The air inside the classroom hung think with anticipation. Not a sound could be heard except for the slow, deafening ticks of the clock above the chalkboard. Since all the lessons were completed, both the students and the teacher stared at the hands move across face, hoping the time would move faster the harder they stared at them.
10…9…8…
The teacher forced herself to break her concentration and walked to the classroom door.
7…6…5…
The students inched themselves to the edge of their seats. They gripped the sides of the desks and braced against floor ready to leap to freedom.
4…3…
“Before you all leave,” the teacher exclaimed, “it was a pleasure teaching you all. I will see you all at the graduation ceremony.”
1…riiiiinng!!!
The students ran towards the door like a wild stampede. The teacher opened the door just in time before any of the students ran into it. What used to be an orderly classroom now lay nothing more than some overturned desks and a cloud of dust left in their wake. On the outside of the school stood a temporary stage with rows of chairs neatly lined up in front of it. On top of the stage stood several of the head ponies that ran the school and school board. As the students filed out of the main doors, they walked to their assigned seats to wait for the commencement to start. As luck were to have it, the seating order was alphabetical order by last name. This caused three best friends to sit side by side through the whole thing: Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo Dash; the last one due to her changing her name after Rainbow Dash adopted her.
After everypony was seated, the principal stood up and made his way to the podium. “Good afternoon everypony, and welcome to this joyous occasion. Today we celebrate the day these once fillies and colts leave our hallowed halls as well educated mares and stallions.
“Is he for real?” whispered Sweetie Belle.
“Is it possible to die from boredom?” added Apple Bloom.
“It’s only started and I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” groaned Scootaloo.
The sound of a throat clearing made them look up and see the principal glaring down at them. They realized then that, although they were speaking quietly, being in the front row did not allow them to be unheard. The girls gave him apologetic smiles and he went back to his speech. He continued on talking about what the class had accomplished and what was in store for them in their future. When he finished, he looked out among the crowd to see that most of them have dozed off to sleep. Even the vice principal had drifted off only to be woken as he fell out of his seat. The principal rolled his eyes and grumbled in defeat, “And now it is time to hand out the diplomas.” The word diploma seemed to contain magic as it cause everypony to stir from their comatose state. Each pony was called individually by name, which were accompanied by a round of applause. After a couple more speeches, everypony was dismissed to their family and friends.
“Finally, I thought that would never end,” exhaled Scootaloo. “So what are girls off to now that we’re out of school?”
“Ah’m not entirely sure,” answered Apple Bloom. “Ah know for the mean time ah’ll be helping out around the farm, but beyond that ah’m just not sure.”
“Same here,” added Sweetie Belle. “I’ll probably be working with my sister in her boutique. I have been looking into a couple of colleges, especially ones with some great music programs. What about you Scootaloo?”
“Rainbow Dash said she could pull some string and get me a part-time job at the weather factory. It’s the same thing she used to do before getting into the Wonderbolts. Plus, it has potential of becoming a full-time gig.”
“Ah thought you said you wanted to be a stunt pony,” jabbed Apple Bloom with a grin.
“I can have a hobby.”
“It doesn’t matter what you do, you three are still just a bunch of blank flanks.” The girls turned towards the noise to find Diamond Tiara strolling up followed closely by Silver Spoon.
“What did you call us,” snarled Scootaloo.
Diamond Tiara inched closer, almost touching noses with Scootaloo. “Blank…Flank,” she said with an evil grin.
Scootaloo pounced towards Diamond Tiara in an effort to tackle her, but was held back by Apple Bloom grabbing Scootaloo’s tail in her mouth.
“Now hold it right there,” Apple Bloom said muffled by the clump of hair between her teeth. “She ain’t worth the fuss.”
Sweetie Belle stepped in to confront Diamond Tiara. “Alright princess,” she scoffed, “what do you plan on doing with your life?”
“I don’t HAVE to do anything. My family is rich enough that I just need to look pretty and all is taken care of.”
