//------------------------------//
// 3 - Sol Nightshade 
// Story: Marks of the Moon 
// by Moonatik 
//------------------------------//


10:46 - 14/03/995 - Rosely Hackamore High School, Hayston


Hoofball needs no introduction. It’s the most played sport in Equestria by far and away. Even if you don’t count its griffon equivalent, it’s the most played sport in the whole world. After all, you only need two small teams of ponies, a large enough flat space to play, something to mark the goals, and a ball. “But what about Buckball,” you ask? You need at least two earth ponies, two winged ponies, and two unicorns to play. “What about Baseball?” Needs lots of space, specialised bats, a specific sort of ball, and plenty of ponies. “What about Hockey?” If you live south of Manesbury and it’s not winter, forget about it.

Consequently, at practically every recess in every school in Equestria, you’d find colts and fillies playing hoofball. Rosely Hackamore Primary School, a relatively small building with limited outdoor space embedded in the dense brick and concrete jungle of Manehattan, was no different. In its yard, sitting in the shadow of towering Manehattanite architecture, no more than ten foals were playing in a crude jackets-for-goalposts hoofball setup. Amongst them, me.

On defence, I carefully yet skillfully ran across the yard keeping my eyes on the pony with the ball, my hooves rhythmically pounding against the concrete. I was fully immersed in the frenzied dance of playing ponies. Everypony was shouting something to their teammates or opponents, and a small set of onlookers cheering us on only added to the cacophony.

Without team kits or anything, the only way to identify who was on what team was by headwear. If, like me, you weren’t wearing a hat, you were on my team. If you had a hat, you were on the opposing team. We had a remarkable level of organisation amongst our teams considering we were kids, everypony knew their role and we had our own set of gestures and callouts to communicate and coordinate effectively. To us it felt like we were putting layered tactics into high-energy play, but to outside observers, it probably looked like chaos.

Right then, a hat had the ball and he was dashing for our goal. Not just any hat, Hat Trick, captain of the local junior hoofball club. Yes, the hats/no hats for teams thing was his idea. I ran up to Hat’s side. Keeping pace was difficult and heaving breaths left my mouth. Hat Trick threw me a glance, barely for a moment, then refocused himself on the ball and our goal. They make it too easy, don’t they? They always underestimated me. He slows, ready to punt the ball forward. That’s my chance. I swept in front of him and tackled the ball beneath his hooves.

“Hey!” Hat Trick protested. I threw him a cheeky smirk as I dashed off with the ball.

I whirled around. To my dismay, hats block my every path. A teammate on offence signals for me to pass. No good, the way is blocked by hats. Another teammate, at another end of the yard, awaits me to pass. Much the same, they’re also blocked off. By then I was practically cornered. A hat was running up to me on my right.

My heart raced like the wind. I could only strafe or back up so much until I was pushed off the yard. Yet dead ahead, a clear space. A clear space to their opposing goal. I had to think fast. I had to move fast. I had to be fast.

I had to go big or go home.

Instinct taking over, I swung my leg around, striking the ball and catapulting it across the yard.

It rocketed past the hats, my teammates, whisked off of the hat goalie’s hat, and flew straight through the opposing goal.

The ball hadn’t even hit the ground before my teammates erupted into cheers.

“Solana! Sweet Celestia, that was amazing!”

“Yes! Go Sol!”

“Who says fillies can’t play hoofball?”

I was swept up in a tsunami of triumphant elation, a smile reached across my face and I leapt into the air punching a hoof skywards screaming joyous laughter. As I landed, one teammate threw their leg around me, and then I was hoisted up in the air as more came on my side, everypony on my team chanted “Sol! Sol! Sol!” whilst punching the air in sync. Even the hats were impressed, either that or stumbling around in disbelief.

In certain cutie mark origin stories, that would’ve been it. At the moment, overwhelmed with joy having achieved what felt like a momentous triumph, part of me expected a hoofball to flash onto my flank there and then and I’d be destined to play this sport for the rest of my life. It felt right.

