better pony then that. Heck, he never hit somepony before.
"You wouldn't, pee wee." Rose said with the most disgusting looking grin Blue had ever seen in somepony's face. "Mommy and daddy wouldn't be happy about that, right?"
"You're going to break your parent's rule? Oh, how could you!?" Lily dramatically gasped. "You're such a bad boy!"
...No, he really doesn't want to do that. Hitting somepony else, especially mares, goes against everything his parents taught him. Not to mention he'll probably get in trouble with the school. But if he had to, if he REALLY had to...
"I think everypony would have a field day with this! Blue Streak, is going to go against mommy and daddy's words! Rose, we should tell somepony about this!" Lily turned around and laughed, shooting one last mischievous look at Blue. Rose follows her away.
"Urgh..." Blue smacks his head on the desk. If there's anything he hated about bullying, he hates it even more if his parents are involved. He's the kind of pony that would do anything to make his parents happy for raising him with love, and he feels kind of guilty by the fact he haven't done anything to make them proud. No awards, not that good at sports, and never joining any kind of competition. Keeping his grades from failing is the least he can do for now, but he feels that's not enough.
It's a few days after the test, and the teacher had just returned the test papers with the grades shown on them. Blue Streak isn't that satisfied. A seventy seven mark is just enough to not get a fail, but he should be able to do better. It must be because of their intervention... Suddenly, a hoof across the shoulder made Blue froze briefly.
"He~y, Blue, how's yours?" A rather raspy voice called. Blue would know only Focus Sight talks like that. Because he had to undergo a surgery in the past, his voice would sometimes cut out randomly while he speaks. He's actually a nice pony, but often also gives in to peer pressure in bullying. It's more like he doesn't know that jokes can hurt people. Despite that, Blue still consider him as a friend, albeit a rather untrusted one...
"Eh, could've done better. You?" Blue asked. Focus chuckled, his test result shouldn't be that hard to guess. Instead, the black coated male pegasus took a peek at Blue's score.
"Who~a, you should teach me some~time." He said. "How'd you ~ be that good? You got Clear F~lask to teach you a~gain?"
"A bit." Blue answered.
"...Private ses~sion?" The blue pegasus stops his movements, and give Focus a look that clearly said 'Seriously?', causing the pegasus to laugh. Blue always finds it annoying that he's sometimes shipped with Clear Flask. Finding a marefriend is dead last in his priorities list, another thing that can be used against him by his classmates.
"He~y, don't take it too seriously. I~'m just kidding." Focus claimed.
"I know... Just not in the mood today, sorry." Blue said as he got up from his desk. It's recess time, and he would like to get something to eat. Plus, this is an opportunity to meet up with Clear and Ace, his best friends. There's no way he'll miss this out.
"Cheer up, B~lue. You look like that, and Topaz might ha~ve a go at you." Focus called out.
Oh dear Celestia, not another one. Topaz Solid is yet another bully he rather not meet. The thing is, he and his gang acts as if Blue is several years younger then them, something that the pegasus never appreciates. Like the others, they wouldn't stop doing it either, although they don't always harass him at every corner like Lily did. What's worse, Topaz is leading three other ponies that's as bad as him when dealing with Blue. One of them is--
"Oof!"
"Hey, watch it!"
--Rocket Flare. Known to express his emotions through physical means, this red male pegasus had been into trouble a few times in the past, one of them is considered to be serious. Why he's not expelled yet is beyond Blue's understanding. Blue ignores him and kept walking, but his nemesis snuck a rather hard shove to his head, almost causing Blue to step out of balance. For a moment, Blue fears this might turn to something serious, but he's kind of relived that Rocket decided to leave him alone for now. He better leave the class before he changes his mind.
The school canteen is a rather peaceful retreat for Blue, considering everypony that may target him usually decided to mind their own businesses instead. Plus, he got Clear Flask and Ace Baret with him right now. Their presence alone is enough to sooth him. Together on the same table, they do some small talk while having a meal.
"...I swear, that question didn't come from the book!" Ace complained, talking about the test before.
"It IS there, you know. Didn't I taught you that before?" Clear Flask countered, taking a sip from a glass of orange juice. "Do you remember it, Blue?"
"I think so... Requires us to improvise a bit, though." Blue said. "I don't get it right, but got points for trying."
"Oh, whatever. What's done is done." Ace shrugged. "So, Blue, how's your day?"
"Could be better." The pegasus took a bite from his sandwich, subtly saying he doesn't want to talk about it.
"...Hey, Blue? What do you say if we stop at my house after school for some R&R?" Clear Flask offered. "Some of our friends already asked me about it."
"Oh?" Blue's attention is immediately caught. "What is this? A rare student's night out?". Blue is one of those ponies that rarely visited somepony else's home, even his best friends, but he always wanted to do so. The idea of spending time outside school with his friends just to have fun is always welcome.
"It's a suggestion by our friends." Clear giggled. "We're thinking of playing board games and such, and there will be at least six of us. I bet it's gonna be fun!"
"Oh! And I can fetch my playing cards real quick!" Ace added. "I can't wait, actually!"
"Now you're getting me hyped up." Blue smiled. This is a rare chance, after all. School had kept everyone busy that they never had a chance to hang out with that many ponies at the same time. "I'll be looking forward to it!"
"We all are, Blue." Ace nodded, taking a bite from his own sandwich. The band of three friends soon finish their food and prepares to return to class for the last sessions. In the end, Blue was smiling until the end of the day, and it'll only get better after school.