//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: A Burnt Out Star 
// Story: Isn't it Great to be Different? 
// by BronyDerp117 
//------------------------------//


Isn't it Great to be Different?
Written by BronyDerp117
Inspired by Great To Be Different by Forest Rain



Chapter One



I've lived a difficult life. I'm not a normal pony. I'm an abnormal pony in an abnormal town, Ponyville. I've never been the normal one. I've always been the smart one, or the weird one, or the shy one, or just the different one. Usually all of those, mashed together into one strange individual. I've never listened to the same music as everypony else. I've never dressed or talked like everypony else. I was teased, looked down upon, and spit at. Being the grandcolt of a infamous Equestrian mastermind didn't help either. So what if I'm related to him? That doesn't make me him. I would listen to a rock song titled "Would It Matter" every night. It made me think: would it matter if I didn't wake up in the morning? My life was never so dark in only my fifteenth year of life, like I was trapped in a freezing, dark stone room with rain pouring above the roof, chilling water slowly seeping and crawling its way through the cracks, landing on my drenched head with my cold mane in my eyes, to just add to my thick bag of countless emotions, most of which were negative. 

But when I was sixteen, a small shimmer of light came into my life. She was like a beautiful rose; she was kind, sweet, and one of the most loving mares I ever met. She brightened my life the day we met. She accepted who I was, and she loved me for who I was. She wasn't like the others, who simply looked at me with a look as if to say, "What the hay are you?" She looked at me and saw me for who I was, a unique stallion living in a standardized, judgmental world. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little on that, maybe I'm not. Either way, there were a lot of cruel ponies who gave me reason enough to think that.

Anyways, on my eighteenth birthday we went out to dinner to a restaurant on the beach in Los Pegasus, where I grew up. I didn't move to Ponyville after the incident.

I still remember every little detail of that night at that restaurant. I ordered deep fried hay fries and an avocado sandwich, and Shining Star ordered a simple salad with ranch dressing.  The hay fries were salted perfectly, and had a delicious crisp to them. Shining Star's salad was very fresh and crunchy, judging by the sounds I remember. Our waitress was very professional and had a cute, bubbly personality. She also had very unique eyes; they were a very distinct aureate color, unlike any I had seen before. She was our age, too, around seventeen or eighteen. I made sure to leave her a large tip. 

After eating, we walked around to the back of the restaurant to the beach down a small slope. The cool orange sun was slowly descending into the sparkling water that was littered with little white caps. The enormous sun was reflecting off the water in such a way that the star was under the surface of the water, glowing its bright orange-pink light into the open sky, turning the few clouds across the sky into soft pink pillows. It was the perfect sunset for the perfect mare. I knew that was the night.

While we were in mid-conversation, I told her to close her eyes. She made everything seem cute. Just the simple act of closing those big brown eyes made my heart flutter. Her silky dark brown mane flowed like a flag on top of a skyscraper in the soft wind of the sea. I reached into the pocket of the hooded vest I was wearing, and pulled out a small navy blue suede box with my hooves. I opened the box, and inside was the key to a new life. A better life.

I told her to open her eyes, and she immediately gasped. It wasn't a very big diamond, but I spent my life's savings on it, so it wasn't too bad. In the light of the sun setting, it sparkled a pink gleam like pink lights through a disco ball. But instead of lights and disco balls, it was a stunning star shooting its cool rays through a small diamond. When she opened her eyes, she saw me on my hooves, holding a sparkling diamond out. Tears began to flow down her face, then I asked the question.

"Shining Star, when my life was at its absolute darkest, when I had thought about ending it every single night right there in my dark room, you opened the window and brightened it. You showed me life. Now, I want to give it to you. Shining Star, will you marry me?"

Her tear-filled big brown eyes shimmered in the radiant light the diamond was giving off. She gave me the biggest grin I had ever seen and said after she found herself able to speak, "Yes!" I carefully slid the engagement ring onto her unicorn horn, then I embraced her with the biggest hug I could muster. Tears of joy were running down her face, and I was getting teared up, too. I had been so unbearably nervous. We stood there on the beach lost in each other's warm embrace for what seemed like hours with the calm wind gently flowing through our manes. All that mattered in my life was her, and I had just sealed an entire lifetime with her. Or so I thought.

After that night, we began to plan out the wedding. We decided to hold it at a little place a few miles down the shoreline from where I proposed during that sunset. However, when we went to the wedding planning agency, they said the next available time to have a wedding there would be in three years. Apparently, it was one of the most popular locations in Los Pegasus for weddings that year. She told me we could have the wedding somewhere else, but I told her no. She had dreamed of getting married there her entire life, and I was going to make sure she fulfilled that dream. I told her I didn't care if it took ten years. I told her that I would make sure our special day would be perfect. 