Yet as I cracked my eyes open and gazed across the yard, I was ripped away from my moment.

By the wall across the yard, far from the playing area, I saw a small filly, definitely a year or so younger than me, flank against the bricks and surrounded by three colts. One was a stocky earth pony, two were pegasi, and each of them towered over the filly. Even from that distance, I could notice that the filly was shaking and cowering, obviously intimidated and fearful of the colts, as the three of them had sadistic smirks plastered across their muzzles.

The smile fell from my face and my eyebrows furrowed as the sight became the centre of my focus. Whatever satisfaction I felt was quickly fading away, giving way to disgust at what that filly was being subjected to. A moment or so after that my teammates lowered me to the ground, all of them oblivious to what had claimed my attention, bright smiles all around with some still patting me on the back.

“Sol,” a teammate called, “come on, we’re one-all, plenty of time before recess ends, let’s smash it!”

I looked at him, my displeased expression plain to see. He noticed then, and the grin he had started to fade. “Mind playing without me for a minute? That filly over there,” I said, pointing to the wall. “I’m gonna go help her.”

He looked where I was pointing, then back at me. He shrugged. “Okay, sure,” he said, then rushed off with the rest of my team. The game resumed moments later.

I set off on the short trot to the edge of the yard, passing foals wrapped up in their own worlds, paying me and my destination no mind. I caught small snippets of conversation from the surrounding ponies, yet I remained steadfast and focused on where I was headed. Notably, there was a complete absence of any members of school staff in the yard aside from Soupy the Janitor (a total bro, by the way) who was making his way to the break room. In a world that made sense, I knew I wouldn't have to do any of this and it would’ve been handled by the teachers. Yet whatever the reason, be it a lack of qualified ponies, all the good ones being overworked, some idiotic directive of noninterference, downright laziness or some combination of the above, it was left to me.

It didn’t take long before I was in earshot of what the bullies were saying. I caught the tail end of a taunt. “...and you oughta get used to it cuz you’re never gonna make any friends!” one of the pegasi said, his wings flared. The other pegasus had their wings out as well, like they were forming a barrier around the filly to keep them trapped.

“Make this easy for all of us,” the earth colt said, “and give us your damn money.”

I got a much better look at the four ponies at this distance. I didn’t know any names, yet they weren’t appearances I’d soon forget. The cowering earth filly had thick circular glasses, braces, messy curly hair, saddlebags on her sides, and she appeared a little overweight. She was utterly dwarfed by the three colts who surrounded her, each of their coats having various desaturated shades of light blue or grey, along with short gelled-up manes.

“Hey!” I shouted. It startles them, giving me a chance to slip under one of their wings and stand between the bullies and the filly. I notice that the filly is already cowering less. I puffed out my chest, flared magic in my horn and shot each of them a fierce scowl. “Back off,” I demanded.

All three of them untensed, their mouths hanging open as their brows wrinkled in confusion. “Solana?” one of them snorted. “What are you doing?”

“If you wanna get to her,” I snarled, narrowing my eyes and gritting my teeth, “you’ll have to get through me.”

A brief moment of silence came, the bullies blankly stared at me with dumbstruck looks on their faces. They looked at each other, their cheeks filled with air, their mouths released light pffts, and then they burst out into laughter. The mocking, belittling sort of laughter that was at least a little forced, as if to imply that whoever they were laughing at wasn’t worthy of a ‘real’ laugh, but I doubted that these three were thinking about it that deeply. A part of me was annoyed and insulted by it, the part that wanted to be taken seriously, but the part that drove me to come here, to rescue this filly from torment, saw only opportunity.

“You should go,” I turned back and whispered to the filly, taking advantage of the fact they were distracted.

She nodded, said “I gotta get to class, thanks,” with a slight lisp and quietly slipped away. Just in time too, as once she was out of sight their hysterical guffaw had started to die down.

“You think we’re scared of you?” the large earth pony mocked, slowing his laughter to a stop. “You’re just a dumb filly.”