Scootaloo, now free from Apple Bloom’s grasp, walks up to Diamond Tiara and rustles her mane, causing some to get tangled in her tiara. “Tough break sport. Looks like it might be time to be hitting those classifieds.” This caused the rest of the crusaders to burst out into laughter; even Silver Spoon let out a small chuckle.
Diamond Tiara furiously fixed her mane and glared at the trio. “Keep laughing, but at least I can fix my problem.” With that being said, the three ponies stopped laughing and looked gloomily back at their backsides. Diamond Tiara grinned knowing that she had just won the battle. “Let’s go Silver Spoon.” Silver Spoon stared in shock as Diamond Tiara started to walk away. She knew that Diamond Tiara had gone too far at the end, but she also couldn’t defy her best friend. When Diamond Tiara wasn’t looking, Silver Spoon looked back at the crusaders and mouthed the words sorry. With that, she turned and followed Diamond Tiara.
The three fillies looked at each other in dismay. Sweetie Belle was the first to break the silence. “I hate to admit it, but she is kind of right.” The other two went to protest, but couldn’t since they were thinking the same thing. Their wallowing was interrupted by the arrival of a purple alicorn.
“Hey girls, I’m here to pick you girls up for the graduation party. How does it feel to finally grown mares,” Twilight said with a smile. She looked at them and her smile was replaced with the same disheartened look they shared. “What’s wrong? This is supposed to be a happy day.”
“Diamond Tiara, that’s what’s wrong,” groaned Apple Bloom.
Twilight sighed. “What did she say now?”
“The usual,” replied Scootaloo. “She called us blank flanks and told us we’ll never amount to anything without cutie marks.”
“Then why now does it bother you.”
“Because what if she’s right?!” exclaimed Sweetie Bell. “What if no matter what we do, we’ll always be looking for a cutie mark.”
Twilight placed who hoof under her chin and pondered this for a minute. After a while, she responded, “Is that really such a bad thing?”
All three of them looked at Twilight in surprise. “Did you not hear what I said?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Crystal clear; you said that you’ll be continuing to do different things in hopes of one day finding your cutie mark. That’s pretty much the gist, right?” They nodded their heads with shock still on their faces. “Then I don’t see where there is a problem. Ever since I moved to Ponyville, I have watched you girls grow and mature with every new adventure you took on. Although they never gave you a cutie mark, you learned new life lessons. You came out knowing more about yourself and what you were capable of. If you had gotten your cutie marks, would you have gone on all of those adventures?”
The girls looked at each other while reminiscing on the good times they had. They turned back towards Twilight with big grins on their face. “Nope,” they said in unison.
“And now that you are out of school, you three have many more adventures waiting for you. You may not have a cutie mark telling you what you are good at, but that just means you haven’t finished discovering the best parts of yourselves. It’s the best kind of research anyone can ask for; kind of makes me jealous.” Twilight shook herself out of her stupor when she saw the weird looks the Crusaders were giving her. “Anyways, never let anypony, or anything,” she dictated by pointing at their flanks, “tell you what you can or can’t do.”
They all smiled and Apple Bloom looked at her two friends, “Twilight’s right, just because we don’t have a cutie mark, that doesn’t mean we failed. It just means we’re still on a quest for great things.”
“Yeah!” the other two responded. All three jumped up and gave each other a high hoof.
“Hey,” Scootaloo exclaimed, “I just remembered. They just built a new freebie golf course in the next town. How about be try for our cutie marks in that.”
“Lead the way Scoots,” replied Sweetie Bell.
Twilight stood there and smiled as she saw the three ran off into the distance. For a second, she could still see them as young fillies up to their routines again. This caused a tear of joy roll down her face. She suddenly remembered why she came down here in the first place, “Wait, girls! What about the party?” It was too late, they were already too far. She shook her head and smiled, “It doesn’t matter; you three have fun. The world is yours to explore, never forget that.”