Now fast-forward two years and eleven months. It was three weeks until the wedding. Three weeks until I began a new life with the mare I loved. What a great three years it was. We spent nearly every day together, and I developed a new love for something. Writing. We decided to write our own unique vows. So while I was writing them, I noticed just how much I enjoyed writing these simple lines on the paper. The lines that I used to hate having to write. Every story I had ever written had been an assigned idea for English class. I had never written my own story before. A story that was mine, not theirs. I paused the writing of my vows, and I wrote a story. I sent it in to a local newspaper agency that automatically copyrighted your works for you. It exploded with attention, and many ponies sent letters to me giving me criticism. They were surprisingly helpful and precise with the many, many errors I made. A few months later, I wrote another story. And then another, and then another. My writing skills began to develop more and more, and they finally showed in a story I posted five months after the first. This one exploded yet again with attention, so much that it was featured on the front page of the newspaper and a famous book store in Los Pegasus. People asked me if I was a published author, and if I had any books in stores, and they were surprised when I told them I was not. It felt amazing to be acknowledged. 

I learned a lot during the three years of being engaged with Shining Star. I learned how to play the guitar, to sing, and I learned to make oil paintings. Though I still cannot draw that well at all. And I learned to write great stories, and I learned more about my fiance. We were already best friends, but those little, tiny details that came out just strengthened us further. One lesson I learned, however, was one I never wanted to learn.

It was three weeks before the wedding, and we were making final preparations. My literature class at Los Pegasus University had just ended, when I decided to send a message to Shining Star asking about the wedding cake. In Los Pegasus and some other western Equestria cities, they had these message delivery systems. It was very complicated, but simple to use. You could purchase this magically enchanted device, and put a note in there, then you pressed a button and said the name and magic code of the unicorn you wanted to send it to. That was the only disadvantage though: you could only send to unicorns, and each unicorn had been assigned a magic code. On the note, I wrote, "Hey Star, are we getting the cake today or this weekend? See you when I get home from class." I slipped the note into the slot on the device, and pressed the button, then said, "Shining Star. Magic code C4459." The device then made its usual beeps and hums, then a dinging sound when it had sent.

I then proceeded to trot home. It had been a long day, and I needed a nice laugh from Star. I arrived at the tall glass and metal building that was our apartment building in Los Pegasus, and trotted through the double glass doors. I greeted the receptionist as I walked past and up the stairs to the fifth floor, where Star and I's apartment was. When I unlocked the door, opened it, and saw that nopony was home, I became slightly worried. I searched around the apartment to see if Shining Star had left a note for me, and I found such a note in the kitchen, attached to one of the cabinets. The note read in Star's elegant unicorn writing, "Hey Forest, went to go get carrots at the store for dinner. Be back at around 5PM. Love, Star."

The note did nothing but make me worry even further. It was 6PM, and Shining Star had never been late to anything unless something extremely important came up. I began pacing around our apartment in an anxious frenzy. I eventually decided to calm down, take deep breaths, and enjoy a nice read. I went into the kitchen and prepared myself a cup of piping hot green tea, and made my way to the small study in Shining Star's and I's bedroom. But as I was exiting the kitchen, my best friend, Rolling Thunder, came bursting through my door in a heavy sweat and pant.

"Thunder, what the hay are doing busting down my door?!" I yelled angrily at the slim midnight blue coated stallion. His charcoal grey spiked mane was in an absolute mess.

He stood panting for a few moments as I gave him a death glare of anger. My death glare was famous among my friends. "Sh-Shining... Shining Star. Hospital... now," he said through gasps and pants. My heart sunk. I knew my friend well enough to know what he meant. I broke off into a full gallop and barreled past Rolling Thunder, knocking him over. But he quickly got pack on his hooves and began to gallop right behind me down the stairs and through the bottom floor. I pushed through the fancy glass doors and started flying as fast as my Pegasus wings would let me in the direction of the hospital, and Rolling Thunder still followed close, though he was obviously fatigued. 

While we were on the way, I looked over to Rolling and asked him, "What in Celestia's name happened? Is Star okay?"

He looked over at me and replied, "Something about reading a message and not seeing a stagecoach coming straight at her!" My eyes widened as I realized that message was mine. I began to fly even faster, faster than I had ever flown before. We got to the hospital after a few moments, and I rushed through the door nearly knocking over two massive security guard stallions. There were two nurses at the front desk. I galloped up to the desk and said with a desperate voice, "Shining Star, what room is she in?"

The mare on the right, who appeared to be older and had a snow white coat with a blood red mane, said to me, "Um, room 364, but--" I didn't let her finished as I took off down the white tile floor hall and up the wooden stairs. I flew down the next hall to room 364. The door was closed, so I pushed through it. In the room, there were two stallions wearing white coats and doctors badges. They were at front of the bed looking at me with shocked expressions. It was almost like they were blocking the bed from me seeing it. I prayed to Celestia that my suspicions were not correct.

I looked at them, and screamed at the top of my lungs,"Where is she?! Where's Shining Star?!" They looked at me with heartbroken and defeated faces. As if confirming my nightmare, they stepped to the left, revealing an occupied hospital bed with the snow white sheets covering the pony's head. On a clip board hanging off of the foot of the bed, read Shining Star's name and her medical condition. I couldn't believe it. 

The star that shone light into my life had just burned out.