For a moment, I believed them. On a worse day, words like that would’ve stabbed at me, would’ve made me falter. But not then. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t even blink.

One of the pegasi glanced around. “Hm, looks like the twerp ran off.”

“Yeah, but a wittle wannabe white-knight just showed up,” the large earth colt mocked, taking a step towards me as he peered down on me. This close, I too was dwarfed by the big earth colt as the two pegasi formed a barrier around me, and as it was clear I’d just become their new target, it was hard to resist shrinking away from them.

Yet I wasn’t one to go down without a fight. I grit my teeth and stood tall. “Do your worst, you big du- uh!”

The earth pony shoved me to the wall. Effortlessly. I flew flank-first into the wall. Pain jolted through my backside and I hardly repressed a wince. I nearly fell to the ground, yet I quickly regained my footing. It still hurt, but I pushed the pain to the back of my mind. Barely a few moments had passed and it was as if I hadn’t even been touched, throwing them a cocky grin as I stood up tall. “That all you got?” I heaved.

The earth colt grunted and glowered at me. I saw his lips curl and his teeth grit. He raised his hoof again, putting more of his body into it, and lunged forward. This time I dodged, slipping to the side as he tumbled forwards. I grinned, then felt a shove on my back. One of the pegasi had attacked. It threw me off balance, and before I noticed what was happening the earth colt came down on my back like a sledgehammer and forced me to the ground. I tried to push myself up, but his hoof was pressing into my barrel.

“Not so tough now, are ya?” the earth colt said. Mocking sniggers from each of the three bullies followed. It felt like he was putting his whole weight onto me, my skin pressing into the concrete. I made another effort to push myself up with my hooves, only to gasp in pain as a hoof pressed down onto my skull. He was practically rubbing my face into the ground, and it burned. The overpowering pressure of two earth pony forelegs forced me down, pressing into my back and weighing me down like lead.

I pushed and pushed against the ground desperately trying to regain my footing to no avail. I thought about how easy it would be to squeal, to cry out for help or simply to shout out to relieve the pain. Call it a misplaced sense of pride or rugged determination, but I knew that showing weakness or defeat would be giving these cretins exactly what they wanted. That was enough to keep me from crying.

The pressure loosened, barely. “Had enough?” the earth colt sneered, craning his head down closer to mine.

I looked back at him and saw the sick relentless sadism behind his eyes, behind his sardonic smile. But as I looked at him, he was looking at me. I presented him with a determined smirk, I wasn’t grinding my teeth, my brow didn’t quiver , I didn’t even groan or gasp. I saw him flinch. “No,” I said, “not yet.”

Magic ignites in my horn. Purple aura grabs the earth colt's tail and pulls. He yelped and stumbled backwards. That was my chance. I roll out from under his hooves and hop to my feet. I’m in front of him, crouched, only a matter of time until the three react. A pegasus lunges for me with a hoof raised. I dodged, hopped forwards, then I was behind the earth colt, who was quickly figuring out what was going on. The other’s close in. My buckball instincts kicked in, literally, and I launched a hind leg backwards. I heard a crunch.

I'd hit the earth pony in the crotch.

He screamed. Not screamed, screamed. It sounded like a chimera had been electrocuted and every one of its heads wailed at once. Immediately he collapsed to the floor writhing in pain, grasping at his crotch with his forelegs, kicking frantically with his hindlegs, howling shrill whines and cries. Part of me felt guilty, a larger part of me didn’t.

Stunned, the other two bullies staggered back. They then shoot down to pick the earth pony off of the ground, who was still winging and whining. A small number of foals around us had stopped to watch, some laughing, some staring in wonder or shock, and one actively egging us on.

“What is wrong with you?” one of the pegasi bullies wailed at me. “Crazy bitch!”

“Want more?” I swayed side to side on the spot restlessly. “Got more where that came from, come on!” I hadn’t lost my appetite for a fight, far from it. I could’ve done this all day.

One of the pegasi glares at me, seething hatred plastered across his face. He gets up, prepares to charge at me, only for the other pegasus to leap out in front of him and hold him back crying “woah woah woah woah! Stop, okay? She’s not worth it. Let’s just get out of here.”

The aggravated pegasus pushed against the other, snarling and flailing his hooves towards me. Before long his efforts slowed, and he just looked at me with furious eyes that looked like they were bulging out of his head. He spat at me, only for his spit fell pathetically to the ground nowhere near me. “Screw you, psycho bitch!” he yelled, before he and the other pegasus turned around and carried the earth pony away.

I came to a rest as the trio were halfway across the yard. “They’ll be a lot more of that if I catch you picking on anypony who ain’t your own size!” I yelled after them. One of the pegasi nearly turned back, they scowled as if they were gonna make a charge at me, but the other quickly grabbed them and turned them back around. They were out of sight moments later.

My breath and heartbeat slowed down to normal levels, short pangs of pain shot across my back and my face as the adrenaline faded as I groaned in discomfort. The small audience of onlookers dispersed, now completely uninterested as it was clear there was no more violence to gawk at today. I was then startled by-

RIIIIIING

-the bell signalling the end of recess. Crap, I needed to get to class.


12:51 - 14/03/995 - Rosely Hackamore High School, Hayston


My day had progressed as normal after that incident, surprisingly not a single teacher or member of the school staff had told me off. My guess was that nobody had told them what had happened. I’d known for a fact that none of the bullies would’ve told the teachers anything. Admitting you got your nuts kicked in by a filly would’ve wrecked their fragile egos, and it would’ve involved mentioning how they got into that situation in the first place.

Recess had just begun and I made my way into the yard, along with the countless other colts and fillies shuffling through the narrow doorway that led  to fresh air. Well, as fresh as Manehatten air ever could be. Making my way across the outdoor area, my eyes scanned in search for the filly from earlier. Before long, I found her, sitting on an isolated bench pushed off into a quiet corner. Her focus was wholly centred on her lunch, not paying a lick of attention to her surroundings. I trotted over to her.

Even as I got closer, she wasn’t reacting like she’d noticed me. Undeterred, I sat down next to her and threw her a warm smile. “Hello there,” I said.

Her head jolted up, her startled expression quickly falling into calm relief once she recognised me. “Oh it’s you!” she smiled. “Thanks for earlier, um, Solana? Is that your name?”

“Yeah, but my friends call me Sol.”

“Oh, then… Thanks, Sol,” she said. “I’m Yarn.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Yarn,” I said.

She quietly took a bite out of her PB&J sandwich. After swallowing, she turned back to me. “I kinda watched from a distance, after I got away,” she said, “I’m surprised you took them on like that. Looked like you actually scared them.”

“You know what they say,” I added, “bullies are cowards. Most heel-turn and run at the first sign of trouble. But me being a filly, most colts don’t expect anything outta me. How long have they been bothering you?”

Yarn groaned. “Since I started here. It's only my first year at this school but it's been awful. It feels like everypony's out for themselves and any friends you make will abandon you at the first sign of trouble.”

“Yeah, I get you,” I said. “That's high school. In some countries they'd classify this as torture.”

“Yo, Sol!” I heard somepony call, catching my interest. I saw Hat Trick walking towards me, a baseball cap on his head whilst he was twirling a tweed flat cap on his hoof. “We’re gonna play again, you’re on our team this time. You down to clown?”

My eyes lit up with joy. To be perfectly honest, Hat was a better player than me, I was only able to best him so often as he never stopped underestimating me even after so many years playing together. That just meant that the two of us on a team together would be practically unstoppable. A wide smile grew on my lips as the image of us winning goal after goal flashed through my mind.

But then my eyes flicked behind him. Across the yard and slightly obscured behind a wall, were the three bullies from earlier giving me the evil eye. As soon as eye contact was established, they flinched and retreated behind the wall. Indeed, these bullies were cowards and through my actions they’d learned to stay back. As long as I was with Yarn, they’d keep clear. But if I left Yarn alone…

"You know what, Hat?" I said as I turned back to him, "I think I'll sit this one out."

Hat’s eyes went wide, he half-repressed a laugh, and the flatcap on his hoof went limp and still. “For real?”

“Yeah. For real,” I said, sitting up a little.

“Hm, alright, your call,” Hat said. He stashed the flatcap into his jacket and turned away, trotting over to the playing yard.

Yarn and I sat quietly for a minute or so. I wasn’t sure what she was looking at but I was keeping an eye out for the trio of bullies. They had yet to reemerge. Eventually, Yarn broke the silence. “You like playing hoofball?”

“Oho, yeah,” I replied.

“You’re good enough to play with the colts?” Yarn asked.

“More than good enough,” I grinned.

“So,” she paused, eyes glancing around the yard before settling back on me, “why are you here with me?”

“Simple, cuz I want to stick up for you,” I said.

“Even if I’m here for all of recess?” she said, holding her lunchbox close to her chest.

“Sure!” I reassured her.

She forced out a short laugh and looked away from me, tensing up slightly as her inner eyebrows pushed up. “It’s just- I wouldn’t wanna keep you.”

“Really, I don’t mind,” I insisted. “If it means keeping those morons away, I’ll stay here all lunch.”

“Hrmm,” she sighed wistfully. She turned her head to look up at me. “But, why’d you want to spend all this time looking after me when you could be out there playing hoofball? Isn’t that what you want to do? Show off your strength to all the colts?”

I let out a light chuckle. “What good would all this strength be if I didn’t use it to help ponies who didn’t have it?”


16:46 - 6/04/1008 - Lunar Castle, Everfree Forest


“Then I felt something funny on my flank, look back, and bam!” Sol kicked his flank up, presenting his cutie mark to the small audience of three amazed fillies and two lounging stallions.

Sol shook his head, two stallions? He looked to the garnet thestral who had silently entered some time ago and was slouching on one of the sofas, right next to Carte. “Poca, when did you get here?”

“Ourgh?” Poca mumbled, pushing his matted hair away from his face.

“Poca got here a few minutes ago while you were telling your story. He’s waiting for Sel,” Carte said with a devious smirk.

“Ah, alright,” Sol nodded, and then he turned to the fillies. “This is Pocarona, my brother-in-law.”

“Yeah, uh, hi,” said Poca, pulling up a hoof to lightly wave. Dressed in a dirty blue boiler-suit, the small thestral looked like he hadn’t had a change of clothes or even a shower in nearly a week. He had hair to spare in his mane and tail, both tied into loose ponytails but without any sense of tidiness as they were matted and greasy. An ever-present aura of exhaustion surrounded Poca, bags under his eyes that rarely made eye contact with anypony. Even the signature thestral fangs that poked out of his mouth were tinged with yellow, with the overall effect amplified by a strange stench radiating off of him that was reminiscent of sweat, weed, and motor oil.

Sweetie felt her nostrils wrinkle, instinctively putting her hoof to her mouth. “So that’s where that smell was coming from,” she murmured to her friends.

“You can, uh, finish your story,” Poca said, “I don't mean to interrupt or anything.”

“Just about done, actually,” Sol turned to the fillies. “What did you think?”

Scootaloo fluttered her wings excitedly. “It was awesome!”

Apple Bloom shuffled on the spot. “Glad it had a happy endin’.”

Sweetie Belle stroked her chin. “I liked it, but you kept saying you were a filly, what was that about?”

Sol shrugged with a smirk. “Didn't know I'd grow up and find out I was a stallion.”

“Ohh, I see,” Sweetie nodded.

“Hold on hold on,” Poca perked up and smacked his lips, “we doing cutie mark stories?”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo jumped up. “What's yours?”

Instantly Pocarona's sleepy expression lit up into a bright smile, the bags under his eyes virtually vanished and he leapt off of the sofa. “Alright! You'll like this. You know what the egg drop challenge is, right?”